Intercity Express is a high-speed rail system in Germany. It also serves destinations in Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands as part of cross-border services. It is the flagship of the German state railway, Deutsche Bahn. ICE fares are fixed for station-to-station connections, on the grounds that the trains have a higher level of comfort. Travelling at speeds up to 320 km/h (200 mph), they are aimed at business travellers and long-distance commuters and marketed by Deutsche Bahn as an alternative to flights.
A German ICE 3 trainset exiting a tunnel
First InterCityExperimental (ICE V) run as a full train, near Munich (September 1985)
ICE 3 and ICE 4 trains at Munich Main Station
ICE 1 on the Nuremberg–Ingolstadt line (December 2006)
High-speed rail in Germany
Construction of the first high-speed rail in Germany began shortly after that of the French LGVs. However, legal battles caused significant delays, so that the German Intercity-Express (ICE) trains were deployed ten years after the TGV network was established. Germany has around 1,658 kilometers of high speed lines.
Third generation ICE running on the Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway
Bartelsgrabentalbrücke of the Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway