As I have not seen any discussion on a comment Lukas accidentally made during the Dresden-Leipzig preview stream, I thought I will open and share it in the forums. When talking about services the BR294 subs into, he mentions: You can find it on Youtube here with the timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/live/PCn8eSpxVNE?si=H5lQUpFF6uXtyF6c&t=5998 Especially with the short break afterwards and I think Matt clearing his throat, I do think this was an accidental leak from Lukas here instead of mixing up Kaiserslautern and Karlsruhe as he could've easily corrected himself. If they actually are working on this route, I doubt it's the one via Heidelberg, but the route via Hockenheim and Graben Neudorf, as it seems more like what DTG would do with the service variety. A bit of high speed action with up to 280km/h on the northern half with the Mannheim-Stuttgart high speed line and 200km/h on the southern half. Additionally there are quite a bit of regional and S-Bahn services on this route. Following the 200km/h part coming from the south, those would use the old route instead of the 280km/h line, which does briefly join up again near Hockenheim but then diverges and regional services towards Mannheim head west after Schwetzingen. Freight would run north after Schwetzingen towards the huge marshalling yard in Mannheim. Karlsruhe also a sizable freight yard, so there definitely is something for freight enthuasists. Length is around 60km ignoring the added length with diverging lines. An ICE only takes 20mins for this trip, while an S-Bahn takes around an hour. What are your thoughts? Was this an accidental leak and if yes, what do you wish to see for this route regarding rolling stock or timetable services?
While Karlsruhe is possible one day (hopefully not too soon, that would make it 264th route in row in that area, with Heilbronn on the horizon), I think he simply mistook it for Kaiserslautern. MKN has plenty of local freights where 294 makes perfect sense to substitute to.
