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You are here: Home Family & Kids Partners Taking a train to love

13/02/2009Taking a train to love

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, 500 German singles will climb aboard Deutsche Bahn’s "Flirt-Express" trains to meet the love of their lives.

Usually, “missing a connection” when riding the train just means having to wait a little longer on the platform. However, with its second incarnation of the Flirt-Express, Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway company, hopes to change all that.

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, Deutsche Bahn will play Cupid, inviting singles from across the country to participate in a speed dating event aboard 10 of its trains.

With the help of champagne and balloons, hopeful singles get a chance to talk to each other for five minutes before having to switch seats. "The couple must then decide whether they want to take it further," said Deutsche Bahn in a statement. If both parties are mutually interested, the company will send contact information to both a few days later.

For those who are still undecided about somebody they have met, Deutsche Bahn is organizing parties for after the ride, where passengers can flirt to their hearts content.

AFP PHOTO DDP/ ROLAND MAGUNIA
Several flirting couples sit in a commuter train (S-Bahn) in the northern town of Hamburg as the German railway company Deutsche Bahn has organised in 15 towns so-called "Flirt-Express" trains, in which singles can meet other singles during five-minute dates, on Valentine's Day on February 14, 2008. AFP PHOTO DDP/ ROLAND MAGUNIA
The Flirt-Express departs on Feb. 13 from 10 major German cities, including Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Kiel and Cologne, and will last about two to three hours.

Speed dating vs. SpeedDating

Speed dating, which allows singles to meet many potential partners for a limited amount of time, is fundamentally based upon the idea of “love at first sight.” Prospective couples have only minutes to get to know each other before having to decide whether or not they are interested.
 
The concept of “love at first sight” has been kicking around for centuries. In the classical world, this kind of passionate feeling was often described as theia mania or “madness from the gods.” Lovers were said to be stung by Cupid’s arrows or, in the case of Narcissus, an immediate and overwhelming desire for one’s one image.

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