Improvements planned for Bonn ICE to have fewer stops in Siegburg
Siegburg/Bonn · With the new timetable coming in on December 9, four ICE connections from the Siegburg/Bonn station will be discontinued. The Deutsche Bahn gives the fact that the new ICE 4 will be tested on the fast track between Köln-Rhine/Main as a reason.
„During the one-year-test phase adjustments during some journeys will be necessary“, as the Deutsche Bahn told Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan in a letter in July. Since then there has been disagreement voiced in Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg area. The background: The ICE 4 with its 250 km/h top speed is slower than the ICE3, with 300 km/h, which connects Siegburg and Frankfurt.But the new ICE version has more seats.
City p lanners and business developers from Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg region have voiced concerns over the timetable changes, because the hourly rhythm gets broken up and because the „reduced number of connections to the Stuttgart region leads to a noticeable loss of attraction for the passengers“. The Deutsche Bahn disagrees: According to the train company, the number of connections between Düsseldorf and Bonn increases from three to 14 per day in both directions.
While stops in Siegburg will be fewer, in Bonn there will be an improvement with the winter timetable coming in: From the main station there will be more ICE trains, because the Deutsche Bahn is changing several routes between Hamburg and Passau from Intercity to ICE trains. For commuters there will be additional direct connections with the EC 7 (arrival 9.12 am) and the RE 5 (arrival 9.55 am).
„The growing region Bonn/Rhein-Sieg needs more availability and capacity especially in the long distance services of the Deutsche Bahn“, it said in a notice for the planning committees of the city and regional councils, which will meet on November 14. The numbers published by the Deutsche Bahn are confirming the growth. Since the ICE fast track with a stop in Siegburg was opened in 2002, the amount of passenger traffic almost doubled from 8.3 million to approximately 15.2 million in 2017.
The Deutsche Bahn also points out that the numbers of daily ICE stops was increased from 37 to 61 in 2017. At the same time the direct connections to Bonn main station were cut transferred to the long distance station Siegburg.
The announced test phase for 2019 will include Cologne. The ICE which connects Dortmund and Munich will at first cease in Siegburg and Cologne-Deutz, from April onward it will only stop in Deutz and from September only at Cologne’s main station.
Planned changes in Siegburg
Additional trains at the station in Siegburg/Bonn after the timetable change:
South bound:
- Dortmund - Nuremberg - Munich: 3.55 pm (daily)
- Dortmund - Stuttgart: 5.26 pm (daily, bar Saturday)
North Bound:
- Munich - Nuremberg - Essen: 2 pm (Monday - Friday)
Discontinued ICE stops:
South bound:
- Dortmund - Stuttgart - Munich: 10.09 am (daily from April 2019) as well as 4.09 pm and 6.09 pm (all daily)
North Bound:
- Munich - Stuttgart - Dortmund, 11.47 am and 1.47 pm (all daily) as well as 7.47 pm (daily from April 2019)
- Frankfurt - Cologne: 2.38 Uhr (Monday - Friday)
(Original text: Bettina Köhl, Marcel Dörsing / Translation: Mareike Graepel)
