Train travel time between Luxembourg and Strasbourg will be cut in half next spring, and direct service to the south of France remains in the works, the Grand Duchy’s infrastructure minister has said.

French high speed train TGV service “to Strasbourg will launch in May 2016; there will be two connections per day”, François Bausch told Delano’s sister site Paperjam.lu after the story was broken by 100,7 radio.

Current rail service takes between 2 hours and 3 hours 43 minutes, depending on the train.

SNCF, France’s national rail firm, will use existing regular speed track between Luxembourg and south of Metz. Trains will then connect to the high speed track that runs between Paris and Strasbourg.

Since no work is required on Luxembourg’s rail network, the new service will have no impact on the Grand Duchy’s budget, the minister stated. Bausch said he is negotiating with the SNCF for the two trains to continue directly to Marseille.

While that would cut a connection in either Metz or Paris, it would only reduce travel time by roughly a fifth. Today the journey takes around 8 hours; direct via Strasbourg and Lyon that would hypothetically be cut to approximately 6 hours 30 minutes.

Present train service heading south from the Luxembourg-French border to Lyon uses high speed trains but regular speed track. True TGV service begins in Lyon. “But from Luxembourg to Lyon, that is still complicated,” said Bausch.

The French government, facing a budget deficit, has postponed upgrades to the rail network from Strasbourg headed towards Lyon.

Current TGV service between Luxembourg and Paris takes 2 hours 5 minutes.