The line crosses the Swabian Jura mountain range, with trains traveling at speeds up to 250 km/h (155 mph).

The project was part of Deutsche Bahn's Netz 21 (network 21) concept, which envisages a reduction of the travel time between Frankfurt and Munich from over three and a half hours today to two and a half hours in the future.

The estimated construction cost of € 2 billion, is affected by the difficult geology that the tunnels will run through.

This changed in 2007, when the Federal Government, the State of Baden-Württemberg and Deutsche Bahn announced that the project had been officially approved.

[5][6][7] Preparatory construction work for the new line began in the autumn of 2010, and the ground-breaking ceremony was held on 7 May 2012.