Mannheim–Stuttgart High-speed Railway
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The Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railway is a long railway line in
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, connecting the cities of
Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...
and
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
. The line was officially opened on 9 May 1991, and
Intercity-Express Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE () and running under this Train categories in Europe, category) is a high-speed rail in Germany, high-speed rail system in Germany. It also serves destinations in Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland an ...
service began on 2 June. The
Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway The Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway is a double-track, electrified high-speed railway between Hanover and Würzburg in Germany, in length. The line, built between 1973 and 1991, was the longest contiguous new project constructed by Deuts ...
also opened at the same time. The line cost about DM 4.5 billion to build and has 15 tunnels and more than 90 bridges.


Planning

Planning for a new line between Mannheim and Stuttgart (the two largest cities of
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, 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 i ...
) began in 1970. The railway lines that it replaced followed the terrain and followed rivers and valleys, resulting in steep gradients and sharp curves and thus not suitable for high-speed trains. The 1973 federal transport plan incorporated the following minimum requirements for mixed traffic to accommodate heavy, slow goods trains and light fast passenger trains: *maximum grade of 1.25% (occasionally 2.0%) *curves with small superelevation and minimum radii of *maximum line speed of *average construction costs of 30 to 50 million DM per kilometre *point-to-point connections between two railway junctions. To fulfill these requirements, it was necessary to build a large number of structures such as bridges and tunnels. In addition, a new technology had to be pursued: the Forst Tunnel is under the
water table The water table is the upper surface of the phreatic zone or zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with groundwater, which may be fresh, saline, or brackish, depending on the loc ...
for its entire length and required a new water-diverting technology. The Freudenstein Tunnel is through the porous rock strata, which flows as a result of heavy rains on the hillsides above it. That geological feature required expensive safeguards, which were used for the first time. A first planning statement for the Mannheim-Stuttgart route was published in 1974. The Federal Ministry of Transport issued the building permit in 1975, and construction commenced in 1976. More than 6,000 objections led to some route changes during the construction. The construction of some sections was at times completely halted. In seven places the protests of the nearby residents led to the building of cut and cover tunnels. The longest tunnel of this kind was the Pfingstberg tunnel, which leads through a forest, a declared water protection zone, near Mannheim- Rheinau. The route has a (comparatively low) maximum gradient of 12.5 per thousand with curves having a normal radius of and a minimum radius of . Rises are limited to a maximum of . The design speed for ICE trains is and in places limited to . Cross-overs were provided for the planned operations mixing passenger and goods trains and for maintenance operations every five to seven kilometres. Planning for the entire route was not resolved until 1985.


Construction

The first section was completed on 31 May 1987 between the junction with the Rhine Railway in Mannheim and Graben-Neudorf.Eisenbahn-Journal Extra 1/2007, ''Die DB in den 80ern'', S. 28; The last section to be completed was the second tube of the Freudenstein Tunnel, which was completed a few months before the opening of the entire line.Meldung ''Rohbauarbeiten am Freudensteintunnel beendet''. In: ''Die Bundesbahn'', Ausgabe 8 1990, S. 823 The commercial service commenced in 1991. Before the commencement of passenger operations two thousand training runs were undertaken to familiarise drivers with the technical characteristics of driving on high-speed lines, such as in-cab signalling and preventing the application of the emergency brakes.Konrad-H. Naue, Bringfried Belter: ''Endspurt für die Neubaustrecken Hannover–Würzburg und Mannheim-Stuttgart''. In: ''Die Bundesbahn'', Jahrgang 1990, Heft 10, S. 937–940


Operations

The Mannheim-Stuttgart line was opened for commercial operations on 9 May 1991, and the first ICE operation on this route started on 2 June. The maximum speed was initially with permitted to overcome delays. The maximum speed is currently regardless of delays or not. The opening of the line reduced the travel time from Mannheim to Stuttgart from 90 to 44 minutes in 1991. By 2007, the travel time was reduced further to 35–38 minutes. Since its opening, the various ICE lines have been operating on this route: *Line 11: Berlin Ostbf, Berlin Hbf, Berlin-Spandau,
Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...
, Kassel Wilhelmshöhe,
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, Mannheim,
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
,
Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...
,
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and
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(departing every two hours each way) *Line 22:
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,
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, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Fulda, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Stuttgart, (departing every two hours, each way) *Line 42:
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
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,
Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport ( ) , is Germany's busiest international airport by passenger numbers, located in Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city. Its official name according to the German Aeronautical Information Publication is Frankfurt Main Airpor ...
– Mannheim Hbf, Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg and München (departing every two hours, each way) The trains travelling between
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
and
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
(including TGVs) also use the northern section of this route, which connects at Rollenberg Junction. While the cross-overs were installed every to allow the goods trains operating on the same line and at the same time as the passenger train, they were relegated to operating at night while the passenger trains were not operating.


Notes


References

*Joachim Seyferth: Die Neubaustrecken der Deutschen Bundesbahn. Wiesbaden 1983 *Ernst Rudolph: Eisenbahn auf neuen Wegen: Hannover–Würzburg, Mannheim–Stuttgart. Darmstadt 1989, *Berndt von Mitzlaff, Ralf Roman Rossberg: Jahrbuch des Eisenbahnwesens 42: Hochgeschwindigkeitsverkehr. Darmstadt 1991, *Bundesbahndirektion Karlsruhe: Streckenkarte Neubaustrecke Mannheim–Stuttgart 1:100.000. Karlsruhe 1990 *Neue Bahnhöfe an der Neubaustrecke Stuttgart-Mannheim in db. 11/1988. Stuttgart 1988 Image:Mannheim-Containerbahnhofbruecke.jpg, ICE coming from the Containerbahnhofbrücke (container yard bridge) Image:Db-101023-01.jpg, Rollenberg Junction Image:Db-bimdzf269-xxx-04.jpg, InterCity at Vaihingen (Enz) station Image:Db-401xxx-13.jpg, ICE between Enztalbrücke and Pulverdinger Tunnel


See also

*
High-speed rail in Germany Construction of the first high-speed rail in Germany began shortly after that of the French LGVs (''lignes à grande vitesse'', high-speed lines). However, legal battles caused significant delays, so that the German Intercity-Express (ICE) tra ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mannheim-Stuttgart high-speed railway Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg High-speed railway lines in Germany