The train wants to run significantly more ICE and Intercitys between the largest German cities. “We will consistently have long-distance traffic between the major cities going every half hour.”
“In the end, this means that we want to develop long-distance transport into a metropolitan suburban train,” affirmed Berthold Huber, the board member responsible for passenger transport.
Every half an hour
In summer, Deutsche Bahn included the 30-minute cycle for the big cities in their new strategy “Strong Rail”, said the responsible board member Huber – and made it clear that it would still take a few years before this could happen.
First of all, long-distance trains should travel between Hamburg and Berlin every 30 minutes – in two years. Today there are three trains in two hours each day. When the new Wendlingen-Ulm line and the new Stuttgart train station are in operation, Stuttgart and Munich, as well as Stuttgart and Frankfurt, as well as Frankfurt-Cologne and Frankfurt-Hamburg, are also to be connected by the end of 2025. There is no date yet for Berlin-Cologne.
Billions in investment in train fleet
“The metropolises and the traffic between the metropolises will continue to grow,” said Huber. For example, the number of passengers on the new Berlin-Munich route had risen by 14 percent this year. The train has been sending additional trains to the track there since Sunday.
Huber said the railways will invest around twelve billion euros in theirs by 2026 Vehicle fleet. Half of the total is for the major order for the ICE4, of which 39 have been delivered since 2017. In 2025 there should be 137; it is the largest single order in the history of the railway.
There are also 23 new Eurocity trains from the Spanish manufacturer Talgo and 86 double-decker intercity trains, 44 of which are already running. In addition, Deutsche Bahn will shortly tender for a further 30 high-speed trains, which are due to come online in three years.
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Focus on achieving climate goals
The federally owned company is in investment mode: In order to achieve the climate targets, significantly more money flows into the network, and the federal government also increases the equity of the railway. In the meantime, even decommissioned routes are to be reactivated. Railway chief Richard Lutz speaks of “tailwind almost with storm force”. For years, politicians had strayed from the railways, now there was a block.
The new long-distance trains are financed yourself, emphasizes the railway. The planned VAT reduction for long-distance train tickets will help. The group calculates that the cheaper tickets will bring five million additional passengers a year. This additional income will finance the 30 additional express trains, which will bring another six million new passengers, according to Huber’s expectation.
Possible ICE3 successor
Today, a long-distance train is on average 22 years old, in 2025 it should be only 15 years. Since Sunday, the more than 40-year-old intercity cars have been discarded on several connections and replaced by ICE trains.
The corporate headquarters is also considering a successor to the ICE3, the round-nose train that has been running since 2000. The first newcomers are expected to arrive in eight or nine years – with possibly unusual construction for a train that is to travel at up to 330 kilometers per hour, as Huber suggests: “It could also be a double-decker train.”
That bothers travelers at Deutsche Bahn
No reservation obligation planned
Because the train is convinced that it could transport significantly more passengers if the network only existed. “The market is not the limiting factor, it is the capacity.” Some track sections are real traffic jams for trains, for example between Cologne and Dortmund or around Hamburg.
Utilization of long-distance trains has risen from an average of 43 to 56 percent since 2015. Huber’s reasoning: If the railway grew with other double-decker coaches even in the highest train class, the problems would at least not be exacerbated.
Rail, on the other hand, continues to reject a reservation requirement for passengers. Get in whenever you want – you don’t want to give up this advantage over the plane, said Huber. “Never ever.”
Higher prices in local transport
For the timetable change on Sunday, the usual fare increase for long-distance rail customers was canceled this year. Tickets could even be ten percent cheaper on New Year’s Day – provided the Bundestag and Bundesrat cut VAT before Christmas.
“We keep our word,” assured at least one railway spokesman. In any case, on January 1, the Deutsche Bahn lowers the super saver price, which then starts at 17.90 euros, two euros less. In local transport, however, the prices rose by an average of 1.7 percent with the change of timetable, combined tariffs are increasing even more in some cases.
140 railway employees have been working on the new timetable in the past few months, said their boss Frank Hoffmann. There are more seats or denser driving cycles on a number of routes for passengers, and a new intercity route is also on offer. But there are also restrictions.
Intercity route Rostock-Dresden
The railways are gradually ramping up the new long-distance route via Berlin, only with 10 journeys daily, from March at 16. Then double-decker trains will also run as Intercity, which the railroad bought and repainted from the Austrian Western Railway.
It wants to connect more cities to long-distance transport faster. With Elsterwerda and Doberlug-Kirchhain, the train stops in communities with less than 10,000 inhabitants. Other stations are Oranienburg, Neustrelitz and Waren (Müritz), and from May also Warnemünde and Schönefeld, where the capital city airport BER is due to open in October.
More ICE trains
More trains provide an hourly service on the ICE routes Berlin-Erfurt-Munich and Berlin-Braunschweig-Frankfurt / Main. The service also increased on the connections from Hamburg to the Ruhr area and the Rhine as well as to Munich. This is made possible by the ICE4, from which the train currently receives a new train from the manufacturers every three weeks.
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Flixtrain
The only rail competitor in long-distance transport has been collecting passengers in Aachen, Leipzig, Halle (Saale), Erfurt, Gotha, Eisenach and Lutherstadt Wittenberg since Sunday. The company plans to use an express connection to transport passengers between Hamburg and Cologne in three and a half hours. In the spring, the green trains will also run on the new Hamburg-Stuttgart route.
Mannheim-Stuttgart
The ICE route will be closed from April 10 to October 31 and overhauled. Tracks and switches have to be replaced after around 30 years. This has serious consequences, because every sixth customer travels over the section in long-distance traffic – usually in about 40 minutes. The trains are now diverted. An additional 35 to 60 minutes can be expected according to the schedule. In addition, trips are canceled, also between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart.
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Over borders
The intercity of the so-called bird flight line via Fehmarn and the ferry from Puttgarden will be diverted for several years because the rail network is being built in Denmark; this has to do with the planned Baltic Sea tunnel between Denmark and Germany. There are only half as many trains running – but they have twice the capacity. In addition, there is no stop in Lübeck. The Railjet connection Berlin-Dresden-Prague-Vienna-Graz is new from May. From summer, the Eurocity Berlin-Warsaw is half an hour faster.
Night trains
Deutsche Bahn operates some ICE and Intercity trains at night, now also between Berlin and Zurich as well as Hamburg and Zurich. In 2016, however, she left the business with rolling beds. Since then, the Austrian Federal Railways have been rolling night trains through Germany. The Nightjet connection Vienna-Brussels via Munich and Frankfurt is new from January 19th. The trains stop in twelve German cities. From May, the ÖBB plans another direct connection between Berlin and Vienna.
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