Welcome to Mannheim in the German state of Baden Würtemberg.  It’s June 2007, the sun has broken through the clouds and we are ready for a rail adventure! In a few weeks a new international service will open between Frankfurt and Paris. The section in France uses the  recently opened  LGV while the German portion is the upgraded line from Mannheim to Saarbrücken. We are travelling along this line today. The ABS begins on crossing the Rhine, Ludwigshafen has new tracks and a new station - it was in need of the extra capacity anyway as BASF are nearby busily despatching trainloads of chemicals. Beyond Ludwigshafen there is an extra pair of tracks to Schifferstadt, the start of a newly electrified line to Speyer that will eventually give Die Bahn a new freight route south to Karlsruhe. Neustadt is reached and the lovely Pfälzer Wald is in view. The climb up into the hills is scenically splendid but quite slow, little can be done except dig a long tunnel. However, on the plateau the ABS  is under construction,  but still some years from completion. The run continues through Kaiserslautern and Homburg to Tram-Train city  and industrial centre Saarbrücken . RT 84 mins