The NightJet sleeper train between Berlin and Paris is back in business after a nine-year break, with the first service due to depart from Berlin Hauptbahnhof on Monday December 18.
The journey will take 15 hours and the service will initially operate three times a week. Its operators said they want to run it every night by October 2024.
The revived night train is result of a partnership between Germany's national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, and France's state railway, SNCF. The trains themselves are provided by Austrian railway ÖBB's Nightjet brand.
A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn said: "The new night train connections are very well booked over the holidays. As soon as we launch a new night train connection together with our partner railroads, there is a real boom in bookings."
Tickets will cost about £30 for seats, couchettes will be £47 and private compartments start at £142.
The operators said they stopped the service in 2014 because of a lack of demand and because the train fleet was ageing. Now they said a demand for European train travel has encouraged them to restart the sleeper trains.
Deutsche Bahn said it is "aiming to expand its night train connections to 13 other large European cities in partnership with other operators".
The French transport minister, Clément Beaune, told the Independent: “It was long, but it’s nice because you can sleep, you can work a bit, you can talk with friends and have a drink. So it’s a really nice experience.”
