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Berlin Hauptbahnhof, B Hbf, Berlin, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Germany: 30 years of ICE on the rails (2021)

Above/featured: Berlin Hauptbahnhof – 9 Dec 2015 (6D1). Departing from track 3 is ICE 554 to Köln (front-half) and ICE 544 to Düsseldorf (back-half); trains split in the town of Hamm.

June 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of high-speed Intercity Express (ICE) service on German rail.

In the 1991 vs. 2021 comparison graphic provided by Deutsche Bahn, I’ve marked in green the ICE routes upon which I’ve made dozens of trips since late-2001 (when I moved to Heidelberg). Even after leaving in 2003, frequent annual trips back to Germany meant spending a lot of time planted on express trains across the country. Arriving in Europe mostly meant flying into Frankfurt am Main airport, from which I’d travel:

Frankfurt to Berlin, via Kassel
Frankfurt to Heidelberg, via Mannheim
Frankfurt to Köln
Frankfurt to Munich, via Stuttgart
Berlin to Frankfurt, via Kassel
Berlin to Köln, via Hannover
Köln to Berlin, via Hannover
Köln to Frankfurt
Munich to Frankfurt, via Stuttgart

Over the last few years, the express stretch between Erfurt and Halle/Leipzig has vastly improved the Berlin-Frankfurt and Berlin-Munich routes, cutting the one-way travel time for each route by about one hour. Except for the Erfurt-Halle/Leipzig stretch, I’ve travelled on every “Stundentakt” ICE route (thick red/green in the graphic below).

Intercity Express, Deutsche Bahn, German Rail, Germany, Deutschland

ICE coverage, including recent work on the Erfurt-Halle/Leipzig stretch; graphic courtesy of Deutsche Bahn. My “dozens on ICE” are marked in green; red filled circles indicate cities I frequented the most (B, F, HD, K, M).

Intercity Express, train fleet, Deutsche Bahn, German Rail, Germany, Deutschland

The ICE fleet of trains include vehicles with maximum speeds of over 300 km/h; graphic courtesy of Deutsche Bahn.

Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhof, F Hbf, Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Hessen, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Morning ICE 5 service from Frankfurt am Main to Basel; how to read this train station signage – 20 May 2016 (6D1).

Hackerbrücke, München, Munich, Bavaria, Bayern, Germany, Deutschland.

Morning light at Munich’s Hackerbrücke station. Foreground: westbound metallic-white ICE train just departing the city’s central station, traveling right to left. Background: red DB regional train approaching central station, from left to right. Photo on 23 Feb 2017 (6D1).

I made three images above with a Canon EOS6D mark1 (6D1). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-l60.

Abfahrtstafel (Departures board), Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhof, fotoeins.com

How to read signage at German train stations

You’re excited – you’ve finally arrived in Germany. You’ve decided to travel the country by train, but you’re not familiar with the German language, and you may find the signs puzzling and difficult to read.

The following is a short guide to signage at German train stations to help get you on your way. Examples below are taken from Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhof (central or main train station), although descriptions should apply similarly at other stations.

Below are descriptions for:

Departures board (Abfahrtstafel)
Destination signage (Zugzielanzeiger)
Car sequence signage (Wagenreihungsplan)
Arrivals-, departures schedules (Ankunfts-, Abfahrtspläne)

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Hong Kong: almost China at the Lo Wu gateway

I’m at the turnstiles, off to the side from the steady stream of people going through to the other side.

I’m standing on the one side in Hong Kong (香港).

The other side is the city of Shenzhen in the People’s Republic of China’s province of Guangdong (Kwangtung | 廣東 | 广东).

MTR trains come in from Hong Kong and stop here at the end of the line. People pour out of the trains, and head for Shenzhen. There are occasional lulls in between frequent arrivals and departures of the trains, reminding me I’m in the middle of the countryside and at the frontier section separating between what most people know as Hong Kong and China.

Over on the “other” side, Shenzhen is a strong economic force, helped along by its special designation as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), but there’s still a special allure for many to working inside Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region. MTR rail passengers depart Hong Kong and enter Shenzhen at either the Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau (Spur Line) crossings. The average cross-border passenger traffic numbers are 220,000 and 80,000 people per day, at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau, respectively (Source 1, Source 2).

From an economic, urban planning, and logistics point of view, it’s no surprise there’s a push to amalgamate Shenzhen with Hong Kong to create a super-metropolis here at the mouth of the Pearl River. Hong Kong has over 7 million people, whereas the population of neighbouring Shenzhen exceeds 13 million. Many would like to see easier and faster movement of goods and people between the two cities, but many in Hong Kong fear an exacerbation of existing problems with overcrowding and overburdened resources.

But what of the people going back and forth? How many from China and/or Shenzhen enter Hong Kong for work or school, and reverse course at the end of every day? How many from Hong Kong go to work in Shenzhen?

I wonder what the daily routine is for someone going back and forth between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. I watch patiently, and I wonder what it’s like on the other side. I have no doubt there’s someone on the other side in Shenzhen who’s wondering the same thing.

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Berlin Gleisdreieck: winter vs. summer

Gleisdreieck (“railway triangle”, “triangular junction”) is a U-Bahn train- and junction-station at the western end of the Kreuzberg district in the German capital city of Berlin.

The station has both upper-level and lower-level platforms serving lines U1 and U2, respectively, although both sets of track are raised above ground. At Gleisdreieck, the U1 line runs west-east, whereas the U2 line runs perpendicularly and temporarily “north-south”.
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MTR Hong Kong: in town flight check-in

Chep Lap Kok airport, otherwise known as Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), opened for service in 1998, replacing the smaller Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon. HKIA operates 24-hours, and is one of the busiest airports in the world by passenger numbers, aircraft movements, and cargo traffic.

As the airport is located over 30 kilometres (over 20 miles) from Hong Kong’s “Central” business district and city centre, transport options include taxis, buses, coaches for major hotels, or the MTR.

The MTR (Mass Transit Railway) Airport Express route is a reasonably quick and inexpensive choice with trains running every 10-12 minutes between the city of Hong Kong and the airport in a one-way trip lasting under 30 minutes. As of posting, the cost for one adult is HKD$100 (less than USD$13) for a single journey, same day return ticket, or with an Octopus card; additional information about fare-, ticket-, and travel-options with the MTR Airport Express can be accessed here (fares above as of 2013).

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