8 hours is long, but if you factor in ground transportation and station-locations it makes sense.<p>Flying: Berlin to Brandenburg (34 mins) + security (1 hr) + flight (2 hrs) + Orly/CDG to Paris (46 mins) = 4.33 hrs<p>(and that's the happy path -- in reality it's closer to 5.5 hours, with lots of transfers)<p>Train is A-to-B with lots of legroom.
It's been a long time coming. It's ridiculous that there wasn't a direct rail connection between the two most important EU capitals yet.