The railway will be completely renovated by 2030. Passengers must be brave until then. There are already improvements with the timetable change in December, but they are more of a cosmetic nature. We provide an overview of new connections and planned construction sites.
This is what Transport Minister Wissing says about the ICE 3 Neo
Deutsche Bahn has presented a revised version of the ICE 3: the ICE 3 Neo. Volker Wissing was also there. The Federal Minister for Transport and Digital Affairs believes that Deutsche Bahn is on the right track with the new variant.
BDriving ancestors could be so enjoyable, so environmentally friendly, so punctual. But before passengers can even dream of Swiss conditions, according to Richard Lutz, head of Deutsche Bahn, they still have to “pass through the valley of tears” for seven years. Customers are already traveling through this in view of the numerous construction sites that affect all main routes across the country. Nevertheless, the timetable change from December 11 brings advantages as well as disadvantages.
Deutsche Bahn is using new trains
Deutsche Bahn has ordered 73 ICE 3neo trains. The train type has a total of 439 seats and reaches a top speed of 320 km/h.
The first train of this type will start in mid-December on the route between Dortmund, Cologne and Munich. On Saturdays it also runs on the new high-speed line between Ulm and Wendlingen.
By 2026, 30 trains from the new series are to be in service, and all trains with a total of 32,000 seats are scheduled to be delivered by the end of the decade – in time for the introduction of the Deutschlandtakt.
Additional connections in Germany
The high-speed line between Wendlingen and Ulm was completed in time for the timetable change. This shortens the journey times between Cologne via Stuttgart to Munich and Stuttgart via Ulm to Munich by around 15 minutes. At the same time, the number of journeys on this important section will be increased by 20.
With more frequencies, line extensions and the use of the XXL ICE 4, Deutsche Bahn is also increasing the number of seats at Frankfurt Airport by 60 percent. This applies in particular to connections between Bremen and Cologne with a stop in Osnabrück and Münster, but also from Munich via Ulm to Stuttgart and the Frankfurt hub.
Higher frequency when traveling abroad
From December there will be an additional return trip between Zurich and Stuttgart without changing trains. From October 2023, direct connections will be increased from eight to thirteen daily. Driving is mostly with six-car, double-decker ICs (KISS trains).
A double-decker Intercity Express (IC 2-KISS) of the Deutsche Bahn
Source: pa/dpa/dpa-ZB/Soeren Stache
The travel time from Berlin to Warsaw will be reduced by around ten minutes with the timetable change. From March next year, the German and Polish railways will be using another sixth train pair on the outward and return journey.
New night train connections
A new night train connects Zurich with Berlin or Prague. It also offers IC seating cars and stops in Erfurt, Halle and Leipzig. The night train line Munich – Venice – Rijeka – Zagreb – Vienna – Budapest will be extended and will start from Stuttgart. This means that there are additional stations in Göppingen, Ulm and Augsburg. The Zurich – Hamburg night train route will be expanded to include Bruchsal, Heidelberg, Darmstadt, Hanau, Verden and Nienburg stations.
Longer travel times due to construction sites
According to the website bauprojects.deutschebahn.com, there are 230 construction projects in the pipeline. Only 18 will take place in the near future. In 2023, the sections between Berlin and Dresden as well as Fulda and Kassel will lead to longer travel times for months due to construction work. A journey from Berlin to Dresden will then take 20 minutes longer, and from Hamburg to Frankfurt 40 minutes more.
From 2024, work will no longer be carried out selectively on rails, switches and overhead lines, but the construction projects will be bundled and entire routes shut down for this purpose. The Riedbahn between Frankfurt/Main and Mannheim will start in mid-2024. A fifth of nationwide long-distance trains and a quarter of all passengers travel via this ICE key section. It is planned to close the entire route for six months and to completely renew it for around 500 million euros.
Tickets will be more expensive with the winter timetable
With the winter timetable, the railways are increasing their prices, as they do almost every year. She emphasizes that it will remain well below the inflation rate and will only increase in price by an average of 4.9 percent. Super saver prices, saver prices and reservation fees remain unchanged.
But the flex prices will increase by 6.9 percent from December 11th. Passengers for BahnCards 25, 50 and 100 also have to pay an average of 4.9 percent more.
“Don’t solve public transport problems by making tickets cheaper”
“Just making driving cheaper is not a sustainable or environmentally friendly strategy,” says mobility researcher Prof. Christian Böttger on the debate about the successor to the 9-euro ticket. Germany has a massive mobility problem that cannot be solved without sustainable financing.