Bahn plans ICE half-hourly for 20 major German cities by 2026

Deutsche Bahn wants to significantly improve its long-distance services within the next three years: as early as 2026, 20 major German cities are to be served by an ICE every half hour, as Deutsche Bahn boss Richard Lutz announced to journalists. That’s about twice as many as today. Lutz promised “more fast connections for even more people in a denser cycle”.

In order to achieve this goal, the train fleet will also be significantly expanded, said Lutz. One is currently negotiating with the manufacturers about the purchase of new trains. The railway is planning “nothing less than one of the largest procurement packages” in its history, said Lutz, without giving details.

According to Lutz, the following cities should be reconnected to the ICE every half hour by 2026: Augsburg, Erfurt, Göttingen, Halle (Saale), Hanover, Kassel, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Ulm. So far these are: Berlin, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt am Main, Hagen, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Nuremberg, Wuppertal and Würzburg.

Deutsche Bahn expects a new record number of well over 150 million long-distance passengers this year. It has set itself the goal of approximately doubling this number by 2030 and introducing the so-called Germany cycle. This means that there would be a uniform timetable nationwide, according to which the trains would run. Of course, it will probably take decades before this is fully implemented; Part of this concept is an ICE connection every half hour on the most important routes.

However, the main problem is the poor condition of the rail network, which only allows a limited number of journeys and whose many construction sites have recently caused the punctuality of the trains to fall to extremely low values. The railway is therefore planning a huge investment program by 2030, the most important routes are to be completely renovated. The financing has only been partially clarified. The federal government expects costs totaling 45 billion euros by 2027 alone.

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