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TWIG-Frankfurt’s wheelers and dealers will not have to wake up so early in
the near future to make their lunch appointments in Paris. Deutsche Bahn
(DB) and SNCF, the German and French railroads, announced that they will
have a high-speed rail link connecting the French capital and the banking
centre by way of Saarbruecken in operation by 2006. Travel time will be cut
from six hours to three and a half. The heads of the two railroads told
reporters in Metz they are confident that the new Frankfurt-Paris link and
the already existing Cologne-Brussels-Paris express line will help spur a
rail renaissance in Europe. And toward shaping the future of rail travel, DB
and SNCF intend to cooperate in developing a new generation of high-speed
trains that can be used throughout Europe.
Deutsche Bahn is using Expo 2000 as occasion to roll out
a new generation of high-speed passenger trains. The first members of the
ICE 3 family of express trains will be used for "Expo Express"
service to Hannover as of June 1, Deutsche Bahn officials announced in
Berlin on May 23. The new ICE (Inter-City Express) can travel at speed of up
to 300 kilometres per hour - roughly 190 mph - and, in contrast to the
earlier ICEs, can run on tracks outside Germany.
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