German Unity Transport Project 8

Journey times and lines

The new line is the first direct rail route from Franconia to Erfurt, the capital city of Thuringia. In Erfurt the north-south line joins lines from the Frankfurt am Main and Kassel direction, to Gera and Chemnitz and to Dresden via Leipzig.

The journey times for both regional and long-distance journeys are being cut significantly. The journey times for ICE trains going via the Nuremberg-Erfurt route will be cut by about an hour. Thus, a considerable portion of the targeted two and a half hour cut in the journey time from Munich to Berlin to four hours will be accounted for by this section of German Unity Transport Project No. 8 (VDE 8). Significant progress was achieved on adjacent sections of the overall line when upgraded and new lines from Munich to Nuremberg (for speeds of up to 300 km/h) and Leipzig/Halle to Berlin (for speeds of up to 200 km/h) were opened in 2006.