page_title: Karlsruhe–Basel high-speed railway
section_title: Commissioning
hierarchical_section_title: Karlsruhe–Basel high-speed railway / History / Commissioning
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die ersten beiden Züge durchfahren nach dessen Inbetriebnahme den Katzenbergtunnel (Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland). Français&#160;: Traversée du Katzenbergtunnel (Bade-Wurtemberg, Allemagne) par les deux tout premiers trains le jour de sa mise en service.
context_page_description: The Karlsruhe–Basel high-speed railway is a new line being built on the route of the Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway. As a result of the project, the railway through the Rhine Valley is being upgraded to four continuous tracks and its operational efficiency will be increased as a result of the segregation of the various transport flows. The travel time for passenger services between Karlsruhe and Basel is to be shortened by 31 minutes. The project forms part of the Rotterdam–Genoa corridor and part of it is also part of the Main line for Europe. In September 2010, it was forecast to be completed in 2020.
  Large parts of the line runs next to the existing Rhine Valley Railway. The planning of the line has been carried out progressively since the mid-1980s and the first section of the line between Rastatt Süd and Offenburg, was placed in operation in 1993. While several sections have been opened others are under construction or not started. The main components of the projects include the Rastatt Tunnel, the Katzenberg Tunnel and a western bypass of Freiburg for freight.
  The date of the completion of the overall project is uncertain.
context_section_description: The first nine-kilometre section between Bühl and Achern was taken into operation in March 1993. The southbound track was opened to scheduled traffic on 7 March and the northern track was opened on 28 March. Following the transfer of the traffic from the old tracks—with an unchanged speed of 160 km/h—the original route was rebuilt with new tracks.
  The section between Buhl and Offenburg was taken into operation in June 2001. In mid-2003, the entire project was expected to be completed in 2012.
  After nine years of construction and the investment of approximately €260 million, the 20 km-long section between Rastatt Süd and Buhl went into operation at the timetable change on 12 December 2004. Four new stations (Baden-Baden Haueneberstein, Baden-Baden Rebland, Sinzheim and Sinzheim Nord) were opened on the new section and a new Karlsruhe Stadtbahn service (S4) was established between Baden-Baden and Achern. Thus, a total of 43 km of the new line had been completed. The total investment at that time amounted to €1.2 billion.
  The Katzenberg Tunnel was put into operation in December 2012.
  In July 2015, the responsibility for the project was transferred from DB ProjektBau to DB Netz.
caption: Inaugural run through the Katzenberg Tunnel with an ICE and a freight train (4 December 2012)
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