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  • DB to launch Lufthansa SuperSprinters

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Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.

Moderators: Komachi, David Benton

 #1566100  by David Benton
 
GERMANY: Non-stop inter-city trains linking Köln with München and Berlin in less than 4 h are to be introduced from the December 2021 timetable change, as part of an expansion of air-rail links announced by DB Fernverkehr and Lufthansa on March 8.
https://www.railwaygazette.com/passenge ... 2020210312
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Free Railpage article
https://www.railpage.com.au/news/s/db-a ... rt-airport
 #1566101  by kato
 
Since they're not mentioning it - they're talking about:

2 trains/day Düsseldorf - Cologne - Frankfurt Airport - Nuremberg - Munich
-> Not additional trains. Instead they'll be cutting intermediate stops on two trains out of the regular ICE route to create "sprinters". Half the promised 30 minutes in savings would be through not serving Frankfurt itself.

1 train/day Hamburg - Hannover - Frankfurt - Frankfurt Airport
-> Current sprinter trains between Hamburg and Frankfurt that is simply extended for the extra 15 minutes to the airport. Will continue to serve Fankfurt of course.

3 trains/day Cologne - Düsseldorf - Berlin
-> Actual new sprinter connection. DB has had this in planning since 2018 due to a reduction in flights by budget airlines on this domestic connection. There have been political interventions with regard to not cutting stops (for Bielefeld in northeast Northrhine-Westphalia in particular), the Lufthansa cooperation may also be an attempt to circumvent some of these.