Story Behind German High Speed Rail System
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2024
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- As we promised in the previous video, today’s topic is a detailed explanation of the German high-speed rail system!
Bearing in mind that in one period there were two German states, West and East, this division, and later process of their integration, greatly influenced the planning and the development of high-speed rail network.
So, the idea of this video was to explain the concept on which this system is based, its brief history, and the most important dilemmas that policymakers had in relation to development plans - such as dedicated tracks or mixed traffic, west-east or north-south orientation, etc.
In the second part of the video, using some cool animations, we tried to show the step-by-step development of this amazing high-speed rail network.
Enjoy and share with us your thoughts in the comment section!
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#Germany #ICE #HighSpeedRail
I wouldn't say that Germany is finished with building HSR. Apart from the new Stuttgart-Ulm HSR corridor, there's also a new HSR corridor between Gelnhausen and Fulda, and there's planning for a new HSR line between Nürnberg and Würzburg (I'm taking this ride quite often, and it always infuriates me - Fulda to Würzburg is 100 km and takes 30 minutes, Würzburg to Nürnberg is 100 km and takes 60 minutes, Nürnberg to Ingolstadt is 100 km and takes 30 minutes - ridiculous). I can't wait for all those new HSR lines to be build. :)
and they wanna continue the Wendlingen - Ulm hsl to Augsburg, where it will connect to the upgraded railway that is in fact a lot faster than 200 km/h
and there are also plans for Hannover Hamburg hsl, cuz that upgraded line be takin ages and a lot of electricity cuz the train breaks to 110 and then it accelerates to 200 again and this game all over again
@@connectingwings7212 sadly the "Y-Trasse" seems to be far off.
While the DB knows that AlphaE is basically useless and unworkable, even the new government still holds on to AlphaE (for various reasons I read the whole coalition agreement).
For the "Deutschland-Tackt" the "Y-Trasse" is needed.
And also 200km/h line from Dresden to Czech Republik connecting to 320 km/h line from Usti nad Labem to Prague
Add to that the additional HSR Frankfurt - Mannheim and the new HSR Bielefeld - Hannover. Both lines have been making great progress in their planning process and are important pieces to connect the rather fragmented HSR network in the west into a bigger whole with Bielefeld - Hannover connecting the Hamm - Bielefeld line, which is built for 200km/h, and the mentioned Hannover - Berlin HSR while Frankfurt - Mannheim will close the gap between Cologne - Frankfurt and Mannheim - Stuttgart.
Great video, you just missed most of the upcoming HSR projects like:
- Frankfurt-Mannheim (300 km/h)
- Gelnhausen-Fulda (300 km/h) + Fulda-Gerstungen (230 km/h); both combined could bring Berlin-Frankfurt below 3:30 h
- Hannover-Bielefeld (300 km/h)
- Hannover-Hamburg
- Nuremberg-Würzburg
- Ulm-Augsburg
- Hamburg-Copenhagen [DK] via the Baltic Sea
- Munich-Kufstein [AT > Brenner Base Tunnel > IT]
- Dresden-Prague [CZ]
So... far away from being done^^
In Germany "upcoming" is such a risky word to use.
Right now it takes about 35 years from start to complete one new highspeed railroad.
For example, upgrading the railroad between Frankfurt am Main and Fulda / Eisenach ist already planned for more than 10 years, and they did not even start building it. They are so many Citizen organisations for every single Project which makes IT such a pain go come Forward.... Kind of sucks.
Ulm-Augsburg seems to just be an upgrade.
HAAAMBUUUURG
@@valentin6824 the biiter aspect of the truth is, a lot of these partitioners of these buergernitiativen, consider themselves enviromentalists! Crazy
Sadly the new Berlin-Frankfurt doesn't stop at my hometown even though it could. They are even considering stopping at a small town in my district just to save up 10 minutes.
I wouldn’t say that Germany has stopped planing new HSR tracks.
Augsburg-Ulm is currently planed, to connect Munich-Augsburg to the new high speed rail Ulm-Stuttgart.
With its fulfillment there will be a non-stop highspeed track from Munich via Augsburg, Ulm, Stuttgart, Mannheim to Frankfurt, which will cut traveling times massively and will be faster than going by car, even on the German autobahn (mostly) without speed limit
Modern Germany is decent at planning new projects, but absolutely terrible at actually building them.
The Cologne-Frankfurt line also carries the new ICE 4-trains. It can't reach the maximum speed of 300 km/h but is able to restart the train after a complete stop on any point on the line. The ICE 4 matches these requirements.
I'm excited abaout the plans for the new 300 km/h-line Frankfurt-Mannheim and the additional underground-station with tunnels for Frankurt main station. With the new Frankfurt-Fulda (or rather Hanau-Gelnhausen), Frankfurt really becomes the main junction in the German high speed train system.
Yeah, Frankfurt is also main airways hub
Yeah living in Frankfurt is very convenient. I can hop on any train and get to half the country.
Frankfurt is already the main junction
Frankfurt is pretty central so that makes sense
Erfurt aswell, Germany combines the most important south north lines and east west. And the fastest tracks
In my opinion Germany should spend way more money on railways. The problem is the projects are often short sighted and not future proof (see Stuttgart 21) and explode in cost. I hope we finally start to separate cargo and passenger rail because everything else has shown to be problematic.
I agree.
Although I don't see shortsightedness as the major problem. We'll have to see how Stuttgart21 works. According to simulations I've seen if every single trains is absolutely on time it will work out ... but ... that wont happen, so it would probably have been better to build it with more tracks.
Anyway, I see THE major problem with citizens butting in in every single project and everyone is like "yeah, I totally support you, buuuut .. don't build it where I live, thanks bye"
The incoming coaltion want to spent more and there are plenty projects still being built. Especially ones connecting to Neighboring Countries. Seperation will be unlikely. While there are some seperate tracks. In plenty corridors the is just not enough space. The goal is more that the Regional trains will have together with the freight trains speed rise from 120 km/h to 160 km/h. Also more rails for passing and longer ones, so freight trains can be longer. The new train control system should also allow more trains etc.
I agree that the investments in the train system here in Germany have been far too low and in some cases have been redirected into car- and air traffic. But seperated systems between cargo and passenger rail is simply not possible. Despite of what could have been done better or what should have beeen done in the recent history, the transformation of non existent high-speed rail to upgraded lines and new high speed ones is very impressive. The comparisons to Japan and France and Swiss (although we certainly can learn a lot from them) are often invalid because the realization in Germany is unevenly more complicated than in all these countries.
As consumers we are inclined to demand fast, passenger-only tracks for the most short connections. But meanwhile we need to upgrade our rail-cargo numbers and won't do that by building exclusive passenger rails.
Stuttgart 21 is a vital project. Only execution was bad and therefore it is well over budget and will be finished late
Right now I am using the Stuttgart Hbf as an interchanging station regularly. I am truly sad that soon the construction work will be finished and they will demolish the old station, since I'm definitely expecting longer waiting times that way.
At the moment there are so many rail tracks leading to the station and at the station itself - and they all are used. They are all needed. And now we will have way less tracks. I don't expect that that will help in any way.
Berlin - Hamburg was revamped to cater for speeds up to 230 km/h by ICE units, but 200 km/h by IC trains. This was achieved without the expense of a new dedicated high speed line.
German railways amaze me! I initially travelled from Munich to Cologne on an ICE train in 2018 then got a loco-hauled IC service to Wuppertal. What amazed me was that the loco-hauled service accelerated to 200 kmh soon after leaving Cologne. In April 2019 after studying the timetable, I found an ICE service going from Berlin to Munich in 4 hours. I don't know how far that is but my limited knowledge of DB told me that if I was going to get a train at 300 kmh in Germany, *_this was going to be it!!!_* Somewhere after Hanover we took a dedicated high-speed line and I watched the interactive map on my laptop as the train accelerated in steps to *300 kmh!!!* It was as if the driver was enjoying it too! My fellow passengers, most of whom I expect were German nationals, didn't see anything noteworthy about this train. 😕
I have grown up in Australia, a place where we still think 160 kmh maximum speed is fantastic and fast enough, yet the UK and Europe have been doing this for decades! 💖DB!!!
"Large cities in Germany"
"Limburg an der Lahn"
It is so disappointing that the Berlin - Rhein-Ruhr corridor is still one of the most frequent _plane_ routes.
Also a bit wondering, how comfortable is that Frankfurt to Cologne route?
Pretty comfortable actually. 4% is not actually that much, so little in fact, that I did not notice it at all when I rode the track back in September. The ICE is pretty quiet and the only uncomfortable thing I can think of is the pressure differences inside the tunnels.
You don't feel the curves, but you really do feel the elevation changes. When it's going up, you're pressed into your seat a bit
A main HS line is needed in the east-west direction probably.
@ They are planning new highspeed lines on the Rhein/Ruhr-Berlin Corridor. But it'll take decades to finish them all :_
Although it's been ages ago that I took that train, it's very comfortable. When riding on the Thalys/TGV, sometimes I felt a little tick of some sort, indicating how fast we were going. In the ICE3, it felt like we were doing perhaps 120 km/h, and only the display in the train revealed that we were, in fact, doing 300 km/h.
The map of France includes half of Belgium like more than 200 years ago.
Thank you, came for this !
Non, pas exactement. La France du premier empire n'a JAMAIS eu possesion de RIEN que la Wallonie, mais bien de tout ce qui devint après le Bénélux (Belgique, Pays-Bas [Nederland] & Luxembourg) ! Or, le territoire en bleu à 2 : 00 min correspond + ou - à la France métropolitaine avec rien que la Wallonie.
As an American, I'm supremely envious of Germany's High Speed Rail network. Absolutely wish we had something similar here that wasn't stuck in development hell like most proposed High Speed lines
Well... as you can see, the German projects are also mired by the same delays. I mean almost 30 years for one of the lines, that's hardly better than the delays we have in this country. By comparison California High Speed Rail is moving at light speed!
I think this is more a product of our political systems. These are very large projects impacting a lot of people and since they have the right to object and delay these projects, well, they do. It is good that they can! That's the goal of a democracy, to let its citizens have their voices heard. I think we need to just accept that the politics of mega projects generate costly delays. And delays are literally the most expensive thing you can have in construction, especially when there is a large megaproject with an enormous schedule prone to cascading effects of even the smallest delay.
As a German American I can tell you the main issue the USA struggles with it ours settlement plans. Germany has highly regulated settlement areas therefore building rail is super easy. You have a whole bunch of points you can connect with rail and other then those hard set living areas the rest is open country. What this means is that its easy to plan effecient rail lines and so long as you have the money you can easily build the rail. This isnt the case in the USA. The ACELA line betwen Washington and Boston is actually used heavily and the New England corridor with its dense population would be great for a high speed line. But because you can place a house whereever you please in the USA building rail is a bitch because a requirement for highspeed rail is long straight sections and if anyone has built a house in the path of the proposed tracks and refuses to move you may as well scrap the idea. This is also a reason why californian forest fires have gotten so bad. Because California can't let the fires just burn themselves out because there are people living now in said forests.
@@TohaBgood2 It's good that everyone is heard, but the process can't be used to delay projects indefinitely. They have to plan something, that then gets presented, then everyone can have a voice and the problems have to be fixed within a year. After that, the project is finalized and can be build. No more endless delay because people can revision court orders multiple times.
You really notice the 40 ‰ (Permil) grade when you take the Frankfurt to Cologne line. Like on an airplane or a car up a mountain you notice the change in airpressure and how much you are pressed in the seat.
that's due to the tunnel not change in elevation
"The most expensive European railway project with costs of more that 10 billion euros"
Cries in English
Doesnt your government Plan for highspeedtracks too? I thought i heard something about that not that long ago. Of course sorting that out can take its Time Especially.... after the whole brexit thing.....
Ha, yeah they plan to remove people from their homes and get them to sell for cheap because of their plans to build a high speed railway which won't even be that more effective which costed more than double of that only for them to be decide not to connect the north and the south which was kinda the whole point of it and cut the line in half; but it still retains the bloated costs.
Edit: I got the cost wrong. It's predicted to now cost 107 billion pounds in 2020 which is 126 billion euros.
@@somerandompersonidk2272 by Not that much more effective you mean what exactly? Capacity? Speed?
Well sadly you need to remove some from their homes always for such big infastructure builds.
@@KeVIn-pm7pu Although the line itself is faster, it is not directly connected to the overall rail grid, especially in London as it won't be connected to king's cross. As such, it means that you've got to have another journey to then get to King's cross which essentially mitigates the slight speed advantage of the line. Plus, the line isn't all that fast in reality compared to other major lines with it having a maximum speed of 360 km/h compared to it costing 126 billion euros (estimated) in 2020. - Gotta love British inefficiency.
Which yeah, I'm aware that you've gotta knock down homes which truth be told I'd be in support of (Britain really needs a high speed rail) but the issue is that the government decided to cut the line short so that it only connects 2 of the major cities and that this was after people had been made to sell their houses. Plus, the original plan didn't even go through Scotland! It is a mess of a project.
As travelling times by train in Germany decrease, it is also noticeable that driving on autobahns is not as fast as it used to be. There are far more cars on the road leading to more traffic jams. Also the increase in traffic wears out the road surface quicker, meaning more road works and hold ups. Munich to Frankfurt used to be a easy four hour drive including a rest stop. Now you have to allow five hours at least. Also Munich to Berlin coukd be done in six hours. Now you're lucky if you can do it in eight hours. The train is the best option!
I agree with you about the Autobahn. It is unfortunate that Germany is in the middle of Europe with lot of traffic between western and eastern as well as northern and southern Europe.
It is not the cars wearing out the Autobahn. The Autobahn is - by a lightyear - the best engineered and best maintained ultra high speed freeway which at the same time faces insane continental scale traffic.
The Autobahn is damaged and worn out by trucks. Even the - compared to any other freeway - totally overengineered Autobahn cannot handle millions and millions of 40 tonne trucks per year which simple did not exist 20 years ago. The majority of Autobahn traffic is not domestic traffic by German citizens, it is through-traffic by foreign cars and foreign trucks going East-West, West-East, South-North and North-South ...through Germany.
As someone who takes train weekly from Berlin to Baden Wurttemberg...the trains RARELY if ever accelerate above 200 kmh. The potential of the line means absolutely nothing due to the shared tracks and constant construction. Watching this video vs. France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain makes me realize how absolutely backwards Germany's system is
Die NBS Wendlingen - Ulm wird in einem Jahr zum Fahrplanwechsel im Dezember 2022 bereits eröffnet. Es fährt dann ein ICE pro Stunde und Richtung darüber + ein Regionalzug mit Halt in Merklingen.
12:46 Hamburg-Berlin is actually a line with speeds GREATER than 200kph.
ICE Trains definitely enjoy their actual operating speed when running abroad, especially to France (beside they enjoyed it on smaller section of high speed rail line or few dedicated high speed rail on domestic lines).
The new Central Station in Stuttgart ist soo sad. They realized just now that it doesnt have enough tracks, so they want to build a second station now :(
2:09 I'm not saying ot won't be one day reality, but Belgium has not yet exploded and hasn't therefore been partly absorbed by France ^^
4:30 it's not TGV Atlantique but TGV Est (years 2010)
The German high speed rail system won’t be finished until the line goes all the way to Konigsberg!
I do not think that high speed rail in Germany is generally upopular, but that we currently lack a general crisis of nimbys. Also the decision to not separate cargo and passenger service was not a good one.
The NIMBYs, they're literally everywhere these days! Price of doing business in a democracy. Sad but true.
Got to say that the network throughout Germany has a nice mix. Anything from dedicated HSR lines to mixed lines. Some ICE run on partially single track routes and others even serve commuter rail stations which is a rather remarkable aspect.
Of course on mixed tracks they can barely go faster than any other train and they will gain a quicker connection time by skipping the stations in between but I don't have any issues with that.
I had two outstanding ICE train rides, one was from Leipzig to Nuremberg where I happened to board the former MET (Metropolitan Express Train) which now runs as ICE ... it was a way higher standard on the interior design and was super comfortable and nice; I was traveling in 2nd class and thought I ended up in 1st class. The other remarkable trip was from Berlin Central to Stralsund Central: due to construction works on the normal route the train was re-routed and skipped ALL stations in between. Thus all the passengers which would have left the train on any of these stations were on board of other trains and the ICE was traveling for 3 hours non-stop. In my coach there was only one more passenger ... it can barely get any better
It seems to me that France and Italy HSR do some things better. On connections with a HSR the air routes are not in the EU top 30 busiest air routes. People just use the train predominantly. In France only Paris-Nice and Paris-Toulouse make te list. In Italy only to the Islands (obviously). In Germany a number of relative short hauls (400-600km) make the list (HH-Frankfurt , Frankfurt-Berlin Dusseldorf-Munich, Berlin-Munich). Aparently the German HSR is not competitive enough to lure travellers out of the planes, like they are in Italy and France.
They are currently evaluating the new route for the Hannover-Bielefeld corridor!
Thank you so much for making such comprehensive, informative videos. I've personally been waiting for this one for a long time. Exceeded my expectations!! Heading to Patreon now, thank you so much again for all of the excellent work you do.
Thank you very much Nathan, we are glad you like it. Welcome to our Patreon club 😊
2:01 i didn't know Wallonia is part of France now.
Woah! Even I as a German did overestimate our ICE HSR network. I always thought that there are way more HSR tracks and that between Munich and Berlin the ICE could at least travel at 230+ km/h consistently. Also from Frankfurt to Hamburg. That this is not the case blows my mind.
Also I somehow thought that the Karlsruhe-Basel HSR line is already there. And many more. That we are still building these and most lines in this country are not at least 230km/h, is really a lack in infrastructure. I hope we can improve that.
Well... the Dutch built a dedicated freight line (Betuweroute) from Rotterdam to the German border. Hugely controversial, delays, billions over budget, the usual. But that line is there, and has been there for at least a decade, it runs, all hunky-dory now. Except that it connects to old infrastructure in Germany. At the earliest, this would be fixed in 2026.
The Dutch also built a high-speed line to the Belgian border (HSL Zuid). Hugely controversial, delays, billions over budget, the usual. But at least, trains are running, often at 300 km/h. However, the high-speed line to Germany (HSL Oost) has been shelved indefinitely. Partly because of the costs of building such a line through the second most densely populated country in the EU, but I can imagine that the somewhat lacklustre interest in Germany for high-speed rail may play a part.
@@SeverityOne Well, at least the exchange with France works really well. Right now I live in Karlsruhe and know that we have TGVs that come from Paris, and also our ICE3s going to Paris. That way, you can get to Paris by train very fast.
One time when there were strikes, we even had TGVs helping out. The ICE I booked did not go, but instead a TGV drove the exact same schedule that that ICE would have served. But more likely that was to get French people to Stuttgart, a line that the ICE3 failed to do that day. And Karlsruhe is just that one stop between France and the destination Stuttgart, so it just happened to take me where I wanted to go that day.
It could be worse, you could live in northern England
You saw the network at the end, the amount of lines in blue (200-230kmh) is huge. Between Berlin and Munich only Berlin-Halle is 200 kmh (not bad for a line not dedicated to HSR only) the rest is at least 250 with large portions 300
The Netherlands may be known as the Low Countries but in terms of government decisionmaking and progress Germany should be known as the Slow Country
As a user, I can confirm that I chose my trips taking care to stick within the HSR lines. for example the ICE between Hamburg and Cologne is never in time. it has no chance to have less than 15 mins delay it is always stuck behind a slower train, that´s the consequence of mixed traffic. As I know it, I never take any connection smaller than 25 mins, but I see so much people missing connections and asking for refund ... On the other hand on the train hamburg to frankfurt hamburg to Freiburg/Basel i rarely have more than 10 mins delay now that the line between Hannovre and gottingen is rehabilitated.
I really appreciate the high speed train in germany, it is quite quick, comfortable and affordable.
Perfectly researched and presented ! Only one little mistake the ordered ICE1 units were 62 and not 82
Thank you !
Sorry Willy, but I just have to disagree.
If you like, please read my comment I wrote a bit earlier. :-)
To be very precise. Only 60 ICE1 units were ordered and built.
2:51 interesting how on an english language map many of the German parts annexed by Poland still have German names
Germany has such a good regional passenger rail, but mixed use with passenger and freight railway on HSR is just stupid. It would be great to travel on dedicated HSR-lines like in France for example. Paris-Bordeaux in 2:04 h is nuts! Of course, you likely would have more stops in Germany over 600 km, but with a similar concept like the french LGVs, it would still be much quicker and more convenient than now, to get from one big city to another.
Germany needs a lot more capacity on the Tracks
Wonderful.
I traveled from Frankfort to Koln in 1990 through Lufthansa Express.
I went to Germany for training on the Bayer's accounting Software.
I still remember German people, they are really amazing.
2:07 has anyone noticed that France here also includes Wallonia? Which is the French speaking part of Belgium :D
En France en1967, le train "Le Capitole" roulait à 200Km/h sur une ligne classique entre Toulouse et Paris.
Just FYI, the rail line between Ulm - Friedrichshafen - Lindau was also upgraded and electrified and will become operational on the 12th. Dec 2021.
And please tell us more about the Transrapid 😁
Edit: and I forgot the important information that it was also upgraded for the speed of 160kmph 😅
Thank you for sharing this, definitely enjoyed this one
You forgot to mention that a number of lines are already accommodating speeds of 125 mph or 200 kph prior to 1973.
You drew Wallonia with France 🤣
If it is about Germanys high speed rail developement you need to add the transrapid to, since the ICE and Transrapid were being planned and tested parallely. At least partially. Tracks and lines were being planned up until 2008, the TR06 was even earlier "on the run" than the IC Experimental. It started test operation in Emsland Facility as early as 1983 with speeds up to 412km/h in January 1988. And: It still has the option of bringing transrapid back to official and regular service...
must be awesome living in such a small country? Train trips of 4000kms are not even close to flying prices.
Just here to point out an error on the graphics. whenever you show show the maps with the speeds of the lines you've used the < symbol to signalize that the max speed along that line ist somwhere below or equal to that number, but for 300 plus it doesnt make much sense to use "
This Comment is so German 😂 and i am saying that as one
Fantastic Video....Thumbs Up👌👍
Best greetings from Switzerland
thank you!
Not a critique of the video but I don't want people to get a wrong impression of the population distribution of Germany:
At around 6:35 it is said that all large cities in Germany were successfully connected highspeed rail. The map shown does not reflect that at all.
Out of the 5 biggest cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, and Frankfurt) only 3 are shown on the map and out of the top 20 cities only 6 are shown. So either the sentence or the map is wrong.
If you consider metropolitan regions instead of single cities it looks a little better (a lot of Germany's biggest cities are kind of close to Cologne, for example). But the big Hamburg, Munich, Bremen, and Leipzig/Dresden/Halle metropolitan areas are blank spots on the map in the video.
It is late Infomation. Not ONLY ICE 3 can be used fron Cologne to Frankfurt(Main), and also ICE 4!
2:12 Wallonia is part of France? :^p
Rattachement intensifies
Explain about Indian Railways.
2:10 Minor issue but it's preventable in such a well done video. That is not a map of France but a map of french speaking Europe. It includes half of Belgium and a chunk of Switzerland.
Yep, unintentional editing error!
Could You do one on Poland? And their plans for high speed rail...
Why did you include Wallonia with France though at 2:00? 😂
Low key rattachisme :p
@14:00 "
I can report that they started drilling a bunch of pilot holes in Offenburg. God knows how many decades it will take for that tunnel to be finished.
For the German settlement structure, it makes more sense to overhaul ***all*** tracks in the entire country to be suitable for 230 km/h, especially the many run-down Imperial tracks from the Kaiser era and the run-down tracks from the Nazi era, than investing in many dedicated high speed routes. And it would have made more sense to build a Transrapid national ring route Berlin-Dresden-Munich-Freiburg/or Strasbourg/or Stuttgart-Cologne-Hamburg-Berlin operating clockwise and counterclockwise on a double track at 450-500 km/h!
Had Germany done that, they could have shut down most of the domestic flights by now.
Deutsche Bahn only makes 10-15% of its total revenue from long distance passengers while most of the money and most of the transportation needs of the majority of the peopled is with local trains between adjacent metroplexes as well as between small villages/small towns and the adjacent big town.
Germany is very densly populated, 10 times denser than the US, with a fantastic village sprawl, and most of the population lives in small settlements and mid size settlements.
Germany also does not have a very one sided settlement structure like France or a concentrated dipole like Japan. Many people have to get to many towns from many towns. A unique challenge France and Japan do not know from their geogrpahy and would not be able to handle any better than the Germans. In France there is only Paris. Try to go from Marseilles to Bordeaux. An absolute nightmare in France.
The real problem of the German railway network today is the thousands of km of old tracks, some more than 120 years hold which have never been updated. Another unique issue in Eastern Germany is the havoc caused by the Soviet Union. Before 1946 the areas of Saxony, Thuringia and Central Prussia were the core of the Empire in every aspect: education, economy, progressive lawmaking and infrastructure. Th East occupation zone which became the Soviet satellite countrys GDR in 1949 had to shoulder more than 95% of all reparations while the Western part did not contribute anything of significance. The Soviet Union took all the German Uranium oxide and built 10,000 nuclear weapons with it, and they took many, many, many tracks. There pictures of routes built in Imperial Germany with 4 tracks per route, and the Soviets took 3 of them away. In many of those areas, the railway network was never restored to 4 tracks after the reunification of West Germany and East Germany. The Soviet Union destroyed the German core regions and absolutely demolished more than 80% of its infrastructure. Today, it would make a huge difference if unified Germany still had those well-sized routes with many tracks to handle trains with different speeds, to handle freight trains, to handle overtaking, stopping, re-routing and so forth.
Why are you showing the TGV speed record from 2007 @4:22 when talking about the speed record from 1989? Doesn't make much sense.
In other Words: Decision of mixed traffic was a desaster. Own experience and family / friends shows highly unreliable timetable, mixed with poor service and high drug related criminal activities and homeless people at train stations (Hamburg and Frankfurt / Main really bad). I avoid using Railway network in my homecountry whenever possible, its so sad.
Make a video about Albanias railway and the projects of restoration and new durres pristina railway
Will you be doing a video on the newly opened China-Laos railway? The stations' architectural designs are incredible!
thank you for suggestion!
Trains in Germany suck especially in the rural east
Unfortunately Amsterdam to Berlin does not use ICE from Hanover to Berlin.
Please do a Transrapid video. Loved to see that
2:02 Wallonia is France now???
You included French speaking Belgium in France-)
2:04 When did Wallonia succeed from Belgium and join France?
One only needs to look at the maps in the video to see that Munich is definitely not as well connected with high-speed train service as other German cities. There is nothing resembling real high-speed for 100 km or more around Munich. There are many potential projects that would speed travel times north and west into Germany, or south and east into Austria.
In any event, I am doubtful that given Germany's central geography and the interest across Europe in binding the EU member states together that high speed rail projects are finished in Germany.
well it takes some time to leave the city limits and go beyond the suburbs already, not much different from let's say Hamburg at that point. Sure, actual high speed tracks are quite a bit from the city, but it's not really a slow track either ... I don't see a problem with that
I hope that Italian Railways will construct a serious, efficient and punctual service. But I know it's a dream
Very nice.
Frankfurt to Mannheim would be a very nice high speed rail ride.
Did you know that during the time when Germany was divided a Deutsche Bundesbahn train used to run from West Berlin (the British/American/French controlled area) to West Germany non stop using Deutsche Reichsbahn tracks but it didn't stop in any DR stations. Also sometimes fast IRE trains run on high speed lines at up to 200km/h
Yes, please tell us more of the Trans Rapid 09.
6:50 Würzburg is in Bavaria.
Thanks for Japanese subtitles!
2:07 did france absorbe a part of Belgium😅
Short after this video they finished the upgrade Berlin-Hamburg to 230 km/h :-)
I can't find your shinkansen rolling stock evolution video
I would like to see a video on UAE's railway project
All those new high speed rail will bring no effort until the mistakes of the past (eradicating freight traffic to almost 0, abandon of local and regional lines) are not corrected with an new Bundesverkehrswegeplan
I guess, the few request for the Transrapid are because it is seen as a kind of failed project in germany wich cost billions without return. And even the Shanghai Maglev was basicly build with stolen technology from the Transrapid program.
It is still kind of an awsome project and a great achievement for germany, but because of those failures i guess it is hard to feel proud of it.
I think the costs and limitations of these system also make them pretty unpopular in general. It's hard to get exited about something that costs five to ten times more than regular HSR, has much lower capacity, and takes decades to build. All the while offering only a 30% speed improvement at best.
Stuttgart 21 should be an entire video of itself. It is so ridiculous. It's not a proper train station anymore, only a train stop which you would normally expect in any small village.
Why? Well, both designations come with different requirements. One of them is the tilt angle the platforms are allowed to have. Because Stuttgart 21 requires a far greater angle than what is legal for a proper train station they had to "demote" it. The planned angle will probably to a bunch of accidents.
For what is currently planned the platforms will have a height difference of 6.2 meters from the beginning of an ICE to it's end. That is an effectively tilt of 1,5%! The normally allowed tilt is 0,25%.
And there are many, MANY more issues.. It's so insane.
I would like an to see a video on about the plans for HSR in Mexico
Well it is interesting to see that a country like Germany that seems so organized can have these fractious debates and takes almost forever to get these projects finished. However, the government also spends a fortune on airports and highways and such like. What is the cost per/km/passenger? Where is the money best put? I think banning regional travel where HS rail exists is an important carbon reducer. Give people a reasonable choice and they will take it.
Germany is organised from the perspective of a Prussian administrative officer. A very different layer is the political system. Yes, Germany has an astounding constitution which is far higher developed and far more progressive than for example the constitution of the US, but, in 1948-1949 the Allies pressured German politicians to insert more potential blockades into their drafts. And after the reunification, the ***better*** draft of the "Round Table" for a unified, new constitution was dismissed by conservative-right politicians and lobbyists. This sometimes leads to strange and silly micro-gridlocks or overdone compromises when certain projects have to be realised.
One good example for that was the Transrapid. People wanted the Transrapid. The Eastern states wanted the Transrapid very much when the first leg Berlin-Hamburg was discussed in the early 1990s. However, there was extrem lobbyism influencing the three major players against the Transrapid project; at one point it was a Mexican standoff between Deutsche Bahn, the manufacturer, and the government. (And the federal goverment did not have the power to dictate the execution of the project.)
Deutsche Bahn: "We will commit to the Transrapid when the government pays for the entire track over its full life cycle."
Industry: "We will start manufacturing trains and keep developing the technology when Deutsche Bahn commits to a long-term Transrapid contract."
Government: "We will pay for the track if the the industry delivers 12 full trains in advance and Deutsche Bahn commits its long distance efforts solely on Transrapid."
And when industry and federal government plus local governments were ready to come to an agreement, Deutsche Bahn said "Cya dudes, it'll be fine. We stick to the ICE."
During all of this Deutsche Bahn was led by Hartmut Mehdorn - one of the worst lobbyists for and outspoken fan of cars and airplanes...
Everyone: The Transrapid is so great, why didn't Germany build it?
Hartmut Mehdorn: BAHAHAHAHA MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Video on ETCS?
Detailed video is on to do list. :) Btw we did a video on signaling systems in general..
You should have mentioned that in Saarland the HS tracks meet a dead end. Train travel to and from france via Saarland is a test of patience. The German HGV network is very much a Mogelpackung and behind systems in neighbouring France and Spain.
Wondering if any new track was laid for the relatively new ICE route Frankfurt-Fulda-Eisenach-Erfurt-Leipzig-Lutherstadt Wittemberg-Berlin, or if it just repurposed existing lines?
I'm a train and I approve this video choo choo! :D
Yes, we demand more Transrapid content!
How about the TGV, OUIGO and INGO?
So, the Neustbastrecken wasn't the be all and end all, after all
On 16:48 something that looks like a third rail appears, even though it uses overhead power. Does it use a separated rail for electric isolation, like the London Underground?
Cable for Cab signalling and Train protection system.
i drove the Transrapid Testroute in Germany 2 Weeks bevor the Big Accident. It was a great expierence and im sad that no Transrapidroute in Germany is built.
Accident from 2006? That was a terrible event!
Never forget that it was Deutsche Bahn dropping out of the Transrapid project due to extreme lobbyism by the automobile industry and by airlines.
It was a Mexican standoff between Deutsche Bahn, the government and the industry (Thyssen, Henschel, Krupp, Siemens). Nobody was willing to take accountability for operating an ultra high speed maglev service, and Deutsche Bahn did not want to pay for the tracks, and the industry did not want to weigh in without the tracks being built and insured by the government.
Then, out of nowhere, Deutsche Bahn said: Nah, it'll be fine. We proceed with our baby, the ICE, and we will build a high speed network which is going to dwarf France and Japan. Well, today we know it was one of the worst examples of lobbyism and of missed opportunities for direct government intervention to produce something outstanding. Today, the Transrapid is exactly what is missing in the German railway network.
Ja genau die deutsche Bahn ist SCHNELL
A few things to add...
Germany doesn't allow any train to go faster than 300 km/h within the country. It's due to the noise regulations demanded by plenty of Wutbürger (German for "angry citizens" who protest about trivial things and bog down the judicial system with frivilous lawsuits). I've ridden ICE 3 MF from Frankfurt to Paris, which travelled up to 320 km/h outside Germany. Not exactly smooth as compared to TGV.
The "egomanic" governor of Thüringen (in former East Germany) insisted on the ICE station in Erfurt (a totally useless town) between Berlin and München. He would not allow the construction to proceed unless he got what he wanted. If DB had refused the governor's demand, the travel between München and Berlin would be 3 hours instead of 4 hours and travel more directly from Jena to Berlin, travelling through the equidistance between Halle and Leipzig. You can see the plan at @5:14 (similar to Route 12 for Autobahn) showing the more direct line between Nürnberg and Berlin.
The steep grade of up to 40% between Frankfurt and Köln is also the biggest disadvantage as DB found out one day in 2008. The ICE 3 experienced the sudden structural failures of axles. Fortunately, the axle cracked and broke shortly after ICE 3 departed Köln rather than somewhere along the line at 300 km/h and possibly leading to another Eschede. DB had to withdraw all of ICE 3 from the service until all of axles could be inspected at more frequent intervals and replaced. No other trains could use the Frankfurt-Köln line until the ICE 3 were fitted with newly redesigned axles, using different material.
DB could have prioritised the HSR line between Frankfurt and Nürnberg via Würzburg since that route is heavily used by the business people and commuters. It's maddening when ICE 3 is meandering "slowly" through the pasture when it could simply go at 250-300 km/h. I would like to see the line between Ingolstadt and München be reconstructed for 300 km/h travel (even though it might require more underground tunnels underneath the towns).
thank you for information!
Yeah, honestly the connection from Munich to Frankfurt is frustratingly slow. Munich to Nürnberg is alright, but Nürnberg to Würzburg is an absolute drag. Then it's a small burst of speed for a few kilometres on the High speed line towards Kassel, but then it branches off very quickly and crawls through the, admittedly scenic but not practical Spessart. Then Aschaffenburg to Hanau is at a medium speed, followed by a very slow passing through Hanau, before accelerating a little on the final stretch to Frankfurt. And this is a popular, important connection on a high speed train! It's such a shame
@@RailwaysExplained Hi!
Please do not believe what InTeCredo wrote in his comment!
The fact that the ICE does not drive more than 300 km / h in Germany is not due to any residents who do not want higher speeds, but to the short distances between the metropolises, as mentioned in the video. In addition, there is no route in Germany where a speed higher than 300 km / h has ever been planned.
A route for the high-speed line from Berlin to Nuremberg bia Jena was planned. However, this plan had a huge disadvantage: By building the line via Erfurt, the line from Berlin to Frankfurt could be accelerated, too. That would never have been possible via the city of Jena. In addition, a travel time of 3 hours for Berlin to Munich via the alternative he mentioned was and is absolutely not possible. The ICE would have been only a few minutes faster via Jena than it is today. By combining it with the Berlin to Frankfurt route, the cost-effectiveness of the route via Erfurt is significantly better than with an alternative via Jena (which, by the way, has only half as many inhabitants as Erfurt!)
Yes, there were problems with the axes of the ICE3 trains. However, these could be remedied and operations on the Cologne-Frankfurt route were never interrupted as a result to this. Today the ICE4 can also run on this line.
A high-speed line from Frankfurt to Würzburg is NOT easy to bulid, as there are larger mountains in between. In addition, this route is now being planned with many new tunnels.
Many greetings and thank you very much for your videos!
Why are Hamburg and Berlin, the 2nd and the 1st German cities for population, connected by an upgraded line? It's not a matter of distance since they built the Frankfurt-Cologne or the Mannheim-Stuttgart at 300 kph, so why couldn't this pair of cities have its real HS line?
And why is Frankfurt-Berlin air route still so trafficked? Is the ICE so slow that it's better to fly within these cities that are closer than other similar pairs in Europe (Paris-Toulouse, Paris-Nice) and that don't have major obstacles (Rome-Palermo/Catania)? Why not to build a 300 kph line between Germany's capital and Germany's biggest financial center, it's not as if it wouldn't be packed with passengers
Just over a week ago, I travelled with an ICE 4 between Hamburg and Berlin. In the video it says the line allows speeds up to 200 km/h, the internet says 230, but after a bit of delay, and way to slow speeds, it accelerated to 250 km/h for about 20 minutes - Wonder how they were allowed to do so...
And btw, on my trip back, I travelled with an ICE3, which is, as you know, capable of 320 km/h - and we never went faster than 160 km/h, which was super annoying.
Can somebody explain this inconsistence?
Its because the line between Hamburg and Berlin is under construction, so that the Trains are driving another Route.
The whole Hamburg Berlin line was closed for 3 months ending on Dec 12., 2021 , the rerouting takes a piece of the Berlin Hannover line (250 km/h) runs than a “ rural” line 160kmh Stendal Uelzen until it meets in Uelzen the Hannover Hamburg line (200 km/h)
On the direct line the speed is 230 km/h and from Hamburg to Berlin Spandau it takes 1:30h
How did you measure the speed of the train?
@@remaks8405 It shows it on a screen in the train every now and then
Sadly the only place where ICE 3's (ICE 3 M to be precise) really express themselves is abroad, especially on the LGV East in France between Paris and Strasbourg where they run at 320km/h all the way and most of them nonstop.
By the way, one of the best locations to spot ICE 3's at full speed is in France at the "online" secondary station of Reims named "Reims - Champagne Ardennes TGV".
It's an online station, which means it's a station located ON the high-speed line (LGV), outside the city, that has extra parallel external tracks with platforms to slow and stop trains while the inner tracks allow through traffic to run at full speed.
Not to be confused with Reims main station in the city center called "Reims ville" that is linked to the high-speed line via a short branch of upgraded regular tracks.
Several "online" stations on the French network have blast walls, either opaque or see-through, separating or completely enclosing the through tracks in a tunnel but not this one, there's only a wider gap between external and inner tracks in open air.
So you can watch ICE 3's (the M variant) and TGV's run at full speed from a few meters away, standing on the platform.
That's a fun and intense experience !
In a single hour you can see a bunch of ICE's & TGV's rocketing through the station.
This is possible thanks to the "arterial model" used for the French network where every city is bypassed by the line either with a line's path completely avoiding city centers or by building dedicated high-speed bypasses like Paris and Lyon Eastern bypasses (which respectively serve CDG airport, Disneyland Paris and LYS airport, all "online" stations).
City centers are served by branches that connect to the HSL / LGV (or by local trains) or are located at the very end of the line.
That's the thing I've never understood while riding ICE 3's : why bother having such a train and not giving it the appropriate tracks to exploit it's full potential ?!
It's so frustrating !
Last 2 times I rode ICE's were very frustrating : it accelerated to 160, slowed down to 100, accelerated to 200, slowed to 80 then 60, stopped a minute (in the middle of nowhere), accelerated, slowed, stopped at a station, accelerated and on and on without ever running at full speed nor maintaining a higher speed (still not full speed) for any time longer than a few minutes.
And the other time was better, between Koln and Frankfurt, but we still ran a substantial part of the length at moderately high speed.
But the moment we entered the LGV East, I could feel the pilot's enjoyment, it was cruise speed all the way to Paris with a single full acceleration and barely any speed variation until the deceleration ramp off the Paris suburbs.
It's like 3/4th of the distance is done in less than half the time !
And what about comfort ? Thankfully the ICE seats are usually a bit better than TGV ones but the neverending change of pace and frequent stops prevent you from sleeping comfortably. As in my mind, slowing = approaching destination, so I'm constantly verifying where we are...
The tgv record was set at 574.8kmph not 482.4kmph and the date was wrong it was achieved at 3 April, 2007.
The first record was the ICE, then topped by TGV, then topped _again_ by TGV. Mind the dates!
@@hape3862 as well as somehere in-between bij E2 shinkansen on Jōetsu Shinkansen
ICE vs Shinkansen = 😂😂😂
Why so much delays at the latter part? Looks like the Green are probably involved. Ha ha ha.
What about all.of the parts of Germany where there is no rail? What do people do to get there?
That's the question for the German government.. :)
Germany 🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇩🇪
Why you deleted your video about Dutch railway?
Some germans here complain about delays and problems with Germany's high speed railways project(s)
Meanwhile we hungarians are happy, even when the train arrives 'only' 30 minutes late & can go faster than 60 km/h. XDD
A lot of Europeans, unfortunately, share the same feelings :D