The Exciting Future for Germany’s FASTEST High Speed Regional Train!

The Exciting Future for Germany’s FASTEST High Speed Regional Train!

This is the RE200, Germany’s fastest regional 
train running along a brand new high-speed railway line that opened back in 2022. It’s a 
record-breaking route for regional trains in Germany. But despite its impressive speed, trains 
remain surprisingly empty. Delays in construction, limited capacity, and issues with infrastructure 
may have gotten this service off to a rocky start, but that’s going to change very soon. So join me 
today as we ride this unique regional train along the Ulm to Stuttgart high-speed railway line while 
we take a look at the service exciting future and how it’s been impacted by one of Germany’s most 
controversial infrastructure projects. [Music] We begin our journey at Ulm Hauptbahnhof, the main 
station serving this important university town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The city 
itself is perhaps most famous for its Gothic cathedral, which is sort of visible from the 
train station if you look between the buildings, but we are not here to see that. Instead, 
let’s go catch some trains. Unfortunately, the station at the time of filming was 
under heavy reconstruction, with most of the station’s facilities temporarily 
relocated to this container box. Luckily, the station’s best feature is still in action. 
But to get there, we have to use this new overpass that currently acts as the main gateway to the 
platforms during construction. Ulm Hauptbahnhof is served by trains in all sorts of colors, 
including trains in DB Regio’s red livery, the blue Desiro HC trains in Arriva colors, and 
Baden-Württemberg’s yellow bwegt livery. So many colors for all the different regional 
trains here. The station also sees many ICE long-distance services call here on 
their way between Munich and Stuttgart. Many ICE trains now also take 
advantage of the high-speed railway line towards Stuttgart that 
we will also be traveling on today, such as this ICE 4 that’s now departing 
for the newly constructed flyunder that allows trains to go easily in and out of the 
station without disturbing other train traffic. And speaking of construction projects, the 
station is undergoing massive upgrade works as both the station building itself was 
in need of repair, but also the railway infrastructure itself with the old signaling 
system needing total replacement. So much so that Deutsche Bahn has planned to shut down the 
entire station for almost a full month in 2026. Despite the main underpass at the time of 
recording leading to pretty much nowhere due to the construction, it remained open, 
allowing you to use the station’s best feature. The luggage conveyor belts that 
are still functional here in they used to be common all over Germany and other European 
main stations, but my recent experiences with them seem to suggest they are mostly out 
of order and becoming a more rare sight. Anyway, enough about the station’s 
features. Around 40 minutes before scheduled departure time our 
train appears in the distance, having just come off the high-speed railway 
line finishing its run from Wendlingen. The service is operated using top-and-tailed 
Siemens Vectron locomotives capable of 200 km per hour. Both Vectron locomotives are in 
a paint scheme promoting the RE200 being the fastest regional train service in Germany. In 
between the Vectrons, the train features five former long-distance InterCity and InterRegio 
carriages now painted in DB Regio red. However, this rolling stock is only temporary, and we’ll 
talk more about the upcoming brand new trains after we depart. The new trains will bring 
a lot of benefits, including the possibility to officially bring bikes on board, although some 
fellow travelers today managed to get around that restriction on this older train. Right, I think 
it’s about time we head on board the train and go find a seat. As with most regional trains in 
Germany, it’s not possible to reserve a seat. So, we are free to pick any available one. And on 
this departure, that looks to be no problem. In the end, I went for one of these 
airline-style seats in the combined first and second class carriage. One thing 
to note before we depart is that only a few select seats and carriages have power outlets. 
So if you need to charge up, make sure to pick the right seat from the beginning. A few moments 
later, we depart Ulm Hauptbahnhof a minute behind schedule at 15:30. The new high-speed line towards 
Wendlingen starts immediately after departure as we dive into the underpass and head for the 
first of the many tunnels on this route. So, while we are in the dark, let’s take a closer 
look at the route map for today’s journey. Today, we’re catching the RE200, which runs for 
just 60 km along a new high-speed railway line, making one intermediate stop on its 
30 minute long journey to Wendlingen, giving the train an average speed of 120 km/h. 
However, this service is really just a precursor to a full route going all the way to Stuttgart. 
But as the current railway line from Wendlingen into Stuttgart is too congested, it has to 
terminate short. Eventually, however, it will be replaced by the brand new high-speed RE1 service 
running all the way from Karlsruhe via Stuttgart and Ulm to Friedrichshafen and eventually Lindau, 
which we’ll touch on more later in the video. The new RE1 service will be operated by brand 
new Coradia Max double-decker trains from Alstom capable of 200 km/h, making them the 
fastest regional train in Germany. As the two other high-speed railway regional lines in Germany 
have decided to order the slightly slower Siemens Desiro HC for their future services. We emerge 
from the almost 6 km long Albabstieg Tunnel, now having reached our train’s maximum speed 
of 200 km/h. Soon those brand new Alstom trains will be doing the same, but before that can 
happen one of Germany’s most controversial and delayed infrastructure projects must be finished, 
which we’ll talk more about later in the video, but first let’s check out the seats on the old 
trains these carriages are fairly old and used to be common all over long-distance transport 
in Germany. They have standard amenities like reading lights, which is very handy 
on this route as about 50% of it is in tunnels. The seats themselves are equipped 
with a storage pocket as well as a tray table, although this one had definitely seen better 
days. A bin is also provided by the window, and the seat can be reclined 
using the button in the armrest. Despite the seat’s age, a good amount of 
padding remains, making the seat rather comfortable. They’re definitely a bit tired, but 
overall they are fine for this 30-minute hop. A few moments later, our train begins to 
slow down for the only intermediate stop, Merklingen, where we meet 
with the other RE200 train, which together with ours provide an 
hourly service in both directions. This is the only intermediate station on the 
high-speed line that’s currently open and served by regular trains. The station is exclusively 
served by the RE200 with the faster ICE services passing through without stopping. And now, as 
we rejoin the high-speed line and get back up to speed, let’s go take a look around the rest of 
the train’s interior. The carriage we’re traveling in is actually a combined first and second 
class with first class coming in compartment seats like this. The seats are largely similar 
with the main difference being the headrest. As we head into the rest of the carriage, we 
get to second class. This comes in an expected two plus two layout, mostly airline-style 
seats, but again there are a few tables. At the other end of the carriage, there’s one more 
first class compartment as well as a dedicated train crew staff compartment. The next carriage is 
a lot more conventional, just being second class throughout in a 2 plus 2 layout. At the ends of 
every carriage, you’ll find the train’s toilets. While this particular one wasn’t spotlessly 
clean, the main functions were working, including the train’s flushing 
system as well as the water supply. Although the train did seem to have run out of 
soap, there’s definitely room for improvement, but you could get your business done here if you 
had to. Back at my seat, our train is now passing through the Swabian Jura mountain range, which 
is where a significant portion of the line’s tunnels are located with the train emerging 
from the tunnels for a brief moment, offering some great views of the nature. This also means 
our journey is now hastily coming towards an end. with our train beginning to slow down to take 
the junction off the high-speed railway line, which is actually pretty cool 
as it happens inside a tunnel where you can then see the high-speed 
line continue up on this embankment. And the reason for the train line currently 
ending here kind of in the middle of nowhere is that the last bit of the high-speed railway 
line towards Stuttgart is not ready yet. The last bit of the line into Stuttgart is part of 
the controversial Stuttgart 21 project, a heavily delayed infrastructure scheme to completely 
rebuild the city’s main station underground. It’s been plagued by cost overruns, protests, 
and engineering challenges, and it was meant to open in 2019, but it’s likely going to take 
another year before at least some of it opens. So right now this service pretty much only runs 
to serve Merklingen station and take advantage of some of the completed infrastructure. In the 
end, our train pulls into Wendlingen a couple minutes ahead of schedule after this interesting 
journey on Germany’s fastest regional train. A quick and easy transfer is available here to the frequent trains continuing all the 
way into Stuttgart’s old main station, such as this MetropolExpress service 
operated with Bombardier Talent trains. If you’ve enjoyed this video, make sure you’re 
subscribed to the channel as I try to post a new one every Sunday. You can also follow me over 
on Bluesky at intercitysimon.com. I usually post live for my travels in real time over 
there. So, it’s a great place to get a sneak peek of what videos might be coming to the 
channel in the future. Thanks for watching.

Follow me on Bluesky @intercitysimon.com https://bsky.app/profile/intercitysimon.com

Today, we’re riding Germany’s fastest regional train,the RE 200, reaching speeds of up to 200 km/h!

But this service is a bit unusual: instead of connecting major cities, it terminates in a small town between them, making it one of the least-used high-speed routes in the country.

So join me onboard as we explore this little-known regional train, find out why it often runs almost empty, and take a look at its exciting future with brand-new trains coming soon.

Train type: Siemens Vectron and IC1 carriages
Route: Ulm Hauptbahnhof to Wendlingen
Train: RE 200 (16032)
Distance: 60km
Journey time: 30km
Average speed: 120 km/h
Price: 10.60€

00:00 Intro
00:44 Ulm Hauptbahnhof
03:05 RE 200 Arrival (Germany’s fastest regional train)
04:40 Depature
05:00 Route Map (And Future of the RE200)
06:13 Entering the Ulm-Stuttgart high-speed railway
06:40 Seat Tour
07:23 Merklingen Station
07:54 Train Tour
09:08 Great Scenery (Swabian Jura)
09:45 Stuttgart 21 (Contovertisal infastructure project) – And why this train is empty.
10:25 Wendlingen station
10:38 Transfer to Stuttgart

#Travel #Trains #TripReport