Hanau-Gelnhausen high-speed railway

The Hanau-Gelnhausen high-speed railway is a planned railway expansion, part of a bigger project connecting Hanau to the Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway via Gelnhausen.[1] The railway project as a whole would improve journey times for trains travelling from Frankfurt-am-Main to both Berlin and Munich. Its parts are as follows:

• expansion and new construction between Hanau and Nantenbach („Südkorridor“)
• four-track expansion of the existing Kinzigtalbahn from Hanau to Gelnhausen
• new high-speed line from Gelnhausen to Fulda
• expansion and new construction from Fulda to Gerstungen, and
• the already completed expansion of the Thüringer Bahn between Gerstungen, Eisenach and Erfurt, which now allows speeds of 160 km/h, partially even 200 km/h.

With the expansion, trains travelling to Berlin would be able to reach the Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway quickly and trains travelling to Munich would, if the connection includes a triangular junction, allow high-speed trains to bypass Aschaffenburg (where high-speed trains stop on the way to Munich) and reach Würzburg quicker. The federal transport minister told parliament in 2010 that construction would not commence prior to 2025. Despite this the federal government has allocated funds to continue the planning process.