Frankfurt–Mannheim high-speed railway
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The Frankfurt–Mannheim high-speed railway (''Neubaustrecke Rhein/Main–Rhein/Neckar'') is a planned German high-speed railway between
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
and
Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
. The approximately 95 kilometre-long line with a top speed of up to 300 km/h, would connect the existing Cologne–Frankfurt and Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed lines, carrying long-distance passenger traffic and freight that now passes over the
Mannheim–Frankfurt railway Mannheim–Frankfurt railway is a German standard gauge, electrified railway line and runs in southern Hesse and northern Baden-Württemberg between Frankfurt and Mannheim. It is also called the ''Riedbahn'' (Ried Railway). The line runs through ...
. It is also part of ''Axis No. 24'' (
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
/
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Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
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Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
) of the
Trans-European Networks The Trans-European Networks (TEN) were created by the European Union by Articles 154–156 of the Treaty of Rome (1957), with the stated goals of the creation of an internal market and the reinforcement of economic and social cohesion. To various ...
. The line is listed as an "urgent need" in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 (''Bundesverkehrswegeplan 2030''). The options to be implemented should be selected in 2019. The commissioning of the new line is planned for 2030, while the northern section (Zeppelinheim–Darmstadt) should go into operation in 2028 (as of 2018).


History

The
Rhine-Main The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: ''Rhein-Main-Gebiet'' or ''Frankfurt/Rhein-Main'', abbreviated FRM), is the second-largest metropolitan re ...
and the
Rhine-Neckar The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (german: Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, ), often referred to as Rhein-Neckar-Triangle, is a polycentric metropolitan region located in south western Germany, between the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region to the North ...
regions are two of the eleven
metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...
s in Germany. They are connected by three railway lines, the
Main-Neckar Railway The Main-Neckar Railway (german: Main-Neckar–Eisenbahn, MNE) is a main line railway west of the Odenwald in the Upper Rhine Plain of Germany that connects Frankfurt am Main to Heidelberg via Darmstadt, Bensheim and Weinheim. It was opened in 18 ...
, the
Mainz–Ludwigshafen railway The Mainz–Worms–Ludwigshafen Railway connects Mainz via Worms to Ludwigshafen in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. From there trains cross the Rhine via Mannheim or run south towards Speyer. It was opened in 1853 and is one of the old ...
and the
Mannheim–Frankfurt railway Mannheim–Frankfurt railway is a German standard gauge, electrified railway line and runs in southern Hesse and northern Baden-Württemberg between Frankfurt and Mannheim. It is also called the ''Riedbahn'' (Ried Railway). The line runs through ...
(''Riedbahn''). The Riedbahn, which has been heavily used for years, has been considered overloaded since the commissioning of the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed railway at the latest. Around 650 trains (as of 2007) run daily in the corridor between Mannheim and Frankfurt/Mainz; a further increase to about 900 train journeys per day was expected by 2015. In the late 1980s, the capacity of the old line was increased from 240 to 280 train movements per day. The long-distance, local and freight traffic causes regular delays on the double-track mixed traffic line. The line is in particular restrictive for long-distance traffic, as it includes the Biblis curve, which is limited to 90 km/h. In addition, there is an urgent need for additional local transport capacity to connect the densely populated area to the
Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn The Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn ''(S-Bahn RheinNeckar)'' forms the backbone of the urban rail transport network of the Rhine Neckar Area, including the cities of Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen. The S-Bahn operates over 437 km of route in the ...
. The traffic forecast drawn up as part of the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2003 predicted 32.8 million passenger journeys per year on the Frankfurt-Mannheim section and 17.0 million on the Mannheim–Stuttgart section in 2015. Freight traffic between Frankfurt and Mannheim would have then been 56.16 million tonnes per year, distributed over both lines.


Planning


1993–2004: Pre-planning up to the completion of the regional planning procedure

The project, which has been at the planning stage since 1993, was originally scheduled to go into operation in 2007. In the spring of 1998, Deutsche Bahn carried out an internal examination of the option of building a new line, instead of a then planned upgrade of the Riedbahn. An early draft in 1998 proposed a line from
Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
, going along the motorway as far as
Weiterstadt Weiterstadt () is a town in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated directly northwest of Darmstadt. Twin towns – sister cities Weiterstadt is twinned with: * Bagno a Ripoli, Italy * Kiens, Italy * Verneuil-sur-Seine ...
. From there, the line would run to Hauptbahnhof Darmstadt and then rejoin the motorway in the south of the Darmstadt urban area. As part of the South Hesse Integrated Planning (''Integrierten Planung Südhessen''), operational investigations were carried out to increase capacity between Frankfurt and Mannheim from 1997 to 1999. The trigger for this was the new Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed railway opened in 2002, which was expected to result in additional traffic as well as the expected expansion of regional services. It showed that a four-track upgrade of the existing lines would not be possible. As a result, further investigations assumed the construction of a new line. The preliminary planning for the new line started at the end of 1998 or the beginning of 1999. In May 1999, DB commissioned an accounting firm to reassess the project. In addition, the Mottgers link,
Frankfurt 21 Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
and
Stuttgart 21 Stuttgart 21 is a railway and urban development project in Stuttgart, Germany. It is a part of the Stuttgart–Augsburg new and upgraded railway and the Main Line for Europe (Paris—Vienna) within the framework of the Trans-European Networks. ...
were part of the package analysed. It was one of two new construction projects listed in DB's Network 21 (''Netz 21'') strategy adopted in 1999. At the beginning of 2000, Deutsche Bahn announced plans for the new line to bypass Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. The line would therefore pass about five kilometres east of the city and would connect at
Schwetzingen Schwetzingen (; pfl, Schwetzinge) is a German town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, around southwest of Heidelberg and southeast of Mannheim. Schwetzingen is one of the five biggest cities of the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district and a medium-sized ...
with the high-speed line to Stuttgart. Mannheim would be connected via a junction in the area of the Viernheim triangle autobahn interchange. The original approval documents, which provided for a connection to Mannheim, were withdrawn, and the regional planning procedure was stopped at the end of February 2000. The DB justified this step with problems with the connection with Mannheim and at first took no further position. In March 2000, Deutsche Bahn CEO
Hartmut Mehdorn Hartmut Mehdorn (born 31 July 1942 in Warsaw) is a German manager and mechanical engineer. Until May 2009 he served as CEO of Deutsche Bahn AG, Germany's biggest railway company. He served as CEO of Germany's second largest airline Air Berlin un ...
, announced that after the completion of the new line, no fewer trains than at present would stop at Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. The CEO described the ensuing dispute over the connection to Mannheim as bordering on "hysteria" in May 2000. Deutsche Bahn presented two possible routes, including one running through Mannheim Hauptbahnhof, to the Karlsruhe regional administration as part of a first scoping stage on 30 October 2000. After this first discussion, the regional planning procedure could be initiated. As part of the preliminary design, numerous options were examined. In early 2002, the board of Deutsche Bahn decided to initiate the regional planning procedure for the new line with an option following autobahns 5, 67 and 6. This option has proved to be the cheapest; it would enable the highest traffic growth and would be the most environmentally and economically viable option. The 75 kilometre route would allow the journey time between Frankfurt and Stuttgart to be reduced from 79 to 60 minutes. At the same time, improvements would be made to regional transport operations on the existing route. For the Mannheim area, alternatives with a bypass of Mannheim (option A) and with an additional bypass (option B) were introduced. DB did not include a station on the bypass. On 18 April 2002, representatives of Deutsche Bahn confirmed that the company was continuing with its application for the implementation of the regional planning procedure (''Raumordnungsverfahren''). In 2002 it was still expected that planning approval would be given in 2004 and it would be opened at the end of 2008. Due to a lack of funding, a pause in the development of the €1.9 billion project was planned after the completion of the regional planning procedure at the end of 2004. According to a media report, the estimated expenditure of €16.5 million, which would have been necessary for a continuation of the plans, could not be funded. By then, about €30 million had been invested in the project. The regional planning procedure was carried out from 1999 to 2004 and the planning approval procedures were to run from 2007 to 2011. The
Regierungsbezirk A ' () means "governmental district" and is a type of administrative division in Germany. Four of sixteen ' ( states of Germany) are split into '. Beneath these are rural and urban districts. Saxony has ' (directorate districts) with more res ...
s (district governments) of
Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
and
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
are in charge of the consultation process. The regional planning procedure for the southern section ended on 18 May 2004 with the handover of the spatial planning assessment for the Baden-Württemberg section of the route. In particular, it was unclear whether the bypass of Hauptbahnhof Mannheim (bypass solution) could be achieved; in this solution, some freight and long-distance trains would bypass Mannheim without stopping. The massive protests from the region as well as the states of
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
,
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
and the
Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...
resulted in the project development lasting for years.


2004–2016: continuing unresolved planning and political conflict

An agreement was reached on the route for the connection to Darmstadt at the end of January 2007 and the planned route in Hesse was presented at the beginning of May of the same year. Deutsche Bahn called Europe-wide tenders for the carrying out of environmental planning support planning at the end of April 2007. This was required to last at least one
growing season A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and the amount of daylight. The growing season is that portion of the year in which local conditions (i.e. rainfall, temperature, daylight) permit normal plant growth. Whil ...
and was a prerequisite for the initiation of the zoning procedure. It was planned to record the occurrence of more than 500 animal and plant species on an area of 20,000 hectares in a corridor up to 1000 metre-wide along the planned route. Further investigation was required on sections of the route that passed through
Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...
areas. The data was to be used to draw up a landscape management plan, which would define ecological compensatory measures for land consumed. The detailed technical planning was to be awarded in August. This would include the detailed routing. A working group on the Baden-Württemberg section of new line, initiated by minister president
Günther Oettinger Günther Hermann Oettinger (born 15 October 1953) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources from 2017 to 2019, as European Commissioner for Digita ...
, was due to commence operations at the beginning of September 2007. The minister president and the cabinet spoke in favour of a connection to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof and against a bypass. At a hearing with the Federal Railway Authority to prepare the environmental impact assessment of the southern sector, representatives from the region around Mannheim also reaffirmed their rejection of a bypass of Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. In mid-September 2007, Deutsche Bahn AG awarded a contract for the technical planning. The contract, which would also determine the exact route, had a value of €7.5 million. Among other things, noise protection and train control and safety systems would be planned in detail within this framework. As late as 2007, large-scale construction was planned to begin in 2011 with the project to become operational in 2017. The section of new line between Neu-Isenburg-Zeppelinheim and Mannheim-Waldhof and Mannheim-Pfingstberg would be 77 kilometres-long. The existing, double-track railway between Frankfurt-Stadion and Neu-Isenburg-Zeppelinheim (five km) would be increased to four tracks. About eight km of the high-speed line would run through twelve tunnels. The project would involve a total of about 100 road and 30 railway bridges. Over a length of about 19 km the line was to run in "trough structures" (that is with support walls and a solid base), with a length of about seven km in tunnels (all data: as of June 2007). In 2009, it was planned to start the first preparatory measures for the new line as of 2011 and a financing agreement was concluded to that effect. Construction would take six years according to plans from 2007. The railway was expected to have a construction cost of about €2 billion in 2007. In February 2008, DB AG called Europe-wide tenders for the preliminary design and approval planning. In December 2008, Deutsche Bahn AG initiated the planning approval for a 13 km-long section between Frankfurt Stadion station and the municipal limits of Mörfelden and
Erzhausen Erzhausen is a village and a municipality in southern Hesse, Germany. It is part of the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg. It has about 7,900 inhabitants (2020). Wixhausen, a borough of the City of Darmstadt, is just South of Erzhausen. History Se ...
. This section included an upgrade of the existing Riedbahn to four tracks and the construction of an island platform in Zeppelinheim station. The section was discussed at a public hearing and published in 2009. Deutsche Bahn expected in July 2010 that the planning approval decision would be made at the beginning of 2011. After some changes to the plan, the planning documents for the section were rewritten in September 2010. At the end of July 2017, this planning approval procedure was terminated at the request of DB Netz AG. As of mid-2010, the planning approval procedure for the eleven-kilometre section between
Gernsheim Gernsheim () is a town in Groß-Gerau (district), Groß-Gerau district and Darmstadt (region), Darmstadt region in Hesse, Germany, lying on the Rhine. Geography Location The ''Schöfferstadt Gernsheim'', as Gernsheim may officially call itself ...
and Einhausen was due to begin in late 2010/early 2011. The planning approval procedure for the 22 km-long section between Darmstadt and Mannheim was to commence in the first half of 2011. In the course of the review of the federal railway needs plan, which was presented in 2010, the federal government indicated that it considered that there was still room for improvement with regard to the project layout. The cost-benefit ratio was estimated in the report at 1.2 (benefits of €2.212 billion compared to costs of €1.683 billion) and was thus just above the minimum for an economically worthwhile project. Furthermore, the report notes that not all capacity constraints in the Rhine-Main/Rhine-Neckar area would be eliminated by the new line. Above all, the section between Darmstadt Hbf and Mannheim-Friedrichsfeld was expected to remain a bottleneck with a capacity utilisation of more than 110%. In January 2011, Deutsche Bahn, according to its own information, was still in the process of testing the developed route on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Transport. The examination process would be completed in autumn 2011. On 15 March 2012, the Ministry of Transport presented the 2011–2015 investment framework for federal transport infrastructure (''Investitionsrahmenplan 2011–2015 für die Verkehrsinfrastruktur des Bundes''). The new line was listed in it under "other important projects that generally start after 2015". In early 2012, the Federal Ministry of Transport commissioned a study to develop an overall transport concept for the railway corridor and to submit proposals for development measures. The first results showed that a new line between Frankfurt and Mannheim was still indispensable. The planning of the new line should therefore be further developed with a view to increasing capacity and additional freight traffic. The final results of the study were expected in mid-2013. Deutsche Bahn then wanted to initiate the optimisation of the planning at short notice. The submission of the full report was expected in mid-2014 to occur in autumn 2014. The reviewers recommended in March 2015 that the best solution would be a new line parallel to the A 5 and A 67 motorways. The revision of the planning was also foreseen in consultation processes. On 21 July 2014, the commissioned company, Intraplan, presented the first results of the ''Korridorstudie Mittelrhein'' (Middle Rhine corridor study). The study recommended a mixed traffic route along the A 5 and A 67 motorways. The line would be used by faster passenger traffic during the day and by freight traffic at night. There would be different options for the integration of the line into Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. The full opinion was originally expected to be presented in autumn 2014, followed by a public consultation phase before a decision was taken on the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 (''Bundesverkehrswegeplan 2030'') by mid-2015. It was then planned that the results would be available by the end of 2014 (as of November 2014). The initiation of the first planning approval procedure was planned for 2017 (as of January 2016). The line was due to be opened in 2015.


From 2016: Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 and resumption of planning

A public consultation phase took place during 2015 in preparation for the determination of the 2030 Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan. The state of Baden-Württemberg listed the project, with full integration of Mannheim Hauptbahnhof, in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2015 (later renamed the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030). The investment of €220 million was planned in Baden-Württemberg. The "NBS Rhein/Main – Rhein/Neckar" project was listed in the "draft proposals" in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2015 of 5 May 2014 on the "(Frankfurt am Main Stadion –) Zeppelinheim – Mannheim-Waldhof" route with a top speed of 300 km/h. The Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 was adopted by the Federal Cabinet on 3 August 2016. Deutsche Bahn and the ministries of transport of Hesse and Baden-Württemberg presented a roadmap for future planning at the Technical University of Darmstadt on 30 September 2016. According to the ''Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung'', the interest in this event was "enormous". Representatives of more than 20 citizens' initiative movements fighting against noise between
Hockenheim Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" () and Bertha Benz M ...
and the Hessian mountain road were present. In particular, the route in the Lorsch–Viernheim–Mannheim triangle was still very controversial. Mannheim mayor Peter Kurz had decided to oppose an above-ground route in the Mannheim urban area. Five new working groups of the planning process (inter alia "Traffic concept" and "Darmstadt and surroundings route") began their work in the first quarter of 2017. Working Group 2 on "Transport concept" met in Lampertheim on 26 February 2018. In addition to the concept favoured by Deutsche Bahn of a double-track new line used during the day by long-distance passenger trains and at night by freight trains, three other concepts were discussed: # a new line as a pure freight line, # a new line for mixed traffic during the day including an overtaking loop, # a four-track new line. In May 2018, Deutsche Bahn continued to favour a new double-track line that would be used during the day for long-distance traffic and at night for freight traffic. The citizens' initiative BI NOBL strongly supported a new line with four tracks. In the middle of 2018, the planning approval procedure for the Zeppelinheim–Darmstadt section was planned to be completed in the same year, with the commissioning to take place in 2028. At the end of 2018, the route option was scheduled to be selected in 2019 and the planning approval process would then be initiated for the Zeppelinheim–Darmstadt section. In the middle of 2018, it was planned to complete the preliminary planning for the Darmstadt area (planning approval section 2) in mid-2019 and to initiate the planning approval procedure in 2022. For the Pfungstadt–Lorsch section (PFA 3 and 4), the technical planning of the new line (together with an upgrade of the A 67 motorway to 6 lanes) was to be updated by the end of 2018 and the planning approval procedure was to be initiated in 2019. For the Lorsch–Mannheim section (PFA 5 and 6), the alignment was still pending with the selection of the route expected to take place at the beginning of 2019 and the planning approval documents to be submitted in 2022.


Impact

After the commissioning of the new line, the capacity of the existing line would be sufficient to allow the increase of services on the S-Bahn line 7 to
Groß-Gerau Groß-Gerau () is the district seat of the Groß-Gerau district, lying in the southern Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region in Hesse, Germany, and serving as a hub for the surrounding area. In 1994, the town hosted the 34th Hessentag state festival. Geogra ...
from every half-hour to every quarter of an hour and to connect with the planned Terminal 3 of
Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
. Operation of the first stage of the new terminal is scheduled to begin in 2021. A regional service designated as the ''Hessenexpress'' would connect Wiesbaden (via the Wallau link) with Frankfurt airport. An extension via Darmstadt to Mannheim is under consideration. The line is to pass under or over the A3. This could be done as part of a planned upgrade of the Wiesbaden motorway junction. The planning approval procedure is to be initiated in 2020. The Hessenexpress is to operate from 2025. After the scheduled start of operations on the northern section (Zeppelinheim–Darmstadt) of the new line in 2028, the service would be extended to Darmstadt. The first German clock-face timetable concept presented in October 2018 envisages two and a half trains per hour and direction on the line between the two main stations, a travel time of 29 minutes with 300 km/h high-speed trains and a travel time of 31 minutes with 250 km/h high-speed trains. Between Frankfurt Airport and Mannheim there would be a half-hourly service with 250 or 300 km/h fast trains with a travel time of 26 and 27 minutes, respectively. The second draft report submitted in May 2019 provides for three train pairs per hour.


Planned route

Two options were investigated in
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
and five in
Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
during the regional planning procedure. The route is considered highly controversial. While a consensus was found for the northern section of the line in Hesse (56 km) at the beginning of 2007, negotiations on the southern section in Baden-Württemberg (29 km) continue.


Hesse

The route would run between
Frankfurt Stadion station Frankfurt am Main Stadion station (german: Bahnhof Frankfurt am Main Stadion) is a junction railway station in Frankfurt, Germany. Stadion station is close to Frankfurt's main football stadium, the Commerzbank-Arena. Prior to 1937 it was called ...
and Neu-Isenburg-Zeppelinheim parallel to the old line. The project includes the construction of a third stage of Frankfurt Stadion station. The five routes investigated in the northern section (Hesse) were: * ''Option I'': a direct route between Mannheim and Frankfurt without intermediate stops. Deutsche Bahn emphasised that even if this option was implemented, Darmstadt would remain connected to the long-distance network via the
Main-Neckar Railway The Main-Neckar Railway (german: Main-Neckar–Eisenbahn, MNE) is a main line railway west of the Odenwald in the Upper Rhine Plain of Germany that connects Frankfurt am Main to Heidelberg via Darmstadt, Bensheim and Weinheim. It was opened in 18 ...
. The cost of this option, including the quadruplication between Frankfurt-Stadion and Zeppelinheim, was estimated at €1.2 billion in 2004 values. * ''Option II'': a similar route to option I, but with a newly built long-distance station called ''Darmstadt West'' in the Siedlung Tann area. The estimated additional costs compared to option I in 2009 was €100 million (in 2009 values). * ''Options III/IV'': a route through the city of Darmstadt and the Hauptbahnhof. The estimated additional cost of option III compared to option I in 2001 was €135 million (as of the regional planning procedure in 2001). In this option, noise protection measures were recommended over a length of about 8.2 km. The number of people affected by new construction noise was specified in the regional planning procedure to be 79,740. The estimated additional costs of option IV compared to option I in 2004 amounted to €300 million. Noise protection measures with a length of 9.9 km were recommended for this option; the number of people affected by new construction noise was stated as 120,300 in the regional planning procedure. * ''Option V'': the connection of Darmstädt Hauptbahnhof by means of a double track connection to the new line. In the context of the preparation of the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2003, this option was assigned the greatest economic benefits. Another advantage is that the nighttime freight traffic in this solution would bypass Darmstadt. The number of long-distance trains corresponds to those of options III/IV. Due to the greater length of the track, the
land consumption Land consumption as part of human resource consumption is the conversion of land with healthy soil and intact habitats into areas for industrial agriculture, traffic (road building) and especially urban human settlements. More formally, the EEA ...
of options III and IV is greater than that of options I and II. For options I and II, soundproofing measures of just 6.3 km in length were recommended as part of a noise analysis; the number of citizens affected was stated in the regional planning procedure at 65,940. Furthermore, option II with a long-distance Darmstadt West station would have greater economic returns than options III and IV, which would entail high expenditures for engineering structures and soundproofing measures. Deutsche Bahn originally favoured option I, while the Hessian state government and the affected districts favoured options III/IV. In all options, the rest of the route runs next to motorways for its whole length. At a press conference on 2 February 2007 in
Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
, the DB CEO
Hartmut Mehdorn Hartmut Mehdorn (born 31 July 1942 in Warsaw) is a German manager and mechanical engineer. Until May 2009 he served as CEO of Deutsche Bahn AG, Germany's biggest railway company. He served as CEO of Germany's second largest airline Air Berlin un ...
, the Hessian Minister of Economics Alois Rhiel, Darmstadt Lord Mayor Walter Hoffmann and district council leaders Alfred Jakoubek (
Darmstadt-Dieburg Darmstadt-Dieburg is a Kreis (Districts of Germany, district) in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Offenbach (district), Offenbach, Aschaffenburg (district), Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg (district), Miltenberg, Odenwaldkreis, Berg ...
) and Matthias Wilkes ( Bergstraße) for the Hessian part of the route called for the so-called ''consensus'' or ''bundled'' route. This starts after the existing underground connection with the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed railway south of the
Frankfurter Kreuz The Frankfurter Kreuz (''Frankfurt Junction'') is an Autobahn interchange in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where the autobahns A3 and A5 meet. The interchange was originally to be built from 1931 to 1933, but due to World War II construction was ...
and runs on the eastern side parallel to the A5. After Darmstädter Kreuz (Darmstadt motorway interchange), the line follows the A 67 and crosses the motorway at
Lorsch Lorsch is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hessen, Germany, 60 km south of Frankfurt. Lorsch is well known for the Lorsch Abbey, which has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Geography Location Lorsch lies about 5 km wes ...
to continue on the western side of the motorway. According to Deutsche Bahn information, the city of Darmstadt would be relieved of over 210 daily trains, including up to 40 freight trains at night. Deutsche Bahn tested a route along the A 5 and analysed it for environmental noise. Since the option favoured by Deutsche Bahn along the A 67 was also compatible with land use planning, the route was considered to commit "no breach of law". The
Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (; BUND, ) is a German non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to preserving nature and protecting the environment. The name means "German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation". ...
criticised the route for touching several flora and fauna habitats and bird reserves. In an interview on 15 September 2006, Oliver Kraft,
DB Netz DB Netz AG is a major subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn that owns and operates a majority of the German railway system (2019: 33,291 km). It is one of the largest railway infrastructure manager by length and transport volume of its network. The ...
's board member responsible for investments, threatened to suspend planning at the end of 2006 if Darmstadt and Mannheim continued to insist on all trains stopping in these cities. At the same time, he offered to support a connection to Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof. In April 2008, district administrator Matthias Wilkes of Bergstraße presented a feasibility study, according to which a tunnel through the
Hessian Ried The Hessian Ried (german: Hessische Ried) is a low-lying, agricultural region that forms part of the northeastern area of the Upper Rhine Plain. It is situated in South Hesse in west central Germany. Location and description The Hessian Ried lie ...
was cheaper than the ground-level route favoured by DB. The study also emphasised the fact that such a tunnel would reduce noise pollution and would not disrupt the
Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...
site. The Bergstraße district supported a route for the new line to the west of the A 67 from 2008. In March 2019, around 2,000 people demonstrated against a route in the southern Hessian town of
Lampertheim Lampertheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. In 1984, the town hosted the 24th ''Hessentag'' state festival. Geography Location Lampertheim lies in the southwest corner of Hesse in the Rhine rift at the Biedensand Conser ...
that would turn off directly south of Lorsch towards Mannheim and run firstly through the Lampertheim forest. The protesters feared that high-quality arable land would be destroyed and that it would cut through a game-rich forest. This route option was added to Deutsche Bahn planning as option "Mannheim Direct" or "option E" in November 2019.


Darmstadt Bypass

The bypass of
Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in the German city Darmstadt. After Frankfurt Hbf and Wiesbaden Hbf, it is the third largest station in the state of Hesse with 35,000 passengers and 220 trains per day. Built in a late art no ...
was also controversial. This option was originally rejected in the regional planning procedure. Both a bypass of Darmstadt and a direct connection to Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof without a bypass had been discussed. However, a direct connection would not only have been the most expensive option, it would also have caused the greatest environmental impact. According to DB information, however, the land used would be comparatively low for the planned option. Introduced in February 2007, the ''consensus route'' (''Konsenstrasse'') was intended to run from the high-speed line into Darmstadt and connect Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof via a single-track loop to the new line. This line would branch off between Weiterstadt-Riedbahn and the Täubcheshöhle nature reserve towards the Hauptbahnhof and reconnect in the area of
Kelley Barracks Kelley Barracks (formerly ''Helenen-Kaserne'') is a U.S. military installation and headquarters of United States Africa Command, and is a part of US Army Garrison Stuttgart in Stuttgart-Möhringen in Germany. The post is administered by IMCOM- Eu ...
(near
Pfungstadt Pfungstadt is a town of 25,029 inhabitants (2020), in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in the state of Hesse, Germany. History The town was first mentioned in 785 as property of the Monastery of Lorsch and got its town rights in 1886 due to its ...
) south of the Darmstadt interchange. The southern entry and exit is to be operated at up to 200 km/h and the northern at up to 160 km/h. In this option, the majority of the long-distance trains that currently run over the Riedbahn would bypass Darmstadt. In addition, Deutsche Bahn has contractually agreed that at least one ICE service per hour and direction would stop in Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof. The 13 km-long connection from Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof was considered structurally complicated, as several major roads and land formerly used by the
US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
and areas protected under
Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...
have to be crossed. Compared to ''option V'', the number of tracks has been reduced from two to one. Residents of areas next to the link feared additional noise and called for the construction of a station on the new line outside the centre of Darmstadt. At the end of March 2009, the mayor of Darmstadt surprisingly announced that he could no longer pursue the bypass option, which would cost up to €112 million, and instead opted for a long-distance station on the new line. Such a station would probably have had to be underground. According to DB information such a station would have been served by more ICE services than the Hauptbahnhof if served by a connection. This option would also have the lowest impact on the environment. According to DB information, such an external station was investigated at the request of the city of Darmstadt. Since only the connection to Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof is part of the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan, such a long-distance station would have to be financed from Deutsche Bahn's own funds. According to recent calculations, the solution favoured by the city of Darmstadt along ''Eschollbrücker Straße'' would have cost €103 million built in a trough structure or €112 million in a tunnel. A ground-level option was calculated to cost €67.6 million. In mid-January 2010, Deutsche Bahn submitted a report in which a Darmstadt West long-distance station (''Fernbahnhof'') was considered feasible and useful. Accordingly, the travel time between the proposed long-distance station and the Hauptbahnhof by tram would have been 20 minutes under ideal conditions. At the end of August 2010, the city's Transport and Environment Committees drew up a proposal to connect Darmstadt with the new line only to the north, which would support a shuttle service to Frankfurt Airport. Darmstadt City Council finally also called for a full connection to the Hauptbahnhof at the direction of the new Darmstadt Mayor Jürgen Partsch. A "North connection of Darmstadt Hbf to the new line" was included in the "draft of project proposals" for the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2015 of 5 May 2014. According to this draft, a "rail connection from Terminal 3 of Frankfurt Airport" is also planned. The Middle Rhine Corridor Study (''Korridorstudie Mittelrhein''), which was submitted in March 2015, proposed various options for connecting Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof. Such connections were not economically justifiable just to enable ICE stops, since the advantages for passengers entering and exiting at Darmstadt would be outweighed by disadvantages for passengers passing through Darmstadt. A northern connection to the Hauptbahnhof could be justified with fast regional trains to Frankfurt Airport, which could cover the route in 13 minutes. A southern connection would be economical if it were used by freight trains and avoided a planned connecting curve for freight trains at Weiterstadt. At the beginning of January 2016, talks about the Darmstadt connection were well advanced according to the Hessian Minister of Transport
Tarek Al-Wazir Tarek Mohammed Al-Wazir ( ar, طارق محمد الوزير; born 3 January 1971) is a politician in the German Green Party. Since January 2014 he has been deputy to the Hessian Minister-President, and Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, T ...
, although the exact routing had not been determined. The German clock-face timetable concept presented in October 2018 assumes a southern connection between Darmstadt and the new line.


Baden-Württemberg

Three options are being discussed for the route in Baden-Württemberg and nearby Hesse—the route between Lorsch and Mannheim runs largely through Hessian territory: * Under ''Option A'', the line would take a 90-degree curve to the west at the end of the A 67 before running along the A 6. The route then makes another 90-degree curve to the south and connects to the
Mannheim–Frankfurt railway Mannheim–Frankfurt railway is a German standard gauge, electrified railway line and runs in southern Hesse and northern Baden-Württemberg between Frankfurt and Mannheim. It is also called the ''Riedbahn'' (Ried Railway). The line runs through ...
at a junction in
Sandhofen Sandhofen is a northern borough ('' Stadtbezirk'') of Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The US Army is present in Sandhofen with Coleman Airfield Coleman Barracks/Coleman Army Airfield (ICAO: ETOR) is a United States Army military insta ...
. * Under ''Option B'' (bypass of Mannheim), the line would run south from the
Viernheim Viernheim is a midsize industrial town on Mannheim's outskirts and is found in the Rhine Neckar agglomeration and economic area. It is the second biggest town in Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. Since 1994 it has also borne the title '' Br ...
triangle interchange along the A 6 and change to the east side of the motorway north of Wallstadt. The line would then cross the
Neckar The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Schwenn ...
, the A 656 and the Mannheim marshalling yard. The line would connect with the
Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railway The Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railway is a 99 km long railway line in Germany, connecting the cities of Mannheim and Stuttgart. The line was officially opened on 9 May 1991, and InterCityExpress service began on 2 June. The Hanover–W ...
in the Pfingstberg tunnel. * Lothar Mark, a federal member of parliament, put forward ''Option C'' (also called the ''Mark Option'' and called the ''Mannheim direct'' option by DB) which would involve a route running from Lorsch diagonally through the forest. This option was favoured by Deutsche Bahn in March 2009. In the regional planning decision of May 2004, the regional council of Karlsruhe rejected option B, which was preferred by DB. Deutsche Bahn objected that only the concerns of the region had been taken into account, while the transport policy goals of the new project went far beyond the region. As recently as September 2007, it was planned to initiate the planning approval procedures for the southern section of the Hessian line by the end of 2008. At the end of November 2009, the ICE corridor through the Bergsträße district (''ICE-Trassenführung auf Bergsträßer Gemarkungen'') working group (which included the affected Bergstraße district, community groups and conservation organisations) stated that a majority wanted the new line to run west of the A 67 motorway. This decision was supported by a new legal opinion, according to which ''Option C'' required a completely new regional planning procedure. The nature conservation associations BUND and NABU represented in the working group did not support either options A or C. They preferred the longest possible underground route and opposed the removal of EU protected status from areas that would obstruct a desired route. In November 2010, environmental associations from Hesse and Baden-Württemberg for the first time jointly advocated route option C as the more environmentally friendly option. In contrast to option A, it would be possible to avoid forest fragmentation with a cut-and-cover tunnel. The Hessian Minister of Transport Dieter Posch, however, declined, to support the "Mannheim direct" option in March 2011. In May 2012, DB director Grube called for the line to be bundled with motorways A 67 and A 6 so that no forest areas would be cut.


Mannheim Bypass

As part of the regional planning procedure in the southern section a connection to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (so-called ''Option A'') was examined as well as a bypass of the Hauptbahnhof, including a link to it (called the "bypass option" or ''Option B''). Deutsche Bahn favours the bypass of Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (with double track connections to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof at Mannheim-Waldhof and
Hockenheim Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" () and Bertha Benz M ...
), but many interest groups in the Rhine/Neckar region reject it. The region is the seventh largest German conurbation with about 2.3 million inhabitants. Deutsche Bahn sees an advantage of the bypass in that it would largely avoid noise pollution caused by freight traffic in the urban area. Both the
Main-Neckar Railway The Main-Neckar Railway (german: Main-Neckar–Eisenbahn, MNE) is a main line railway west of the Odenwald in the Upper Rhine Plain of Germany that connects Frankfurt am Main to Heidelberg via Darmstadt, Bensheim and Weinheim. It was opened in 18 ...
and the old east branch of the Riedbahn, if it was reactivated by DB, would be available for goods traffic. Deutsche Bahn began rebuilding the east branch of the Riedbahn in November 2007. With additional costs of €435 million, the bypass option would have greater traffic utilisation and greater economic benefits than option A. Deutsche Bahn also emphasised its intention to have the same number of long-distance trains stopping in Mannheim for both options (as of 2003). The invitation to tender for the design and approval planning of February 2008 specified a bypass of Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. The
Landtag of Baden-Württemberg The Landtag of Baden-Württemberg is the diet (assembly), diet of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It convenes in Stuttgart and currently consists of 154 members of five political parties. The majority before the 2021 Baden-Württemberg ...
unanimously rejected the bypass of Mannheim on 19 June 2002. In the framework of the regional planning procedure, the Karlsruhe Regional Council classified option A (no bypass) as compatible with spatial planning, while the bypass solution (option B) was classified as non-compatible with spatial planning. The bypass solution would allow a journey time of 53 minutes between Frankfurt and Stuttgart (compared to 70 minutes previously). This would allow a system time of one hour, which would be favourable for a clock-face timetable. In conjunction with the planned Stuttgart–Augsburg new and upgraded railway the travel time for long-distance traffic between Frankfurt am Main and
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
would be reduced from today's minimum of 3 to as little as 2 hours in the future. The main disadvantage of this option lies in the bypass of Mannheim Hauptbahnhof, a long-distance traffic node, by some of the trains running between Stuttgart and Frankfurt. A possible compromise provides for the construction of the bypass option, with an hourly ICE service between Frankfurt and Stuttgart that would pass Mannheim, but with other long-distance trains running via Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. In addition, a stop at a new ICE station to be constructed on the bypass route between Mannheim and Heidelberg (near Seckenheim) is being considered. The federal government saw (as of 2007) no need for a bypass option and therefore excluded its financing from federal funds. According to the ''Regionalforums ICE-Knoten Rhein-Neckar'' (Rhine-Neckar ICE node regional forum) the region and Deutsche Bahn agreed that Mannheim Hauptbahnhof would be able to handle the additional traffic that would use the new line. At the beginning of October 2007, Deutsche Bahn announced a competition to design three bridges near Mannheim worth €228,000. Accordingly, the construction of a 100 m-long bridge over the Mannheim motorway interchange, a 300 m-long bridge over the Mannheim marshalling yard and a 400 m long bridge over the Neckar were planned. In November 2007, Deutsche Bahn cancelled the tender for bridge construction due to the sensitive political situation in the Mannheim area.


Technology

For train protection the track should be equipped with ETCS Level 2 ( Baseline 3) without conventional
colour light signals A railway signal is a visual display device that conveys instructions or provides warning of instructions regarding the driver’s authority to proceed. The driver interprets the signal's indication and acts accordingly. Typically, a signal mi ...
.


Cost

The ''Investment framework plan for Federal Transport Infrastructure by 2010'' provided for investments of €1,316.3 million for the project (2006 prices). By 2005, a total of €20.7 million had been spent. Federal funds amounting to €17.0 million were to be invested between 2006 and 2010. In addition to this period, there was a financing requirement of €1,278.6 million (federal funds from 2011, DB AG's own funds and third-party contributions from 2006). The project is listed in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2003 as "new project" no. 13; the planned investment costs, including the connection to the Mannheim-Stuttgart line and a reserve for planning, amounted to €1,771.4 million. Due to the delay in construction, the European Commission reduced the funding for the project by €12 million at the end of 2010.


References


Footnotes


Sources

*


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frankfurt-Mannheim high-speed railway Proposed railway lines in Germany High-speed railway lines in Germany Railway lines in Hesse Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg