The train on the right, on track 4, is a first-generation InterCityExpress (ICE) which has been in operation since 1991. You can always tell a first-generation ICE because they have a decorative but dysfunctional hump on the roof of the dining car — but at least they HAVE a real dining car!

This particular train is ICE 583, which left Hamburg-Altona, in northern Germany, at 6:47 in the morning. After three more stops in Hamburg, it headed south via Hannover, Göttingen, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe and Fulda, and arrived in Würzburg right on time (imagine that!) at 10:30. After a two-minute halt it will continue south to Munich, with a stop in Augsburg on the way.

The train on the left, on track 5, is ICE 721, which left Münster (Westfalen) at 6:03 in the morning. This is a third generation InterCityExpress which means that it is capable of doing up to 300 km/hour (usually only 280 in actual practice) on the new high-speed railroad link between Cologne and Frankfurt.

It stopped at Frankfurt Airport and Frankfurt South Station, which is where I got on. After a nine-minute halt here in Würzburg it will continue on to Nürnberg, which is its final destination.

These third generation ICEs don’t usually have a BordRestaurant (dining car), just a BordBistro run by one overworked employee. Originally in the ICE3 there was standing room only in these BordBistros, but after massive protests they finally put in half a dozen tables so it is at least possible to sit and have breakfast, as I did on the way from Frankfurt to Würzburg.

Since these two trains are on opposite sides of the same platform it is of course very easy for passengers to change from one train to another — especially on a day like today when both trains are on time!

Dining car of a first-generation ICE train

In the dining car of a first-generation ICE train

My photos in this post are from 2005. I revised the text in 2022.

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