High-speed route
ICE
Cologne → Frankfurt · Germany
ICE in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 180 km
- Fastest time
- 1 h 08 min
- Average speed
- 159 km/h
- Top speed
- 300 km/h
- Operator
- Deutsche Bahn
- Train
- ICE 3neo
- Countries
- Germany
- In service since
- 2002
- Runs
- every 30–60 min
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
A roller-coaster alignment beside the A3 autobahn with 40 ‰ grades: only the most powerful ICE sets are cleared for it.
Germany built this 2002 line like a roller-coaster: rather than tunnel the Westerwald flat, it follows the A3 autobahn over it with 4% gradients no conventional train could climb, which is why only distributed-power ICE 3 family sets are allowed on it. The 300 km/h plunge cut Cologne–Frankfurt from over two hours along the Rhine to 64 minutes, and gave tiny Montabaur a bullet-train station that still raises eyebrows. The old riverside line survives below for the slow, beautiful way.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 379647 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 5 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: Deutsche Bahn — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Cologne cathedral farewell
- Siegburg/Bonn interchange
- Westerwald ridge-and-valley sprint
- Montabaur’s improbable ICE stop
- Limburg an der Lahn
- Frankfurt skyline approach
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Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Cologne → Frankfurt · Frankfurt → Cologne.