DB to launch Lufthansa SuperSprinters, could UK follow suit?

[peteb]

I've just heard about this, see headline from Railway Gazette International:

DB to launch Lufthansa SuperSprinters​

8 March 2021

GERMANY: Non-stop inter-city trains linking Köln with München and Berlin in less than 4 h are to be introduced from the December 2021 timetable change, as part of an expansion of air-rail links announced by DB Fernverkehr and Lufthansa on March 8.

It would be an interesting proposition in the UK, to reduce internal flights from say London to Edinburgh/Glasgow. I wonder what city centre to city centre journey times could be achieved with non stop running?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'm not sure that with HS2's 3tph of 400m trains from Manchester to London (the main domestic air market it could kill) that a dedicated train is necessary or desirable, but I certainly think "codeshares" should be negotiated with all major long haul airlines from Heathrow to provide through ticketing and to guarantee the connection at OOC.

 

[Aictos]

Seeing as they already operate similar services with the ICE Sprinter brand, I don't see the point in the Super Sprinter brand unless they intend to make those current Sprinter services even faster.

To me, it is a waste of funding that could be used elsewhere on the DB network.

 

[peteb]

I was thinking a sub 4 hr journey time London to Scotland non stop could wipe out air competition at a time when practical alternatives to air travel need to be considered. But codeshare a good idea.

 

[JonathanH]

I was thinking a sub 4 hr journey time London to Scotland non stop could wipe out air competition at a time when practical alternatives to air travel need to be considered. But codeshare a good idea.

How? Even a journey time around four hours is only competitive between the terminal stations. It isn't clear that speeding up the train service to miss out the stations on the route is a good move for the environment if two trains need to be run instead of one. HS2 brings some journey time improvement. Until then, I don't think there are going to be sub-4 hour trains between London and Glasgow or Edinburgh.

As has been pointed out before, the air market between London and Scotland doesn't actually carry that many people relative to the railway once you include the intermediate journeys made on the relevant trains.

 

[StephenHunter]

Codeshare to places like Cardiff and Manchester might be more feasible.

 

[gordonthemoron]

The DB idea of super sprinters would be prefereable to the current situation at Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof where trains from there to Cologne get absolutely rammed with flight arrivals