The CDG Express, Paris’s new direct rail link from its main airport to the city center, has a new completion date, March 28, 2027—but if history is a guide, it may not be final, despite the optimism of its chief. The line was originally supposed to open for the 2024 Olympics.
According to Michel Etchegaray, director, “With 80 percent of the work now completed, we’re very confident about the commissioning date. All the civil engineering has been completed. At Gare de l’Est and the airport, the platforms are ready, as are the escalators and elevators. They’re just waiting for the trains and passengers to arrive.”
But it’s a bit more complicated than that. The ends are in place at the airport and at the Gare de l’Est, along with most of the track, which is shared with the existing RER B route to the airport, but work is continuing on the new track that branches off from existing RER trackage and heads for the airport. The other new section of track connects the Gare de l’Est to the RER B, which uses the nearby Gare du Nord.
The CDG Express, which is planned to run every 20 minutes in each direction, is expected to make the trip in about 20 minutes, less than half the time on the RER B, which makes numbers of stops along the way, while the Express does not. It is expected to relieve crowding on that line as well. Once CDG Express starts, with a €24 fare, the RER may continue to draw passengers who would choose the longer time for a lower fare of €13.
