New ICE route Railways plan speed of 300 km per hour between Cologne and Berlin
Hanover/Bielefeld · To speed up rail traffic between the Ruhr area and Berlin, a new ICE route with a speed of 300 kilometres per hour is being planned between Hanover and Bielefeld. The goal is a four-hour connection time between Cologne and Berlin.
To speed up rail traffic between the Ruhr area and Berlin, a new ICE route with a speed of 300 kilometres per hour is being planned between Hanover and Bielefeld. The federal government’s rail commissioner, Enak Ferlemann (CDU), told the German Press Agency that a route along Autobahn 2 is preferred. “Our core aim is Berlin to Cologne in four hours.”
The railway wants to attract more passengers to the fast and environmentally-friendly tracks and lose fewer to domestic air traffic. “The result will be half-hourly connections, which is a dream for the entire region.” The ICE currently runs hourly between Cologne and Berlin and takes around 4 hours and 40 minutes.
Ferlemann said the plans for the new route between Hanover and Bielefeld should be advanced enough this year for a preferred option to be discussed next year at a dialogue forum with citizens and municipalities. Trains between Berlin and Amsterdam should also become faster as a result.
The route is a priority requirement in the government’s expansion plan with estimated costs of almost 1.9 billion Euros. Up to now, only an increase in speed to 230 kilometres per hour was planned, although the question was left open whether an extension of the existing line was sufficient or whether a new route from Porta Westfalica/Bad Oeynhausen to the gates of Hanover would be necessary.
Original text: dpa. Translation: kc
