An ICE at the main train station in Berlin Photo: picture alliance/dpa
From BZ/dpa
From the timetable change on December 11, long-distance trains are to run more frequently and faster on many important long-distance routes of Deutsche Bahn – especially between the north-west and the south of Germany.
This is made possible primarily by the completion of the new Wendlingen-Ulm line, which along with Stuttgart 21 is part of the Stuttgart-Ulm railway project. “The DB also connects the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria with each other even faster and more frequently via the new route,” the group announced on Monday.
Long-distance transport board member Michael Peterson announced, among other things, that a direct connection between Cologne and Munich would be offered twice an hour in the future. There should also be more connections to Frankfurt Airport, especially from cities in the north. “So will the ICE line Basel? Cologne-Dortmund will be extended to Hamburg, which will further improve the quality of the axis between the cathedral city and the Hanseatic city. “This means that travelers from Münster, Osnabrück and Bremen can get to Frankfurt Airport even more frequently without having to change trains.”
The first trains of the so-called ICE 3 Neo are to be in service between NRW and Frankfurt from mid-December – a new train based on the well-known ICE 3, from which the railway will receive three dozen new vehicles in the coming year. The group also announced further connections abroad, in particular to Switzerland and Poland. Night train connections are also to be expanded. These are usually operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB).