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June 2, 1991 – Green light for ICE passenger service
The first generation of ICEs side by side: (from left to right) the Experimental ICE, and an ICE-1 and two ICE-2s in the ICE factory in Munich, 1996
In the first six months a creditable record was achieved: five million passengers were transported on the 7,400 journeys made by the new ICE. Eleven percent of the passengers were new rail customers and the figure was continuing to rise, as the railway company reported with satisfaction in its annual report for 1991. The Deutsche Bahn celebrated the event as the third largest technical innovation in passenger transportation following the Trans-Europe Express in the mid-1950s and the InterCity at the end of the 1970s.
It was preceded by long years of development: in 1983 the railway company commissioned an “InterCity Experimental.” The development and construction of the new ICE-V, of which the “V” stood for “Versuch”, experiment, was headed by the central office of the railway company then known as the Bundesbahn in Munich and involved around 300 firms including Siemens, Thyssen-Henschel, Krupp, Krauss-Maffei, Duewag and AEG. In the course of numerous trial and test runs, the five-part experimental train continuously increased its speed until on November 14, 1985, it exceeded the 300-km/h limit for the first time. Its official maiden trip took place a few days later on November 26, 1985. The high-point of the development work came on May 1, 1988, when the new ICE travelled with a top speed of 406.9 km per hour, which at the time was a world record.
The findings from the ICE-V project played an essential part in the development and construction of the ICE-1. Siemens remained one of the most important suppliers, manufacturing the traction motors, transformers, driving and brake switches and condensators. After manufacture and handover, an ICE-1 fleet of 25 trains commenced operation on the Hamburg–Frankfurt–Stuttgart–Munich line. Almost exactly 20 years before Siemens once again became the most important rail technology partner of the Deutsche Bahn.
With the ICx, the Deutsche Bahn has said that it is once again entering a new era. The framework call-off contract that was signed by the Deutsche Bahn and Siemens at the beginning of May in Berlin provides for the delivery of up to 300 ICx trains by 2030. Here too the head of the railway company, Rüdiger Grube is full of enthusiasm: “Our customers in particular can look forward to the most modern train in the world”, he said. It will however be a while before passengers will be able to ride in it: the trains are scheduled to make their first journeys in 2016.
June 2011 – Dr. Florian Kiuntke