Jon Worth exclusive! 25% off Paris - Berlin train tickets! (Really, sort of)

On 25th June I need to travel from France to Berlin. One option is to take the once daily direct train from Paris Est to Berlin Hbf. Here's the timetable and the price of that train from SNCF:

And here is the same connection on the same day from DB:

The connection as shown by DB is 77 minutes longer than shown by SNCF.

And that connection on SNCF's website is bookable now.

So what's going on?

There are engineering works somewhere between Bad Hersfeld and Erfurt, and so the train will be diverted. DB has the diversion planned in already, and SNCF does not.

You can see the timetables are only different between Frankfurt and Berlin - SNCF version on the left, DB version on the right:

Due to the works being in Germany, I presume the DB times are correct and the SNCF ones have not been updated yet.

So what about the 25% reduction then?

If, today (and all the data is correct today, 24 May) you booked this train on SNCF Connect, SNCF is then going to tell you at some point between now and your departure no, sorry, the train times we gave you are wrong, you are now going to arrive 77 minutes later.

And if you arrive more than 60 minutes later than timetabled, and were not informed of this when you booked, you are entitled to 25% compensation - hence the title of this article.

Why - other than being a trick to get yourself 25% compensation - does this matter?

As the European Union gears up to work out how to sort out cross border rail ticketing through the Passenger Package that was proposed a couple of weeks ago, one aspect is a unified booking horizon, set as being at least five months. And yet here we are with a schedule for a prestigious service between two capitals not having an established timetable between its two partner operators about one month before departure.

Are these rail companies really going to be able to ensure everything is known five months ahead? And then, if they cannot, how are passengers going to have to cope in such situations?

As this Passenger Package begins to make its way through the European Council and Parliament, we are going need to have some detailed conversations about cases like this - where rail companies, up until now anyway, cannot reliably plan as long ahead as the Commission thinks they are going to be able to.

IMPORTANT: this article does not constitute a valid commercial offer! If you try this, and SNCF refuses to pay you 25% compensation, I decline all responsibility!