The Karlsruhe Tunnel Is Still Not Finished
The main reason to go to Karlsruhe was to see if the contractors had completed the Stadtbahn tunnel under the city.
The pictures, show that they haven’t!
From Munich To Karlsruhe
After a night’s rest by the station in the excellent Excelsior Jotel, it was on to Karlsruhe in the morning.
Note.
- There are not many non-stop trains on this route an d my train was pretty crowded.
- The journey took three hours and cost thirty euros.
- We arrived in Karlsruhe on time.
It could easily have been done in stages with perhaps stops at Augsburg and Stuttgart.
The Excelsior In Munich Delivers
When I pass through Munich on my long trips, I generally stay in the Excelsior hotel by the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof).
- It is about a fifty metre walk from the station entrance.
- The hotel dies old-fashioned service at a reasonable price.
- The rooms are spacious and comfortable.
- It has baths.
- It does a proper cooked breakfast.
- It is convenient for the trams.
Once I needed a phone charger, so they sold me one for a couple of euros from their large collection guests had left behind.
From Berlin To Munich In Four Hours By Train
The length of the East Coast Main Line between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh is 632 kilometres.
Deutsche Bahn have recently completed an upgraded High Speed Line between Berlin and Munich, which has a length of 623 kilometres.
Both lines are not the very fastest of High Speed Lines, but lines where a consistent two hundred kilometres per hour is possible.
The East Coast Main Line was built in Victorian times and services typically take around twenty minutes over four hours, with nine-car InterCity 225 trains running twice an hour.
The Berlin-Munich route was originally built over two centuries ago, but the Germans have spent twenty-five years and many billions of euros punching a new route between Berlin and Nuremberg, through the difficult countryside of Thuringen Forest.
The route may allow the Germans to travel from Berlin to Munich in three hours fifty-five minutes, but at present you can only do it three times a day in a six-car train.
I took the lunchtime train and sat in First Class for a hundred and fourteen euros.
These are some of the pictures, that I took.
We were on time in Munich! Although reading an article in the February 2018 Edition of Modern Railways and talking to other passengers, the introduction of the service had been far from smooth, due to signalling issues.
Just as British Rail’s four-hour service took passengers from the airlines, Deutsche Bahn’s intention is to do the same.
But they will have to improve things.
Service Frequency
Three six-car trains every day in under four hours is just not enough trains, to compete with the airlines.
The plans for the London to Edinburgh route include an all-day frequency of a train every thirty minutes and when the new Class 801 trains are running under control of modern signalling, then many of these trains will do the journey in under four hours.
Route Capacity
The trains need to offer more capacity to provide a service to compete with the airlines.
Customer Service
In my four-hour journey, I was offered just one hot drink! I took a cup of hot chocolate and I had to pay a few euros for it.
I’m sure, Virgin Trains East Coast offer a better service on the East Coast route.
Conclusion
Properly developed, this route can become one of Europe’s main trunk rail routes.
The Modern Railways article compares the service with the new Paris-Bordeaux High Speed Line.
However, DB’s initial offering seems rather timid – 17 trains each way (compare this to the service between Paris and Bordeaux after opening of a new line in July 2017 – 27 trains each way daily!).
The article finishes with this paragraph.
When the Berlin to Nuremberg plan was being developed in the mid-1990s both the Government and DB assumed up to 137 trains each way would use the new line. It was expected the majority would be freight, with at least 20 ICE services each way as well as slower semi-fast services. Currently 35 ICE services use the full line with 18 regional services using the 20 km. section too. Freight traffic has not yet begun and seems unlikely to for several more years, if at all.
Deutsche Bahn has a lot of work to do.
If they get this service right, it must open up a lot of possibilities for new business and leisure services.
As an example, I’ve come across many Americans, Canadians and others on East Coast Main Line services, who’ve flown into Scotland and after visiting Edinburgh, London and possibly Paris, will fly back West.
Berlin to Munich must surely open up similar possibilities in Germany.
Overhead Third Rail In Berlin Hauptbahnhof
Increasingly, railway engineers are turning to overhead third rail to carry the train power.
The pictures show the installation in the Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
Adding Insult To Injury
I still couldn’t get BBC World, but to add insult to injury, I could get a porn channel! Not that I’m bothered about this level of porn, but it wasn’t what I wanted to watch. Although, I did find it funny, that a guy kept his hat on, whilst on the job. It wasn’t because he was cold either, as the sun was blazing away!
Projekt U5
Projekt U5 is Berlin’s latest extension to the U-Bahn network.
In the excellent project description on this Internet, it is described as a Gap Closure.
The project “gap closure U5” connects the traditional line U5 from Hönow to Alexanderplatz with the U55 between Alexanderplatz and Brandenburger Tor. It includes the construction of a 2.2 kilometer tunnel stretch and three new underground stations: Rotes Rathaus, Museumsinsel and Unter den Linden.
- Berlin U5 Missing Gap – 3 stations – – 3.22 km.- €525 million
- Northern Line Extension – 2 stations – 2.2 km. – £560 million
Both projects are for completion in 2020.
The Berlin U5 seems to have better hoardings.
Walking Around Berlin’s Museum Quarter
I took these pictures as I walked around Berlin’s Museum Quarter.
There is a lot of construction going on.
I spent about an hour in the Historical Museum finding about my Jewish ancestor, who Ibelieve came from Konigsberg.
A Gothic Railway Fantasy
They don’t build bridges like the Oberbaum bridge in Berlin anymore.
Thinking about it, London’s only fantasy bridge is Tower Bridge.
A Trip To The Berlin Olympic Stadium
My father hated both extreme-right and extreme-left politics with a vengeance and I can honestly say, that I never heard him tell a racist joke.
My father also liked his sport and always claimed he’d first been driven to White Hart Lane in a pony and trap, before the First Wold War. He said, that you used to give a kid, a shilling to hold the horse’s head during the match.
He also used to like his athletics and one day told me with great joy, how the black American athlete Jesse Owens had annoyed Hitler by wining three gold medals.
So as I was in Berlin, I had to visit the Berlin Olympic Stadium.
I arrived at the S-bahn station and walked through to the U-bahn station from where I returned to Central Berlin.
These are some of the npictures that I took.
It was a cold walk, but would be very pleasant in the sun.
The Anonymous Widower 