ICE-G

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As ICE-G was a train system for between about 1987 and about 1993 goods - high-speed traffic on the basis of InterCity Express designed -Personenzüge.

initial situation

While the ICE prototype InterCityExperimental went into operation in the mid-1980s and a trend reversal in passenger transport with the ICE system was expected, the market shares of the Deutsche Bundesbahn in general and express transport fell significantly: between 1970 and 1985, the share of Railway for express goods from 3.8% (0.8 million t) to 1.2% (0.4 million t) and for general cargo from 26.3% (5.5 million t) to 8.1% (2.7 million t). While the transport market for urgent goods in Germany increased from 12.5 to 33 million t between 1970 and 1985, the market share of the railways in this segment fell from around 30 to almost 10 percent between 1970 and 1984. With the railway's market shares declining , the market for urgent goods grew particularly strongly, with freight rates being many times those of non-urgent shipments.

First considerations

Against this background, the former Deutsche Bundesbahn hoped to set itself apart from the competition with the particularly fast ICE-G trains in the rapidly growing, fast freight traffic and to regain market share in freight . ( In the late 1980s, freight trains ran on German rails at a maximum speed of 120 km / h; today, the maximum speed of individual freight trains, for example the Parcel InterCity , is 160 km / h).

On the basis of the multiple units of the first ICE generation , freight trains were to be developed to transport particularly urgent goods over the new Hanover – Würzburg line, opened in 1991, at more than 250 km / h.

With little development effort, the drive heads of the series ICE were to be taken over unchanged, the intermediate wagons expanded accordingly for freight traffic to accommodate 36 to 40 roll containers each. The base area of ​​these vessels should be 800 mm or 1000 mm × 1200 mm each, the maximum gross weight around 350 kg each. The cars should also be equipped with ramps for loading and unloading the containers on 76 cm platforms . In a pilot phase, loading and unloading should be partially manual, later fully automatic.

Between 1982 and 1997, postal trains operated in Germany under the Post InterCity category at speeds of up to 200 km / h. In France, two high-speed trains had already as for October 1, 1984 postal TGV operation in postal traffic between Paris and Lyon added. The vehicles procured by La Poste achieved a transport time of around two and a half hours at speeds of up to 270 km / h. The TGV Postal has eight wagons, each of which can be loaded with a payload of up to 10.5 t. A cost of around 15 euros was calculated per train-km.

Investigations

A preliminary study by the Institute for Transport, Railway Construction and Operation (IVE) of the University of Hanover with HaCon Ingenieurgesellschaft on behalf of the Federal Railway Central Office in Munich had shown the general feasibility and the possibility of sufficient market potential. In addition to shifting truck traffic to rail, air freight , air mail and parts of the regular mail volume should also be transported; The night airmail network of the German Federal Post Office carried around 100 t per night. The study assumed an immediate market potential totaling around 280,000 t per year (without induced new traffic), combined with the possibility of networking 17 economic centers.

An in-depth study was carried out as part of the ICE-G study - very fast freight traffic on the Hamburg – Munich pilot route . In an initial cost estimate , transport costs between 20.8 and 52.3 pfennigs per kilogram were determined for multiple units with five to six or ten to twelve intermediate cars ( half or block train) . In addition, there would be costs for the use of the rail network, the provision of the containers (0.4 Pf / kg) as well as personnel and infrastructure costs.

The study came to the recommendation to seize the opportunities of the ICE-G project in order to penetrate more strongly into the transport market for urgent goods. A pilot relation should be tested between Hamburg and Munich. The payload of the car should be between 12.2 and 13.6 tons. A travel time of six and a half hours and an average speed of (initially) 130 km / h was calculated between Hamburg and Munich , with a 20-minute stop in Hanover and Nuremberg for a quick turnaround. The adaptation of the vehicles was to begin in autumn 1990, combined with further investigations into the integration of the ICE-G in the transport chain between sender and recipient.

In 1992, on behalf of the Federal Railroad, the IVE examined the possibilities of very fast freight traffic in the corridor between Würzburg and Hanover in a further research project . The focus of the considerations was now the question of what effects an ICE-G traveling at 250 km / h (sometimes at night ) would have on the timetable routes of the night at an interval of six minutes (timetable 1991/1992) with 120 km / h over the New Hanover – Würzburg line would have trains running.

For day trips, other types of operation were investigated:

  • Coupling of an ICE-G half-train with a half-train of passenger traffic
  • Driving in the shade at a block distance behind a passenger ICE
  • Use of own timetable routes

For a pilot phase, a free choice of route with transshipment of goods on the platform was proposed. Various operating variants were examined for their effects on freight traffic at night:

  • Overhaul of freight trains in the depots, which were built about 20 km apart along the route
  • On-the-fly overhaul on the open road using transfer points that were set up about seven kilometers apart. It had to be taken into account that such overhauls were not permitted in the driving service regulations valid at the time in the numerous tunnels along the route.
  • Relocation of trains to the old line, which partially runs parallel to the new line and is connected to the new line at individual points. It was planned to equip the old line with liner train control to increase the capacity and maximum speed of the freight trains; Furthermore, the establishment of a large-scale train monitoring system for disposition . Anticipatory planning should avoid extending the travel time of the freight trains running on the old route; In some places straightening should ensure a consistently high speed (120 km / h) for conventional freight trains.

As an example, ICE-G trains with a departure time in Munich or Hamburg at 10 p.m. were examined in a total of seven variants. In addition to overhauls and the use of free routes, the speed of the ICE-G was sometimes reduced to 160 to 200 km / h in order to "swim" in sections with the flow of passenger and freight trains and to avoid overtaking. Building on this, a simulation of operational irregularities was carried out, which revealed considerable interventions in order to maintain the operational quality of the ICE-G in the event of a malfunction.

The investigation showed in various variants that most of the freight trains on the new line - with a loss of travel time of eight to ten minutes each - would have been overtaken standing; flying overhauls would only have been possible in isolated cases. A deterioration in the overall operational quality due to the ICE-G was expected.

Further investigations

At the end of 1998, investigations were in progress between DB and SNCF to introduce the Freight Express (FEX), a high-speed system for freight transport based on the ICE or TGV . Paris – Brussels – Frankfurt / Cologne was selected as the pilot route .

See also

swell

  • Marian Gaidzik, Bernd Kruse, Lutz Baur: ICE-G for fast freight traffic . In: Railway technical review . 36, No. 3, 1987, pp. 147-153.
  • Lutz Baur, Bernd Kruse, Jürgen Siegmann, Volker Sustrate: Fast freight traffic in the ICE system (ICE-G) . In: Railway technical review . 39, No. 11, 1990, pp. 655-660.
  • Jürgen Hörstel, Volker Klahn, Helmut Wegel: Planning a very fast freight traffic on the high-speed line Hanover – Würzburg . In: Railway technical review . 42, No. 1/2, 1993, pp. 79-85.

literature

  • Institute for Transport, Railway Construction and Operation (IVE), University of Hanover, HaCon Ingenieurgesellschaft: Very fast freight transport (ICE-G) . Preliminary study on behalf of the BZA Munich, Hanover 1987.
  • Institute for Transport, Railway Construction and Operation (IVE), University of Hanover, Institute for Railway Technology GmbH (IFB), HaCon Ingenieurgesellschaft: ICE-G - Very fast freight traffic on the Hamburg – Munich pilot route . Interim study on behalf of the BZA Munich, Hanover 1990.
  • Institute for Transport, Railway Construction and Operation (IVE), University of Hanover: Planning of very fast freight transport (ICE-G) on the Würzburg – Hanover NBS . Research project on behalf of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, 1992.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Report project freight express . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 12, 1998, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 507