History of rail transport in Germany
Encyclopedia
German Railway history began with the opening of the steam-hauled Bavarian Ludwig Railway between Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

 and Fürth
Fürth
The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....

 on 7 December 1835. This had been preceded by the opening of the horse-hauled Prince William Railway on 20 September 1831. The first long distance railway was the Leipzig-Dresden railway, completed on 7 April 1839.

Epoch 0 (1835-1870)

Political disunity of three dozen states and a pervasive conservatism made it difficult to build railways in the 1830s. However, by the 1840s, trunk lines did link the major cities; each German state was responsible for the lines within its own borders.

During the 1820s, the nobility favored costly and economically inefficient (but prestigious) canal projects over railroads. In the 1830s, the growing liberal middle classes supported railways as a progressive innovation with benefits for the German people in general as well as for the shareholders in the joint stock companies that built and operated the railroads. Though private concerns such as the Nuremberg-Fürth railroad were superseded by government railroad companies in the 1840s, the government companies copied many of the private companies' methods and organizational structures. Economist Friedrich List
Friedrich List
Georg Friedrich List was a leading 19th century German economist who developed the "National System" or what some would call today the National System of Innovation...

, speaking for the liberals, summed up the advantages to be derived from the development of the railway system in 1841:
First, as a means of national defense, it facilitates the concentration, distribution and direction of the army. 2. It is a means to the improvement of the culture of the nation…. It brings talent, knowledge and skill of every kind readily to market. 3. It secures the community against dearth and famine, and against excessive fluctuation in the prices of the necessaries of life. 4. It promotes the spirit of the nation, as it has a tendency to destroy the Philistine spirit arising from isolation and provincial prejudice and vanity. It binds nations by ligaments, and promotes an interchange of food and of commodities, thus making it feel to be a unit. The iron rails become a nerve system, which, on the one hand, strengthens public opinion, and, on the other hand, strengthens the power of the state for police and governmental purposes.


Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain, but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centers of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Germany was self sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction, and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry. Observers found, that already as early as 1890, ( 14 years after the invention of the Otto cycle engine by Nikolaus August Otto and his partner Eugen Langen ) their engineering became superior to Britain’s.

Specific lines

The Prince William Railway was a horse-hauled narrow gauge (82 cm) railway that ran for a Prussian mile (7,532 metres) along the Deilbach valley from Hinsbeck near Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

 to Nierenhof, opened on 20 September 1831. It operated as a horse-drawn railway carrying coal until 1844, but from 1833 it also carried passengers. In 1847, it was converted to standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

 and became a steam-hauled railway.

The Bavarian Ludwig Railway commenced operations on 7 December 1835 with the Adler
Adler (locomotive)
The Adler was the first locomotive which was successfully commercially used for rail transport of passengers and goods in Germany. The rail vehicle was constructed and built in 1835 from the british railway pioneers George and Robert Stephenson in the english town Newcastle...

(Eagle) locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

 running between Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

 and Fürth
Fürth
The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....

. The locomotive was built by Stephenson and Co.
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...

 in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

.

The third German railway was the Leipzig-Dresden railway, opened from Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 to Althen on 24 April 1837 and completed to Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 on 7 April 1839. It was the first long-distance line Germany with a length of 120 km and it also contained the first railway tunnel in Germany.

The following years saw a rapid growth: By the year 1845, there were already more than 2,000 km of railroads in Germany, ten years later that number was above 8,000. Most German states had state-owned railway companies, but there were several large private companies as well. One of these private companies, the Rhenish Railway
Rhenish Railway Company
The Rhenish Railway Company was along with the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th century built the first railways in the Ruhr and large parts of today's North Rhine-Westphalia.-Foundation :The...

 (Rheinische Eisenbahn), built the first ever international railway line. The line connected Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 to Antwerp in Belgium and was opened in 1843.

Epoch I (1871-1919)

German unification
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

 in 1871 stimulated consolidation, nationalization into state-owned companies, and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialization, and so heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts, and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives pulling 43,000 passengers and 30,000 tons of freight, and forged ahead of France

Prussia nationalized its railways in an effort both to lower rates on freight service and to equalize those rates among shippers. Instead of lowering rates as far as possible, the government ran the railways as a profitmaking endeavor, and the railway profits became a major source of revenue for the state. The nationalization of the railways slowed the economic development of Prussia because the state favoured the relatively backward agricultural areas in its railway building. Moreover, the railway surpluses substituted for the development of an adequate tax system.

Nebenbahnen

As the main line network consolidated, railways were driven into the hinterland, serving local needs and commuter traffic. This was the age of the branch line or Nebenbahn (plural: -en), also variously called the Sekundärbahn ("secondary line"), Vizinalbahn ("neighbourhood line") or Lokalbahn ("local line") depending on local laws and usage.

Important lines

Several states operated their own railways, collectively called the Länderbahnen
Länderbahnen
The German term Länderbahnen generally refers to the state railways of the German Empire in the period from about 1840 to 1920 when they were merged into the Deutsche Reichsbahn after the First World War....

(state railways). Those created up to 1871 were the:
  • Various Prussian state railway companies
    Prussian state railways
    The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...

    , including the Königlich Preußische und Großherzoglich Hessische Staatseisenbahn (K.P.u.G.H.St.E.)
  • Royal Bavarian State Railways
    Royal Bavarian State Railways
    As a nation-state, Germany did not come into being until the creation of the German Empire in 1871 from the various German-speaking states such as Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Baden and Württemberg. By then each of the major states had formed its own state railway and these continued to remain...

     (Königlich Bayerische Staatseisenbahn or K.Bay.Sts.B.)
  • Royal Saxon State Railways
    Royal Saxon State Railways
    The Royal Saxon State Railways were the state-owned railways operating in the Kingdom of Saxony from 1869 to 1918...

     (Königlich Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen or K.Sächs.Sts.E.B.)
  • Royal Württemberg State Railways
    Royal Württemberg State Railways
    The Royal Württemberg State Railways were the state railways of the Kingdom of Württemberg between 1843 and 1920...

     (Königlich Württembergische Staatseisenbahn or K.W.St.E.)
  • Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways (Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahn or G.Bad.St.E., 1840–1920)
  • Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway
    Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway
    The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway was the state railway company in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz...

     (Großherzoglich Mecklenburgische Friedrich-Franz-Eisenbahn or M.F.F.E.)
  • Grand Duchy of Oldenburg State Railways
    Grand Duchy of Oldenburg State Railways
    The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg Railway was the railway company that was run as a state railway for the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg , part of the German Empire....

     (Großherzoglich Oldenburgische Staatseisenbahn or G.O.E., 1867–1920)

  • Royal Hanoverian State Railways
    Royal Hanoverian State Railways
    The Royal Hanoverian State Railways existed from 1843 until the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866...

     (Königlich Hannöversche Staatseisenbahnen), from 1866 part of the Prussian state railways
    Prussian state railways
    The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...

  • Duchy of Brunswick State Railway
    Duchy of Brunswick State Railway
    The Duchy of Brunswick State Railway was the first state railway in Germany. The first section of its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway line between Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel opened on 1 December 1838.-Opening:...

     (Herzoglich Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn), from 1870 part of the Prussian state railways
    Prussian state railways
    The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...

  • Nassau State Railway
    Nassau State Railway
    The Nassau State Railway took over the privately built railway lines on the Rhine and Lahn rivers in the Duchy of Nassau from the Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company in 1861 and extended them further...

     (Nassauische Staatsbahn), from 1866 part of the Prussian state railways
    Prussian state railways
    The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...

  • Anhalt Leopold Railway (Anhaltische Leopoldsbahn), from 1882 part of the Prussian state railways
    Prussian state railways
    The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...

  • Bebra-Hanau Railway (Bebra-Hanauer Eisenbahn), a Kurhesse state railway, from 1866 part of the Prussian state railways
    Prussian state railways
    The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...

  • Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine
    Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine
    The Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine were the first railways owned by the German Empire.They emerged in 1871, after France had ceded the region of Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire under the terms of the peace treaty following the Franco-Prussian War...

     (Reichseisenbahn Elsaß-Lothringen), founded in 1871 and handed to France at the end of the First World War


The Palatinate Railway
Palatinate Railway
The Palatinate Railway or Pfalzbahn was an early German railway company in the period of the German Empire prior to the First World War. It was formed on 1 January 1870, as the United Palatinate Railway based in Ludwigshafen, by the amalgamation of the following railway companies:*The Palatine...

 (Pfalzbahn), formed in 1870, was a private railway company that was nationalised in 1909 and became part of the K.Bay.Sts.B..

In order to enable the free exchange of goods wagons between the different state railway administrations, the German State Railway Wagon Association
German State Railway Wagon Association
The German State Railway Wagon Association was an association of the German state railways Länderbahnen founded in 1909. The purpose of the association was to guarantee the unrestricted exchange of goods wagons between the member railway administrations...

 (Deutscher Staatsbahnwagenverband or DSV) was formed in 1909. The standard wagons that resulted are often referred to as 'DSV wagons'.

At the end of the First World War, most of the state railways lost their 'royal' or 'grand duchy' titles as the nobility abdicated. Huge reparations
World War I reparations
World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...

 of locomotives and rolling stock followed. Epoch I ended with the merger of the seven remaining state railways in the newly created Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...

 in 1920.

Epoch II (1920-1945)

In 1920 after World War I the Länderbahnen
Länderbahnen
The German term Länderbahnen generally refers to the state railways of the German Empire in the period from about 1840 to 1920 when they were merged into the Deutsche Reichsbahn after the First World War....

were united to form the Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...

. According to the "Dawes Plan
Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan was an attempt in 1924, following World War I for the Triple Entente to collect war reparations debt from Germany...

", it was by law in 30. August 1924 transformed into Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft
Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Reichsbahn – was the name of the German national railway created from the railways of the individual states of the German Empire following the end of World War I....

 (DRG, German State Railway Company), a private company, which was required to pay reparations
World War I reparations
World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...

 of about 660 million Marks annually.

The more than 200 steam locomotive types of the different German Länderbahnen were grouped into Baureihen (BR) (roughly translates as classes) of engines with similar wheel notations, like the "BR 18" which covered all 4-6-2
Whyte notation
The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte and came into use in the early twentieth century encouraged by an editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal...

 Pacific express train engines.

New construction standards since 1925 resulted in Einheitslok
Einheitsdampflokomotive
The German term Einheitsdampflokomotive, sometimes shortened to Einheitslokomotive or Einheitslok, means standard steam locomotive and refers to the steam engines built in Germany after 1925 under the direction of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft...

s
(DRG Standard design), using similar mechanical parts to lower costs, which allowed fast and reliable manufacturing, repair and operating. New DRG Standard design locomotives were mostly large passenger and freight locomotives, like the Class 01
DRG Class 01
The Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft's BR 01 steam locomotives were the first standardised steam express passenger locomotives built by the unified German railway system. They were of 4-6-2 "Pacific" wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or 2′C1′ h2 in the UIC classification. The idea of...

 or Class 41
DRG Class 41
The German Class 41 steam locomotives were standard goods train engines operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn and built from 1937 - 1941.- History :...

. In 1928 the Rheingold Express
Rheingold Express
The legendary Rheingold was a famous train riding between Hoek van Holland near Rotterdam and Basel, Switzerland, a distance of . It ran along the Rhine River via Arnhem, Netherlands and Cologne, Germany using special luxury coaches...

 started riding between Hoek van Holland
Hoek van Holland
The Hook of Holland , also known in English as the Hook, is a town in South Holland in the Netherlands. It is situated on the North Sea coast, on the north bank of the Nieuwe Waterweg ship canal. The town is administered by the municipality of Rotterdam as a district of that city...

 and Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

. On 11 May 1936 the streamlined steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

 05 002
DRG Class 05
The Deutsche Reichsbahn's Class 05 was a German class of three express passenger steam locomotives of 4-6-4 wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or 2'C2' in the UIC notation used in continental Europe...

 established the first railway speed world record above 200 km/h: 200.4 km/h, between Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 and Berlin. The record was finalised by Mallard in 1938 at 203 km/h.

The standardisation of goods wagons under the German State Railway Wagon Association
German State Railway Wagon Association
The German State Railway Wagon Association was an association of the German state railways Länderbahnen founded in 1909. The purpose of the association was to guarantee the unrestricted exchange of goods wagons between the member railway administrations...

, that had produced the Verbandsbauart
Verbandsbauart
The German term Verbandsbauart describes both a type of goods wagon as well as a type of tram.In order to standardise the goods wagons classes of the various German state railways , the German State Railway Wagon Association issued regulations...

('Association design') wagons, continued as new designs using interchangeable components were introduced from about 1927. These were the Austauschbauart
Austauschbauart
The so-called Austauschbauart wagons were German railway vehicles produced from the late 1920s onwards which had common components built to agreed standards.-Origin of the concept:...

('interchangeable design') wagons. The 1930s saw the introduction of welded construction and solid wheels replacing spoked wheels on new goods wagons. As the Second World War loomed, production was geared towards the war effort. The focus was on fewer types but greater numbers of so-called Kriegsbauart
Kriegsbauart
The German term Kriegsbauart refers to railway goods wagon classes that were developed during the Second World War for the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The start of the war was an arbitrary dividing line for the classification of goods wagons, and did not represent any technological change...

or wartime designs for the transportation of large quantities of tanks, vehicles, troops and supplies.

The grave lack of passenger coaches resulting from World War I reparations
World War I reparations
World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...

 led to the design and production of all-steel, standard passenger coaches in the 1920s and early 1930s. These four-wheeled, branch line coaches, nicknamed Donnerbüchsen, lasted into the 1970s and can still be seen today on museum lines.

During the Second World War, austere versions of the standard locomotives were produced to speed up construction times and minimise the use of imported materials. These were the so-called war locomotives (Kriegslokomotiven and Übergangskriegslokomotiven). Millions of Jews were deported using Deutsche Reichsbahn to concentration camps and death camps, such as Auschwitz.

Epoch III (1945-1970)

After World War II, Germany (and the DRG) was divided into 4 zones: US, British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. The first three eventually combined to form the Federal Republic of Germany (the West) and the Russian zone became the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

 (the East). German territories beyond the Oder
Oder
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...

 were ceded to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 except for the northern part of East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

, which was ceded to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 in 1945.

From 1949, the new governments assumed authority for railway operations. The DRG's (or DR's) successors were named Deutsche Bundesbahn
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...

(DB, German Federal Railways) in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

, and Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR
The Deutsche Reichsbahn or DR was the operating name of state owned railways in the German Democratic Republic ....

(DR, German State Railways) in East Germany kept the old name to hold tracking rights in western Berlin.

Unlike the DRG, which was a corporation, both the DB and the DR were federal state institutions, directly controlled by their respective transportation ministries. Railway service between East and West was restricted; there were around five well-controlled and secure checkpoints between West and East Germany, and about the same number between East Germany and West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

. Four transit routes existed between West Germany and West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

; citizens of West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

 and West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 were able to use these without too much harassment by the East German authorities.

Epoch IV (1970-1993)

The DB started in 1968 with changing the locomotive and passenger car serial numbers to the UIC
International Union of Railways
The UIC , or International Union of Railways, is an international rail transport industry body.- Brief history :The railways of Europe originated as separate concerns. There were many border changes after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Colonial railways were the responsibility of the...

 norm. In 1970 the DR followed. The DB started experimenting with the Intercity trains in a new livery (bright orange).

In 1988 the prototype InterCityExperimental
InterCityExperimental
The Intercity Experimental, later renamed ICE V, was an experimental train for research into high-speed rail. It is the predecessor of all Intercity-Express trains.- History :...

 (ICE V) sets a new German railway speed record of 406.9 km/h (254.3 miles/h) on the new high speed line between Fulda
Fulda
Fulda is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district .- Early Middle Ages :...

 and Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....

.
In 1991 the new high speed lines Hannover-Fulda-Würzburg (280 km/h) and Mannheim-Stuttgart (250 km/h) were opened for service including the new ICE 1 train sets.

Epoch V (1994-present)

In 1989, the Wall fell. Train frequency rapidly increased on the existing East/West corridors; closed links which had formerly crossed the border were re-opened. On 3 October 1990, Germany was reunified
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

; however, this was not the case with the railways. Administrative and organisational problems led to the decision to completely re-organise and reconnect Germany's railways. The so-called Bahnreform (Railway Reform) came into effect on 1 January 1994, when the State railways Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn were formally reunited to form the current German Railway Corporation (Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

).

See also

  • History of rail transport
    History of rail transport
    The history of rail transport dates back nearly 500 years and includes systems with man or horse power and rails of wood or stone. Modern rail transport systems first appeared in England in the 1820s...

  • Rail transport in Germany
    Rail transport in Germany
    , Germany had a railway network of 41,315 km. 19,857 km are electrified. The total track length was 76,473 km. Germany is a member of the International Union of Railways . The UIC Country Code for Germany is 80.-Overview:...

  • History of the railway in Württemberg
    History of the railway in Württemberg
    The History of railways in Württemberg describes the beginnings and expansion of rail transport in Württemberg from the first studies in 1834 to today.- Starting points :...

  • German steam locomotive classification
  • Narrow gauge railways in Saxony

External links

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