Nuremberg-Munich high-speed rail line

The Nuremberg-Munich high-speed railway line is a German high-speed railway 171 km in length. It links the two largest cities in Bavaria, Nuremberg and Munich.

The northern section, between Nuremberg and Ingolstadt, is a new 300-km/h track built from scratch between 1998 and 2006. It is 90.1 km in length with nine tunnels (total length: 27 km). In order to minimize the damage to the environment, it runs right next to Bundesautobahn 9 for the most part.

The southern section, between Ingolstadt and Munich, is a 19th-century track. Its southern section has been upgraded for up to 200 km/h. Between 2010 and 2013, further upgrades to the mid section of the track will be done. The minimum speed on the Munich-Ingolstadt section should then be 160 km/h, with 190 km/h in the middle and 200 km/h in the southern section.

Both long-distance and regional services operate on the line. InterCityExpress trains reach the tracks' 300 km/h speed-limit. InterCity and RegionalExpress trains travel at a maximum speed of 200 km/h. The Allersberg-Express, a RegionalBahn shuttle service, is operated between Allersberg and Nuremberg.

The line was officially inaugurated on May 13 2006. Limited operation with a two-hourly long-distance service started on May 28th, 2006. The line is in full operation since December 2006. Compared to the former track via Augsburg, it cut off 29 km distance or about 30 minutes journey time on long-distance, and about an hour on regional trains.

Most of the track is equipped with Linienzugbeeinflussung and GSM-R. ETCS will be introduced in 2009. The total costs (as of January 2006) were about € 3.6 billion.

History

The first proposal for this line dates back to 1983, when the Nuremberg section of Deutsche Bundesbahn proposed a more direct line between Nuremberg and Munich. The project was added to the 1985 federal traffic infrastructure plan. The following years were marked by heated debate on the route of the line, in particular if it should run via Ingolstadt or Augsburg. While the Ingolstadt line is much more direct (171 km) than the existing Augsburg route (199 km), the metropolitan area of Augsburg is considered much larger than Ingolstadt's. Apart from concerns that fewer long-distance trains would run via (and stop at) Augsburg, there were also concerns on the environmental effects of the 75-km track that would be built from scratch. Large-scale construction began in 1998, when numerous disputes had finally been settled and the total cost was estimated to be € 2.3 billion. The € 1.3 billion cost increase arose from numerous geological problems found during construction and additional works required to meet environmental and security concerns.

On September 2, 2006, the ÖBB locomotive 1216 050 (a Siemens Eurosprinter) set a new world record for locomotives at a top speed of 357 km/h; reached near Hilpoltstein.

External links

* [http://en.structurae.de/projects/data/index.cfm?ID=p00103 Datasheet] at "structurae.de"
* [http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/Nurnberg/index.html#Nurnberg Article] at "railway-technology.com"