The city should become an ICE system stop: this is what local politicians and the coburg chamber of commerce are calling for, meaning that an ICE train should stop in coburg every two hours in each direction. So far, six ICE trains travel to coburg every day (three in each direction); from december 2019, there will be eight. This is how the railroad plans.
Deutsche bahn CEO richard lutz is said to have promised even more, wrote coburg member of parliament hans michelbach (CSU) on 3. July in a letter to federal transport minister andreas scheuer (CSU): at an early breakfast meeting on 27 july. June lutz "has assured that coburg will be integrated into the long-distance network at two-hour intervals when the deutschland-takt is introduced". ICE and IC connections currently pay for long-distance traffic. The deutschland-takt is scheduled to take effect in 2030, but according to the federal ministry of transportation, it will be launched in the first regions as early as 2021. The deutschland-takt aims to better coordinate local and long-distance traffic; on major axes, trains are to run every half hour.
A timetable for the deutschland-takt is currently being drawn up under the auspices of the federal ministry of transport. The most recent plan was for a connection between erfurt and nurnberg via coburg, with hourly trains between coburg and nurnberg and trains every two hours between nurnberg and erfurt via coburg. According to the draft, however, these connections were slower than today's ices. In his letter to scheuer, michelbach therefore asked for "a clear political signal", "that the ministry of transport also supports the plans of DB AG with regard to coburg", the integration into the long-distance network.
Minister scheuer's reply is now available: he has personally made sure that DB AG will further expand the long-distance service for coburg. "In the current expert draft for the target timetable for the deutschland-takt, coburg is also connected via the FR 10 line, which allows service with both fast regional traffic and long-distance traffic. The planned route, which in the current draft runs hourly in the direction of bamberg and twice-hourly in the direction of erfurt, can also be used as an ICE line, so that the deutschland-takt does not stand in the way of connecting coburg to the ICE network. Since long-distance services are to be provided on an economic basis, the decision on this will also be the responsibility of DB fernverkehr AG or its competitors in the future."
There may be additional connections to erfurt as early as the timetable change in december 2023: the free state has put them out to tender as regional expresses.