The German government, in cooperation with railway operators and regional governments, announced an ambitious plan to introduce national railway timetables with a view to making passenger and cargo travel faster by 2030. Standardized or regularly spaced timetables will result in faster journeys, will be connected to regional and commuter rail services at hubs, and will also operate on standard timetables of one hour or less. For freight, a pre-planned, faster long-distance schedule will allow the freight to move forward without delaying or delaying passenger service.

This method presets the train departure time at a given station to a fixed hour in the past hour, which greatly simplifies the timetable for passengers. The plan is included in the detailed plan to be fully implemented in ten years or more. Full implementation relies on multiple new high-speed lines, new underground stations in the city center (excluding terminal stations), and hundreds of new intercity and high-speed trains. In the next 20 years, this price may exceed US$200 billion; by 2030, about half of the promises have been fulfilled.

The German government first announced plans for a national regular interval timetable in 2018, but it has been discussed for many years. The goal set by the government is to increase the number of railway passengers from 7 million to 14 million per day, while increasing the market share of railway freight from 18% to 25%. Reducing the use and pollution of private cars, trucks and airplanes is the main driving force of the plan. A number of studies have shown that high-speed rail has largely replaced air travel during a 3-hour journey. The latest experience in Germany proves this. After the opening of the high-speed rail linking cities via Erfurt in 2017, the flight from Berlin to Nuremberg was cancelled.

The large-scale project to build a new underground station in Stuttgart should be completed in 2024.

New line, new train

In order to introduce more frequent services, more trains are needed. By 2030, there will be 17 routes (some of which are spread across the country) every 30 minutes.

In order to create a faster journey, many new high-speed rail lines have been drafted. Some are under construction or under detailed planning; some are not so advanced. The project that began two decades ago will be completed in 2025. The project will build a new underground station in Stuttgart to replace the historic terminal and a series of high-speed railways east of the city. Since the opening of the high-speed railway north of Nuremberg to Erfurt in 2017, in order to speed up the service.

Plans are underway to establish new high-speed lines between major cities. Existing routes in these areas, which usually run at 135 mph, are now considered too slow or too busy, whether it is a regional train or a freight train. The earliest to be constructed will include the 188 mph route from Frankfurt Airport to Mannheim and from Hanover to Bielefeld. Both routes may open before 2030, and will accelerate from Frankfurt to Berlin and Munich. route. A new underground high-speed station is planned in Frankfurt. It will be located below the historic terminus, which will remain open to cope with the overall increase in the total number of trains. The workstation is still on the drawing board, so it is unlikely to be open for at least 15 years. Editor/Huang Lijun