The Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway is a German high-speed railway, between Nuremberg and Erfurt. The line is listed in Germany's federal transport plan as Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit Nr. ("German Unity transport project no") 8.1 and is a section of the high-speed route between Berlin and Munich and a section of the line connecting Italy and Scandinavia in the European Union's Trans-European Rail network. It consists of an upgraded line between Nuremberg and Ebensfeld and a new line between Ebensfeld and Erfurt. The journey time between Erfurt and Nuremberg has been reduced to approximately one hour and 20 minutes after completion.
The planning began in 1991 and construction started in April 1996. Three years later construction was stopped by the new SPD-Green coalition government formed after the 1998 election and only recommenced in 2002. The new line was opened at the timetable change on 10 December 2017. The timing of the final commissioning of the upgraded section is still uncertain.
History
A trunk line between Berlin and Munich was contained in the German railway network proposed by Friedrich List in 1833. The line between Erlangen and Ebensfeld was part of the extension built in the 1840s as part of the Ludwig South-North Railway (Ludwig-Süd-Nord-Bahn). The current route, which was opened in 1851, was not based on comprehensive transport planning, but was a consequence of a network that evolved from 1840 out of lines built to serve local purposes. Since then line improvements and technical upgrades have taken place. After German reunification, the lines were restored, renovated and electrified.
According to Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB), it would be necessary to construct a new railway line because traffic forecasts showed a strong increase in passenger and freight traffic between Berlin, Leipzig, Erfurt, Nuremberg and Munich. These traffic volumes could not be handled with the existing infrastructure. The quality of operation of the existing lines would be unsatisfactory, partly due to heavy use and long service times, and it would be virtually impossible to upgrade them. Line improvements would usually have significant environmental impacts and would have strong impacts on existing buildings, due partly to dense settlement in the narrow valleys that the line passes through. The requirements of a modern railway in terms of traveling times and speeds could not be achieved by upgrading existing routes.
In mid-March 1991, Deutsche Bundesbahn announced a surprise direction from the Federal Ministry of Transportation to develop a new line between Bamberg and Erfurt.
Traffic forecasts from the early 1990s predicted a traffic load in the north–south direction for 2010 that could not be met on the existing lines. The operating concept for this target year envisaged 108 trains on the new line each day and in each direction, 24 passenger trains and 84 freight trains. For this purpose an Interregio service (Karlsruhe–Stuttgart–Nuremberg–Erfurt–Leipzig) would run at two-hour intervals and an Intercity/ICE service (Munich–Erfurt–Berlin) would run hourly over the new line; the old line (Großheringen–Saalfeld railway and Franconian Forest Railway) would be operated as an Interregio service. The Interregio trains of the new line would run via Coburg and Ilmenau and the IC/ICE services would run between Bamberg and Erfurt (although some services would stop during the day in Coburg). The IR journey would take 25 minutes from Ilmenau to Bamberg and about 20 minutes to Erfurt.
The direct distance between Nuremberg and Erfurt is around 175 kilometres, while the travel time in 2009 was around two and a quarter hours.
Decision to establish a high-speed line
Today's new and upgraded line is the result of a decision of the Federal Government in April 1991 to fund the "German Unity Transport Projects", which were incorporated in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan (Bundesverkehrswegeplan) 1992. The new and upgraded line was described as a "new project" with a planned total costs of Deutsche Mark (DM) 4.175 billion in the area of the former Deutsche Bundesbahn and DM 3.020 billion in the area of the former Deutsche Reichsbahn (1 January 1991 prices). The first Thuringian Minister-President, Josef Duchac, joined the Federal Minister of Transport, Günther Krause for the selection of the route corridor through Erfurt.
The construction of the route was recorded in the Federal Railway Development Act (Bundesschienenwegeausbaugesetz). The Act of 15 November 1993 entered into force on 25 November 1993.
The line became part of one of the newly created Trans-European corridors (Berlin–Verona) at the 1994 EU summit in Essen. (15 page brochure with status of January 1995)
Planning
In the preliminary planning for the new line between Ebensfeld and Erfurt, a total of seven different options were examined. Three different options were introduced into the route selection process for the Coburg and southern Thuringia areas. In February 1992, Deutsche Bundesbahn presented three options: one running from the existing section north of Lichtenfels, via Rödental and Stadtilm to Erfurt. The second option would have branched off north of Staffelstein, parallel to the planned Autobahn through Coburg and would have taken a route via Großbreitenbach and Stadtilm to Erfurt. The third option would have branched from a junction north of Ebensfeld and run via Coburg, Eisfeld, Großbreitenbach and Arnstadt to connect with the existing Eisenach–Erfurt line at Möbisburg.
Critics of the project proposed an eastern route, via Bayreuth and Hof through eastern Thuringia and western Saxony, with a connection from Leipzig and Dresden. This option and an option that would have run near the existing lines with an approximately -long tunnel through the Franconian Forest were examined and discarded. Others suggested an eight-kilometer tunnel through the top of the crest.
Deutsche Bahn also considered a -long base tunnel for the crossing of the Thuringian Forest. This alternative was rejected on the grounds of high groundwater pressures (near aquifers), the need to pass below the target storage level of the Goldisthal Pumped Storage Station (together with additional sealing of the tunnel) and the need for much more elaborate safety measures.
Preliminary planning
Deutsche Reichsbahn initiated the pre-planning in the summer of 1991. A preparatory study had been submitted to the central administration of the Reichsbahn (Zentralen Hauptverwaltung der Reichsbahn, ZHvDR) in November 1991. It served as the basis for the preliminary drafting plan, which was prepared by the Planungsgesellschaft Bahnbau Deutsche Einheit ("Planning Corporation for German Unity Railway Construction") from early 1992 and confirmed by the ZHvDR at the end of 1992. At the same time, a national and environmental protection planning study was carried out with the participating federal states and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Within the scope of a space sensitivity test, a large-scale corridor investigation was carried out on the scale of 1:100,000 to determine route options. Among other things, conflicts and risks in relation to spatial and environmental factors along with railway operations and economic aspects were taken into account. According to the planning as of mid-1991, commissioning would be carried out by 2000 if possible..
The preliminary draft plan of 1992 envisaged speeds of with a journey time between Nuremberg and Erfurt of 75 minutes. The planned costs were DM 8 billion (about €4 billion). Already in 1993, before the beginning of construction, the route handled 80 passenger trains during the day and 200 freight trains at night. In 1992, five options were developed that would have passed through a -wide corridor, one of which was immediately rejected. A route through Coburg that would have required the demolition of existing buildings was also considered. At first the use of the existing line south of Coburg with a new line commencing on its southern approach had been considered as the favoured option. The Thuringian Forest would have been crossed at its narrowest point, but there would have been no stop in Coburg. In a citizens' initiative, Coburg citizens collected 13,000 signatures against the route.
Spatial planning and route selection
On 5 October 1992, the Board of Governors of the Bundesbahn and the Reichsbahn determined the route of the new line. The spatial planning procedure was launched on 20 October 1992. The Free State of Bavaria gave its opinion on the 1 March 1993. It confirmed the compatibility of two options with the goals of land planning. The essential requirements were an ICE stop in Coburg, the replacement of embankments by bridges in ecologically sensitive areas, the relocation of the planned over-taking station in Dorfles-Esbach to the south and the lowest possible crossing of the Main valley to the north of Ebensfeld. An option, which involved a route through Coburg, was abandoned in this context. In its opinion of 20 April 1993, the State of Thuringia sought, among others, an Interregio stop in the Ilmenau area, a shift of the line in the Gehren / Gräfinau-Angstedt area to the west, a western bypass of Molsdorf to protect the drinking water catchment area of Erfurt and the bundling of the route with the A 71 autobahn between Erfurt and Ilmenau. The planning approval procedure (as of mid-1994) would be carried out jointly in accordance with the railway law for both routes in this section.
Between Ebensfeld and Erfurt, three different route options were investigated in a corridor that was approximately wide. The application documents for the line determination for the new line were submitted to the Federal Ministry of Transport in 1994 and the route was confirmed on 23 June 1994 (another source: May 1994 (brochure, 50 A4 pages),) and the Federal Ministry of the Environment issued the decision.
The new line crosses the Werra Railway (Werrabahn) at kilometre 38.0 on the new line. In the route selection, a connection of the new line with the Werra Railway between Grümpen and Rauenstein was considered. The cost of at least €150 million was considered to be too high, so the plans were not pursued further.
Planning approval procedures
The planning procedures for the ten planning approval sections (including railway power lines) were initiated from December 1993. On 3 May 1994 the first consultation procedure for the Zapfendorf–Grub am Forst section began, dealing with 8000 objections. By the end of 1994, nine out of ten procedures had been initiated, the last one being followed in 1995. The first joint plan approval procedure for the section where the railway was "bundled" with the A 71 was launched in January 1995. In 1995, the construction of the new bridge was expected to start in the same year. Various complaints were brought against the project, which were also dealt with by the Federal Administrative Court.
Due to the Transport Route Planning Acceleration Act (Verkehrswegeplanungsbeschleunigungsgesetz) adopted specifically for the new transport routes in the new federal states, it was possible to put the first planning approval decision for the Erfurt–Arnstadt section into effect at the end of 1994. The planning approval decisions for the new routes were adopted between 24 May 1995 and 15 April 1997. In the middle of 1996, of the new line and of the rail power line were approved. The approvals were finalised in 1998 apart from the Erfurtstadt and Bad Staffelstein sections. In the middle of 2007, the approvals were finalised for all sections. The planning approval decision for the southern section of the railway power line from the 19 December 1995 lost its effect because the construction work had not commenced within the limited period of validity. As a result, a plan for the southern section of the railway power line to the Roth substation was reapplied for in 2012.