Date: 14.10.2023
Travel time: ICE 4 (Class 412) 7 cars
Vmax. train: 250 km/h
Vmax. railway: 250 km/h
Scheduled travel time: 4:08 h
Actual travel time: 4:16 h
Welcome to the journey by ICE 1156!
This train is a ICE "sprinter", starting at Berlin Südkreuz and ending at Bonn Bad-Godesberg. Due to restauration of the railway between Cologne and Bonn the train had to end in Cologne main station already. During the three hours and 51 minutes between Berlin-Spandau and Cologne main station the ICE doesn´t stop a single time...or does it?
Just before Wolfsburg there appeared "Next stop: Wolfsburg Hbf" on the screens inside the train. Taking a brief look into the DB-App I noticed, that the train is going to make an extra stop there. Strangely no announcements were done by the train crew and the doors even remained locked, after the train has stopped. About two minutes later the train moved on unresisted.
At Hannover main station the train had to stop in front of a red signal. So It wasn´t possible to experience the ICE passing through Hannover...
Between Berlin and Wolfsburg the train went 250 km/h. From Hannover to Hamm there were 200 km/h possible on some parts. After Hamm the route lead through Unna, Hagen and Wuppertal to Cologne, which is not the speediest way, but the shortest and least time consuming one. Because of some small accumulated delays the train arrived at Cologne main station with a delay of 11 minutes.
Since the 13th of September in 2023 the ICE 1156 operates with single 7 car long ICE 4 units (Class 412), replacing the ICE 2 on this connection.
Time indication:
0:01:03 Berlin Südkreuz
0:05:33 Berlin Hauptbahnhof
0:11:28 Berlin-Spandau
0:27:13 + Wolfsburg Hbf
0:35:25 --- Lehrte
0:39:28 --- Hannover Hbf
0:52:56 --- Minden (Westfalen)
0:58:22 --- Herford
1:00:46 --- Bielefeld Hbf
1:04:35 --- Gütersloh Hbf
1:11:51 --- Hamm (Westf) Hbf
1:15:20 --- Unna
1:22:35 --- Hagen Hbf
1:27:58 --- Wuppertal Hbf
1:33:46 --- Solingen Hbf
1:45:44 Köln Hbf
Have a nice trip!