In December 2022, another high-speed line was opened in Germany in the heart of Baden-Württemberg. The line runs between the cities of Wendlingen and Ulm and is part of the upgraded and new line Stuttgart-Augsburg, which is part of the high-speed network of Deutsche Bahn. It is initially intended for local and long-distance passenger transport. The Swabian Alb is crossed at up to 250km/h.
As part of the “Priority Axis No. 17” of the Trans-European Networks (Paris-Budapest/Bratislava, so-called “Magistrale for Europe”), it will connect Stuttgart and Ulm over a distance of 84.8 kilometers in the final state. The travel time could be reduced by up to 15 minutes and is now about 27 minutes.
NBS Wendlingen-Ulm – Parallelfahrt Filstalbrücke – ICE 4 Baureihe 412 und IRE auf der Filstalbrücke
SFS Wendlingen–Ulm mit einem IRE von DB Regio im Bahnhof Merklingen – Schwäbische Alb
Before the line was put into service, all trains between Stuttgart and Ulm had to use the route through the Fils Valley and the Geislinger Steige. This area only allowed speeds of 160 km/h or 70 km/h in sections. Due to the relocation of the high-speed trains to the high-speed line, additional routes for freight traffic were created over the old existing line.
A slab track was installed on the route. ETCS Level 2 (Baseline 3) without external signals is used as the train control system.