InterCity-Express (ICE) - The German high-speed champion
In this blog post we look at another high-speed champion on European railway tracks: the InterCity-Express, well known as ICE. These trains are the highest category trains in the fare system of Deutsche Bahn (DB, German state railway).
Note: ICE in this post refers to InterCity-Express. It is not about internal combustion engine, also abbreviated as ICE.
History of ICE
First we start with a bit of history. The project started under the name InterCity-Experimental.
The inauguration of official operation happened on May 29, 1991 in the newly built railway station Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe. That time federal president Richard von Weizsäcker has symbolically given the keys to the locomotive drivers. On June 2, 1991 the first scheduled InterCity-Express train left Hamburg-Altona at 5:53 AM towards Munich. A new product of Deutsche Bahn (Germain Rail) was born.
The commercial introduction of ICE trains was accompanied with a slogan: “Twice as fast as a car, half as fast as a plane.”
Main ICE lines
Deutsche Bahn (DB) operates an extensive network of ICE lines connecting all the major cities in Germany and serving also in cross-border operation. The key ICE lines are:
- Berlin ↔ Hamburg
- Munich ↔ Hamburg
- Hamburg ↔ Nuremberg
- Berlin ↔ Köln
- Köln ↔ Hamburg
- Düsseldorf ↔ Munich
- Munich ↔ Stuttgart
- Frankfurt ↔ Basel
- Köln ↔ Amsterdam
- Frankfurt ↔ Paris
- Nuremberg ↔ Vienna
Few facts about InterCity-Express
- The development project was conducted under the name InterCity Experimental.
- First ICE high-speed line connected Hamburg and Munich:
- Hamburg-Altona
- Hannover
- Göttingen
- Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe
- Fulda
- Frankfurt (Main)
- Mannheim
- Stuttgart
- Augsburg
- München
- Average travel speed on the high-speed line Hamburg ↔ Munich was 127 km/h.
- Nowadays the journey between Hamburg and Berlin takes less than 2 hours and Stuttgart to Munich takes 2 hours and 13 minutes. Finally, the ICE makes the journey from Frankfurt to Berlin or vice versa in less than 4 hours.
- In the first 3 years of service almost 67 million passengers have used the InterCity-Express (ICE).
- ICE 4 trains are over 300 meters long and serve the busiest lines.
- ICE trains use the powerful power electronic controller (PEC) made by ABB.
- Besides Germany the ICE trains serve also neigbouring countries as part of cross-broder operation (e.g. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland).
- ICE based trains have been delivered to Spain (AVE Class 103), China (CRH 3) or Russia (Velaro RUS).
ICE fleet of Deutsche Bahn
DB operates a large fleet of various ICE series. These generations differ in the passenger capacity, maximum speed, the design and of course the service age.
ICE 1 (model series 401)
– In operation since 1991
– Redesign in 2005
– Modernization since 2020
– Quantity: 58
– Number of seats: 503-703
– Maximum speed: 280 km/h
ICE 2 (model series 402)
– In operation since 1996
– Redesign in 2011
– Quantity: 44
– Number of seats: 381
– Maximum speed: 280 km/h
ICE 3 (model series 403/406)
– In operation since 2013
– – Quantity: 17
– Number of seats: 444
– Maximum speed: 320 km/h
– Known also as Velaro D
ICE 3 (model series 407)
– In operation since 2013
– Quantity: 17
– Number of seats: 444
– Maximum speed: 320 km/h
ICE 4 (model series 412)
– 13 carriage sets in operation since 2021
– 12-cariiage sets in operation since 2017
– 7-carriage sets in operation since 2020
– Quantity: 80
– 11 x 13-carriage set
– 50 x 12-carriage set
– 19 x 7-carriage set
– Number of seats: 444-918
– Maximum speed: 265 km/h
ICE T (model series 411/415)
– In operation since 1999/2004
– Tilting technology
– Quantity: 70
– Number of seats: 250-376
– Maximum speed 230 km/h
References
[1] Deutsche Bahn Magazin
[2] Intercity-Express – Wikipedia, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity-Express
[3] TGV high-speed train celebrates 40 years! https://mb-drive-services.com/tgv-high-speed-train-celebrates-40-years/
[4] Pendolino high-speed train, https://mb-drive-services.com/pendolino-high-speed-train/
