Regional rail transport in Franconia and southern Thuringia is to become more attractive with new trains and more journeys. With the timetable change in December, 18 new double-decker trains will be used on the Franconia-Thuringia Express route, as a railway spokeswoman announced on Thursday.
The operators DB Regio Bayern and the Bavarian Railway Company presented the new trains on Thursday at the train station in Bamberg. They therefore offer 380 seats, 36 parking spaces for bicycles and can travel at up to 160 kilometers per hour. In the future, trains will run more frequently on several sections of the route – for example between Nuremberg and Bamberg between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. every 30 minutes. According to Deutsche Bahn, this will increase the capacity on this route by more than 10,000 seats every day.
A further eight double-decker trains will be added from June 2024 to travel on the high-performance route towards Erfurt. The trains therefore have 634 seats and should travel on the route at up to 190 kilometers per hour. According to information, the Free States of Bavaria and Thuringia invested around 320 million euros to expand the vehicle fleet.