The Frankfurt–Mannheim high-speed railway (Neubaustrecke Rhein/Main–Rhein/Neckar) is a planned German high-speed railway between Frankfurt am Main and Mannheim.
The approximately 95 kilometre-long line with a top speed of up to , would connect the existing Cologne–Frankfurt and Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed lines, carrying long-distance passenger traffic and freight that now passes over the Mannheim–Frankfurt railway. It is also part of Axis No. 24 (Lyon/Genoa–Basel–Duisburg–Rotterdam/Antwerp) of the Trans-European Networks.
The line is listed as an "urgent need" in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 (Bundesverkehrswegeplan 2030). The options to be implemented should be selected in 2019. The commissioning of the new line is planned for 2030, while the northern section (Zeppelinheim–Darmstadt) should go into operation in 2028 (as of 2018).
History The Rhine-Main and the Rhine-Neckar regions are two of the eleven metropolitan areas in Germany. They are connected by three railway lines, the Main-Neckar Railway, the Mainz–Ludwigshafen railway and the Mannheim–Frankfurt railway (Riedbahn).
The Riedbahn, which has been heavily used for years, has been considered overloaded since the commissioning of the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed railway at the latest. Around 650 trains (as of 2007) run daily in the corridor between Mannheim and Frankfurt/Mainz; a further increase to about 900 train journeys per day was expected by 2015. Alt URL In the late 1980s, the capacity of the old line was increased from 240 to 280 train movements per day. The long-distance, local and freight traffic causes regular delays on the double-track mixed traffic line. The line is in particular restrictive for long-distance traffic, as it includes the Biblis curve, which is limited to 90 km/h. In addition, there is an urgent need for additional local transport capacity to connect the densely populated area to the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn.
The traffic forecast drawn up as part of the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2003 predicted 32.8 million passenger journeys per year on the Frankfurt-Mannheim section and 17.0 million on the Mannheim–Stuttgart section in 2015. Freight traffic between Frankfurt and Mannheim would have then been 56.16 million tonnes per year, distributed over both lines.
Planning 1993–2004: Pre-planning up to the completion of the regional planning procedure The project, which has been at the planning stage since 1993, was originally scheduled to go into operation in 2007. In the spring of 1998, Deutsche Bahn carried out an internal examination of the option of building a new line, instead of a then planned upgrade of the Riedbahn. An early draft in 1998 proposed a line from Frankfurt Airport, going along the motorway as far as Weiterstadt. From there, the line would run to Hauptbahnhof Darmstadt and then rejoin the motorway in the south of the Darmstadt urban area.
As part of the South Hesse Integrated Planning (Integrierten Planung Südhessen), operational investigations were carried out to increase capacity between Frankfurt and Mannheim from 1997 to 1999. The trigger for this was the new Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed railway opened in 2002, which was expected to result in additional traffic as well as the expected expansion of regional services. It showed that a four-track upgrade of the existing lines would not be possible. As a result, further investigations assumed the construction of a new line.
The preliminary planning for the new line started at the end of 1998 or the beginning of 1999. In May 1999, DB commissioned an accounting firm to reassess the project. In addition, the Mottgers link, Frankfurt 21 and Stuttgart 21 were part of the package analysed. It was one of two new construction projects listed in DB's Network 21 (Netz 21) strategy adopted in 1999.
At the beginning of 2000, Deutsche Bahn announced plans for the new line to bypass Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. The line would therefore pass about five kilometres east of the city and would connect at Schwetzingen with the high-speed line to Stuttgart. Mannheim would be connected via a junction in the area of the Viernheim triangle autobahn interchange. The original approval documents, which provided for a connection to Mannheim, were withdrawn, and the regional planning procedure was stopped at the end of February 2000. The DB justified this step with problems with the connection with Mannheim and at first took no further position. In March 2000, Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn, announced that after the completion of the new line, no fewer trains than at present would stop at Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. The CEO described the ensuing dispute over the connection to Mannheim as bordering on "hysteria" in May 2000. Deutsche Bahn presented two possible routes, including one running through Mannheim Hauptbahnhof, to the Karlsruhe regional administration as part of a first scoping stage on 30 October 2000. After this first discussion, the regional planning procedure could be initiated.
As part of the preliminary design, numerous options were examined. In early 2002, the board of Deutsche Bahn decided to initiate the regional planning procedure for the new line with an option following autobahns 5, 67 and 6. This option has proved to be the cheapest; it would enable the highest traffic growth and would be the most environmentally and economically viable option. The 75 kilometre route would allow the journey time between Frankfurt and Stuttgart to be reduced from 79 to 60 minutes. At the same time, improvements would be made to regional transport operations on the existing route. For the Mannheim area, alternatives with a bypass of Mannheim (option A) and with an additional bypass (option B) were introduced. DB did not include a station on the bypass. On 18 April 2002, representatives of Deutsche Bahn confirmed that the company was continuing with its application for the implementation of the regional planning procedure (Raumordnungsverfahren). In 2002 it was still expected that planning approval would be given in 2004 and it would be opened at the end of 2008.
Due to a lack of funding, a pause in the development of the €1.9 billion project was planned after the completion of the regional planning procedure at the end of 2004. According to a media report, the estimated expenditure of €16.5 million, which would have been necessary for a continuation of the plans, could not be funded. By then, about €30 million had been invested in the project.
The regional planning procedure was carried out from 1999 to 2004 and the planning approval procedures were to run from 2007 to 2011. The Regierungsbezirks (district governments) of Darmstadt and Karlsruhe are in charge of the consultation process.
The regional planning procedure for the southern section ended on 18 May 2004 with the handover of the spatial planning assessment for the Baden-Württemberg section of the route. In particular, it was unclear whether the bypass of Hauptbahnhof Mannheim (bypass solution) could be achieved; in this solution, some freight and long-distance trains would bypass Mannheim without stopping. The massive protests from the region as well as the states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland resulted in the project development lasting for years.
2004–2016: continuing unresolved planning and political conflict
An agreement was reached on the route for the connection to Darmstadt at the end of January 2007 and the planned route in Hesse was presented at the beginning of May of the same year. Deutsche Bahn called Europe-wide tenders for the carrying out of environmental planning support planning at the end of April 2007. This was required to last at least one growing season and was a prerequisite for the initiation of the zoning procedure.
It was planned to record the occurrence of more than 500 animal and plant species on an area of 20,000 hectares in a corridor up to 1000 metre-wide along the planned route. Further investigation was required on sections of the route that passed through Natura 2000 areas. The data was to be used to draw up a landscape management plan, which would define ecological compensatory measures for land consumed. The detailed technical planning was to be awarded in August. This would include the detailed routing.
A working group on the Baden-Württemberg section of new line, initiated by minister president Günther Oettinger, was due to commence operations at the beginning of September 2007. The minister president and the cabinet spoke in favour of a connection to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof and against a bypass. At a hearing with the Federal Railway Authority to prepare the environmental impact assessment of the southern sector, representatives from the region around Mannheim also reaffirmed their rejection of a bypass of Mannheim Hauptbahnhof.
In mid-September 2007, Deutsche Bahn AG awarded a contract for the technical planning. The contract, which would also determine the exact route, had a value of €7.5 million. Among other things, noise protection and train control and safety systems would be planned in detail within this framework. As late as 2007, large-scale construction was planned to begin in 2011 with the project to become operational in 2017. The section of new line between Neu-Isenburg-Zeppelinheim and Mannheim-Waldhof and Mannheim-Pfingstberg would be 77 kilometres-long. The existing, double-track railway between Frankfurt-Stadion and Neu-Isenburg-Zeppelinheim (five km) would be increased to four tracks. About eight km of the high-speed line would run through twelve tunnels. The project would involve a total of about 100 road and 30 railway bridges. Over a length of about 19 km the line was to run in "trough structures" (that is with support walls and a solid base), with a length of about seven km in tunnels (all data: as of June 2007). In 2009, it was planned to start the first preparatory measures for the new line as of 2011 and a financing agreement was concluded to that effect. Construction would take six years according to plans from 2007. The railway was expected to have a construction cost of about €2 billion in 2007.
In February 2008, DB AG called Europe-wide tenders for the preliminary design and approval planning. In December 2008, Deutsche Bahn AG initiated the planning approval for a section between Frankfurt Stadion station and the municipal limits of Mörfelden and Erzhausen. This section included an upgrade of the existing Riedbahn to four tracks and the construction of an island platform in Zeppelinheim station. The section was discussed at a public hearing and published in 2009. Deutsche Bahn expected in July 2010 that the planning approval decision would be made at the beginning of 2011. After some changes to the plan, the planning documents for the section were rewritten in September 2010. At the end of July 2017, this planning approval procedure was terminated at the request of DB Netz AG.
As of mid-2010, the planning approval procedure for the eleven-kilometre section between Gernsheim and Einhausen was due to begin in late 2010/early 2011. The planning approval procedure for the section between Darmstadt and Mannheim was to commence in the first half of 2011.