Erfurt – Suhl / Meiningen – Schweinfurt – Würzburg
So far: A DB regional express train Erfurt-Suhl-Würzburg with tilting technology and an STB regional train Erfurt-Suhl-Meiningen, both every two hours, but clocked so inconveniently that no hourly intervals come out. Connections to the Werra Railway in Grimmenthal and to Schmalkalden in Zella-Mehlis. There is also an EB regional train from Meiningen to Schweinfurt every two hours.
Future: The regional express runs on the usual route, but without tilting technology. The regional train now runs Erfurt-Suhl-Schweinfurt, with part of the train to Meiningen, with a connection to Würzburg and terminating at the Schweinfurt city train station. The timetable will be shifted so that there is an approximate hourly service between Erfurt and Schweinfurt, and the Werrabahn has a connection in Grimmenthal. The Meiningen-Schweinfurt regional line will be extended to Würzburg.
This greatly improves the South Thuringian offer to Schweinfurt and the Würzburg ICE train station. The Erfurt-Suhl / Meiningen timetable is clearer, making it easier to change trains. For example, Bamberg can be reached every hour in the future. In Erfurt there are transitions to the ICE lines to Halle, Leipzig and Berlin, which will run every half hour in future. The connection in Würzburg to Munich or Frankfurt is also getting better; the travel time from Suhl to the Rhein-Main airport is reduced to less than three hours.
These advantages come at the price of two serious disadvantages.
Because more trains have to wait for each other, travel times are longer, especially in the south. Suhl-Würzburg will in future take 1:45 hours, almost a quarter of an hour longer than before (and just as long as the new direct connection Meiningen-Würzburg).
Some good connectivity options are lost. So the one in Neudietendorf for the regional express to the ICE train station in Göttingen, which has so far enabled unrivaled fast journeys between southern Thuringia and Hanover / Hamburg. And in Erfurt you will wait 45 minutes for the hourly ICE to Dresden.
Eisenach – Bad Salzungen – Meiningen – Eisfeld – Sonneberg
So far: Hourly service of the Süd-Thüringen-Bahn on the Werra Railway, every two hours further to Sonneberg.
Future: WITHwischen Eisenach and Bad Salzungen is compressed to 30-minute intervals throughout the day. The route in the Wartburg region would be next to Sonneberg-Coburg the best-timed in all of southern Thuringia. In Eisenach super connections to ICEs to Frankfurt, Halle / Leipzig and Berlin as well as to a new hourly IC line to Aachen via Dortmund and Cologne. In Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe this has a connection to Hamburg. All in all, this not only results in ideal connections to Eisenach and Kassel, but also a new hourly travel option from the Werra Valley to North Rhine-Westphalia and northern Germany via Eisenach. The downside: The regional train connection in Eisenach to Bebra and Erfurt / Halle is just missed, so you wait half an hour when changing trains.
Between Bad Salzungen and Eisfeld (every hour) as well as between Eisfeld and Sonneberg (every two hours) it stays as it is. There will also be no express service in the Werra Valley; every train still stops everywhere. The good connections are paid for with long downtimes (up to 7 minutes) in Grimmenthal.
Eisenach – Eisfeld / Erfurt – Coburg
Closing the gap between Eisfeld and Coburg is planned in such a way that every second train on the Werra Railway runs in two parts and in Eisfeld a part turns to Coburg. The calculated travel time is a long 26 minutes, and the current express bus can do it in this time. The resulting travel times (Meiningen-Coburg 1:24, Suhl-Coburg 1:34 hours) are hardly competitive with the car. The planned RE Erfurt-Nürnberg would be reached in Coburg, but not the ICE to Munich.
The new two-hour RE line Erfurt-Coburg-Nuremberg on the new ICE line also runs in Germany, with no stop in Ilmenau-Wümbach. It runs staggered to the Erfurt-Coburg-Munich ICE, which is also planned every two hours, both lines have connections to and from Sonneberg. Travel time Erfurt-Coburg: 37 minutes.
Ilmenau-Arnstadt-Erfurt
So far: Hourly, regional train, plus some faster express trains that make the way in 45 minutes.
Future: The express trains are to run every two hours, the rest remains unchanged. The country had already announced the all-day so-called “Knowledge Express” but then abandoned it for lack of money.
Zella-Mehlis-Schmalkalden-Wernshausen
So far: Hourly STB regional trains, every two hours on weekends. A few trains start and end in Suhl or Meiningen.
Future: No changes, also no elimination of the speed restrictions that slow down the trains. Because of the new Erfurt-Meiningen timetables, the connections to Suhl / Würzburg are deteriorating, those to Erfurt (in Zella-Mehlis), Meiningen and Bad Salzungen (in Wernshausen) remain good.
Sonneberg- Neuhaus / Rwg.
No changes to the previous hourly service are planned here: every two hours continuously from Eisenach via Eisfeld and Sonneberg to Neuhaus, plus hourly trains from Sonneberg to Neuhaus, each with good connections to Coburg.
Sonneberg- Coburg – Nuremberg
So far: Hourly regional express, sometimes via Lichtenfels, sometimes directly via the new ICE line (105 minutes to Nuremberg).
Future: The Nuremberg Express from Sonneberg will be a few minutes faster. In addition, regional trains commute between Sonneberg, Coburg and Lichtenfels (with a connection to Bamberg) and a Sonneberg train part of the Erfurt Express – which results in a total of 30 minutes between Sonneberg and Coburg.
Other regional traffic
The route between Erfurt and Nordhausen will be expanded to a speed of 140 by 2025, which will shorten the journey time to less than an hour.
The connection Erfurt-Heiligenstadt-Göttingen, also important for the connection to the ICE axis towards Hamburg, will be compressed to an hourly cycle. Southern Thuringians hardly benefit from this because of the loss of connection in Neudietendorf. For those who live in the Werratal and West Thuringia regions, the fastest route to the north-west will be via Kassel, which can be reached by the new hourly IC line from Eisenach.
Long-distance traffic: Erfurt
In long-distance traffic, the absolute highlight of the German cycle for Thuringia is the expansion of Erfurt to a so-called zero node: an ICE arrives every 30 minutes from all four directions and continues a few minutes later, always on the full and half hour. All incoming and outgoing regional lines are adapted to this.
The biggest advantage: You never wait longer than 30 minutes for the next ICE to depart, even if the connecting train is delayed. The nervous looking at the clock, which many switchers are familiar with, is no longer necessary.
In addition to the Erfurt ICE lines to Berlin / Hamburg, Leipzig / Dresden, Frankfurt and Munich, there will be another direct connection via Mannheim to Freiburg.
Long-distance traffic: Eisenach / Fulda
The planned hourly connection Berlin-Dresden-Prague is to have an optional branch to the Dresden-Eisenach-Frankfurt line a few times. For the first time there would be a connection from Eisenach via Erfurt to the Czech capital without changing trains.
The new building project between Eisenach and Fulda is also planned with a target travel time from Eisenach to Frankfurt of just 80 minutes. The extensive project of a new route through East Hesse is still in the planning phase, completion pending.
Long-distance traffic: Coburg / Würzburg
The ICE Berlin-Munich via Coburg run non-stop between Coburg and Nuremberg, i.e. without stopping in Bamberg or Erlangen. A two-hour cycle offset with the new RE line is planned.
The Würzburg ICE junction is becoming even more interesting for southern Thuringians. The previously quite slow Würzburg-Nuremberg route is to be expanded to 300 km / h and a journey time of 30 minutes. Würzburg-Frankfurt is also to be accelerated by a quarter of an hour to 51 minutes
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