Intercity Deutsche Bahn and XC

[VioletEclipse]

I read so too, because they are too sluggish.

Sluggish they may be, but they are faster than you could even imagine after using only UK rail for almost a year, then get to Germany and sit in a luxuriously comfortable ICE class 401 (how on earth are they already like 25 years old?) it doesn't feel sluggish at all. But it's only 280km/h I suppose, not much in mainland Europe.

In Britain the trains aren't the problem, the IC225 can do 260km/h, but the infrastructure limits everything to 200kmh (125mph) or lower.

 

[cactustwirly]

I read so too, because they are too sluggish.

Yeah only ICE3s are cleared I believe?
That's what I was getting at, because 186mph btn Koeln & Frankfurt is so fun!

 

[30907]

Sluggish they may be, but they are faster than you could even imagine after using only UK rail for almost a year, then get to Germany and sit in a luxuriously comfortable ICE class 401 (how on earth are they already like 25 years old?) it doesn't feel sluggish at all. But it's only 280km/h I suppose, not much in mainland Europe.

It's not so much the top speed as the roller-coaster gradients on the KRM route.

 

[ptreanor]

It's all about the higher power to weight ratio required for the Koeln - Frankfurt NBS. The ICE1s are circa 108MW for 12 coaches + 2 power cars whereas the ICE3s are circa 9MW for 8 coaches (with 16 motored axles!).

 

[ptreanor]

Sorry 10MW for the ICEs...

 

[MarcVD]

I read so too, because they are too sluggish.

Essentially because of the line gradients. Previous high speed lines in Germany were built flat in order to accomodate freight. Koln Frankfurt is passenger only and is built like french HSLs with 3%+ gradients. ICE 1 and 2 cannot take that. Even Thalys applied but was denied access to the line because they could not guarantee a restart on a gradient with one of the 4 power bogies out of service. The ICE 3 has distributed traction...