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| Stuttgart–Horb railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other name | Gäu Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Native name | Gäubahn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Owner | Deutsche Bahn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line number |
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| Locale | Baden-Württemberg, Germany | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Termini | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route number | 740 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operator(s) | DB Netz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line length | 67.227 km (41.773 mi) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius | 315 m (1,033 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Electrification | 15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating speed | 160 km/h (99 mph) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheStuttgart–Horb railway is a 67.227 kilometer-long railway in the southern part of the state ofBaden-Württemberg inGermany, running fromStuttgart toHorb. It forms part of a railway known as theGäubahn (IPA:[ˈɡɔɪbaːn]) or Gäu Railway.[2] TheRoyal Württemberg State Railways (Königlich Württembergischen Staats-Eisenbahnen orK.W.St.E.) and theBaden State Railways (Badische Staatseisenbahnen) constructed the majority of this line between the years 1866 and 1879. Today the partially single-track, fully electrified line features the high-speedIntercity-Express (ICE) service, with itstilting train technology, traveling from Stuttgart toZürich. In addition, a multitude of local train services of numerous railway companies are on offer. The Gäu Railway is also a significant line in the North-South freight service system.

The Stuttgart–Horb railway steadily ascends fromStuttgart Hbf in a continuous loop around the city centre, which, due to its superb views of the basin of the Stuttgart valley, lent the name "Panoramabahn" to this section, and counts as one of the most beautiful city centre railways in Germany. From the city it heads in a southwesterly direction, and runs alongside the nature parkSchönbuch betweenBöblingen undHerrenberg. From there, the Gäubahn runs through the eponymousGäu toEutingen. The route then descends into theNeckar valley as far as Horb and touches the eastern foothills of theBlack Forest.
The Stuttgart–Horb railway is a main line railway, 67.2 kilometres in length. The entire line is electrified and is constructed to be used by the ICE tilting train technology. The line features twin tracks between Stuttgart and Horb and has a total of four tracks between the stationsStuttgart-Österfeld and Stuttgart-Rohr, a 3.5-kilometer-long section.
The line crosses three districts of the state of Baden-Württemberg and is part of three public transport associations. In the Stuttgart area, and in the district ofBöblingen, namely betweenStuttgart Hbf andBondorf, the line is part of the transport-and-tariff association Stuttgart (Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund Stuttgart (VVS)). The station inErgenzingen is the only station in the district ofTübingen, and is part of the Neckar-Alb-Donau transport association (Verkehrsverbund Neckar-Alb-Donau (NALDO)). Between Eutingen and Horb, the line traverses the district ofFreudenstadt, and its transport association (Verkehrs-Gemeinschaft Landkreis Freudenstadt (VGS)).


Württemberg completed the section from Eutingen to connect to theUpper Neckar Railway (Obere Neckarbahn) in Horb on 1 June 1874. However, the aim was not to connect Horb via theGäu andBöblingen to Stuttgart. Rather, the Royal Württemberg State Railways established theNagold Valley Railway, a connection betweenPforzheim and Horb, the completion of which made Horb a railway junction in 1874. However, the Royal Württemberg State Railways initially did not attempt to build a much shorter direct connection from Stuttgart to Horb because the gradients seemed too difficult to overcome.


On 22 March 1873, the state of Württemberg legislated the creation of a railway between Stuttgart, viaHerrenberg and Eutingen, to Freudenstadt, closing the gap between Stuttgart and Eutingen. In the discussions prior to the passage of this law, the termGäubahn was used for the first time to label the section Stuttgart–Freudenstadt, and the term would later become the name for the entire line between Stuttgart and Singen. In November of the same year, construction on the technically challenging railway began in Stuttgart, led by the Württemberg engineer Georg Morlok. The route on the hillside was complicated, it required inclines of up to 1:52,bank engines in front and behind trains to Stuttgart-West, a large number of tunnels and deep cuts, the 430 metre-long and 39 metre-high Vogelsang embankment and the 42 metre-high Ziegelklingen embankment. A total of 1,600,000 cubic metres of earth were moved. The section to Vaihingen was the most expensive of the entire route, which cost a total of 31 million marks.[3]
Much of the labour recruited by Morlok came from Italy. Construction went well: During the winter 1877/78, the line had already reached Herrenberg. On 20 August 1879, after a trial run from Stuttgart to Freudenstadt, the Royal Württemberg State Railways officially opened this section on 2 September 1879, in the presence of Georg Morlok, the president of WürttembergHermann von Mittnacht, the mayor of Stuttgart Gottlob Friedrich von Hack, and many other dignitaries. The construction of this section shortened the distance between Stuttgart via Horb and Tuttlingen to Immendingen by 35 kilometers, and cut the trip time by 1 to 2 hours.
The Stuttgart–Horb–Tuttlingen–Immendingen line was primarily of regional significance at this time. The terminus of all long-distance travel was Immendingen. By the end of the 19th century trip times were becoming quite a bit shorter, to the point where the trip between Tuttlingen and Stuttgart had been cut down to only 3 hours in 1897, 4 to 5 hours less than in the 1870s. Starting in 1900, 3 daily express long-distance trains traversed the line. Around the turn of the century, the Royal Württemberg State Railways mostly used the steam locomotives of the classWürttemberg AD for their express service, which were in turn replaced by the classWürttemberg C during World War I. The classWürttemberg T 5 was used for regional service. Possibly the most famous passenger on this line,Vladimir Lenin, the leader of theRussian Revolution, travelled from Zürich via Stuttgart toPetrograd in a special train on 9 April 1917.
The Royal Württemberg State Railways started to lay a second track alongside the originally single-track railway on short sections of the line in the 1880s and 1890s. In 1886, the first section to be made into a twin-track line was the 4.4-kilometer-long piece between Horb am Neckar and Eutingen im Gäu. In 1895, the 8.6-kilometer-long section between Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof and Stuttgart West received a second track and this was as extended as far as Böblingen from 22 November 1905.
The 1.2-kilometer connecting curve between Stuttgart North (Nordbahnhof) and the Stuttgart–Horb railway was opened on 1 November 1895.[4] An initially planned connection line between Zuffenhausen and Stuttgart West was not realised. Traffic between Stuttgart and Böblingen increased from 16 trains (1890/91) to 32 trains in the winter of 1902/03.
In the period between World War I andWorld War II, the transport infrastructure in Germany received numerous improvements. On 22 October 1922, the new main station in Stuttgart (Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof) was officially opened. This removed the chokepoint at the terminus of the line and enabled the expansion of the capacity of rail traffic.Deutsche Reichsbahn altered the route taken by the line in the centre of Stuttgart to Eckartshaldenweg, avoiding Stuttgart North station, in autumn 1922.
In the 1920s, theFree People's State of Württemberg, as Württemberg was known during theWeimar Republic, undertook to expand the single-track lines constructed in the 19th century. The goal was to enable rail traffic fromBerlin to Switzerland and Italy to utilise not just the railways in the neighbouring territories of Baden andBavaria, but also the tracks owned by Württemberg. In addition, theReichswehr had an interest in a high-capacity rail connection between Berlin and the southwestern border, which, particularly after the return ofAlsace-Lorraine to France in 1918, was not as close to the French border as theRhine Valley Railway fromMannheim toBasel, and would not be as easy to disrupt in the event of war. The occupation of the city ofOffenburg by French troops in 1923 reinforced the desire for an effective and efficient alternative route.
As part of the expansion of the line, the Reichsbahn also expanded Horb am Neckar station, and replaced the old Eutingen station building with a large new building.
The expansions during the 1920s and 1930s resulted in great improvements in the service schedule on the Gäubahn. Express trains travelled from Berlin viaErfurt,Würzburg, Stuttgart, Zürich, andMilan all the way toRome. The last peacetime schedule in 1939 showed 3 express trains from Berlin toItaly, even though not all of the trains continued from Milan to Rome. In addition there was express service between Berlin andLucerne as well as between Stuttgart and Konstanz. Travel time between Stuttgart and Singen was cut to 2 hours and 41 minutes in 1933, and the regional and local service schedules also saw marked improvements.
As was true prior to the railway expansion, and since World War I, the Württemberg class C steam locomotives were used in express service. After the construction of the connecting curve fromTuttlingen to Hattingen, thePrussian P 10 which assumed the lead on these trains. The Württemberg class C was reassigned to manage the regional and local service traffic. The class Württemberg T 5 was also still seen, but was replaced by 1933 by theDRG Class 24. ThePrussian P 8 had already been used since 1920 between Horb and Immendingen. For freight service, thePrussian G 12 as well as theWürttemberg K were used. Starting in 1924, the Reichsbahn began to assign thePrussian G 10 to short-distance freight service, and between 1936 and 1938, theDRG Class 86 saw use in the same capacity.
During World War II, passenger service was reduced in favour of the rather more significant freight traffic.Axis partner Italy received coal shipments fromUpper Silesia using freight trains on the line. It lost much of its military freight significance in the North-South corridor with the German attack on theSoviet Union, and many of the newer locomotives, especially thePrussian P 10, were relocated by the Reichsbahn to eastern Europe, while passenger trains on the line again saw the use of the Württemberg C locomotive.

Until February 1945, the Gäubahn did not suffer much damage during World War II, with the exception of aerial bombardment in 1944/45, which caused severe damage to the stations in Herrenberg and Horb am Neckar. This damage only disrupted traffic in the short term. More significant was the damage caused by German troops in April 1945, when several bridges were blown up between Stuttgart and Böblingen, stopping train traffic altogether shortly before the end of the war. Also in April 1945, American and French troops occupied southwestern Germany, which meant that the section of the line betweenBondorf and Stuttgart fell into theAmerican zone of occupation, while the section betweenErgenzingen and Horb was assigned to the French zone. It was not until 13 August 1946 that the railway was opened again for through traffic.
France insisted on its right to reparations, unlike theUnited States of America, and in 1946 dismantled the second track between Horb and Tuttlingen, which had only been laid a few years before. Ever since, the Gäubahn is twin-tracked only between Stuttgart and Horb, as well as between Hattingen and Singen. The border between the American and French zones was responsible for the lack of through-traffic between Stuttgart and Singen, which did not resume until 1948. Compared to the heyday of the line at the end of the 1930s, the service schedule was severely reduced, and did not reach the same level as before the war until the end of the 1950s. The service to and from Berlin, for which the line had been expanded in the time between the wars, was not resumed by theDeutsche Bundesbahn, and the traffic corridor Berlin–Erfurt–Würzburg–Stuttgart–Zürich had lost its significance due to the separation ofEast Germany andWest Germany.

Starting in the 1950s, the Bundesbahn extended some of the express trains between Zürich and Stuttgart toHamburg. Also, express service was reinstated between Stuttgart and Italy, largely due to the influx of guest workers from Italy intoBaden-Württemberg at the end of the decade. These trains primarily saw the use of thePrussian P 10 and thePrussian P 8. Between 1958 and the middle of the 1970s, diesel locomotives of the classDB Class V 100 andDB Class V 200 replaced the steam locomotives on the Gäubahn, with the DB Class V 200.1 being used for freight service.
The Bundesbahn electrified the section between Stuttgart and Böblingen in 1963, with the goal of reducing travel time in local service trains in the Stuttgart area. The section Böblingen–Horb was converted to electric operation in 1974, followed by Böblingen–Horb section in 1977.

The 150 metre-long Kaufwald tunnel was converted into a cutting in nine months in the run-up to electrification in 1958/1959 with single-track operation. The cutting required the removal of 170,000 cubic metres of overburden.[5]
After the section between Böblingen und Stuttgart was electrified in 1963, initially it was locomotives of theDRG class E 17,DB Class 141,DRG Class E 44, andDRB Class ET 55, which saw service. These were then replaced withDRG Class ET 25,DB Class ET 27, and DRG Class ET 65 by 1969. After 1974, and the electrification of the Böblingen–Horb section, the Bundesbahn used theDB Class E 10 for regional service on the line and used the same locomotive for express service after 1977. For freight service, the Bundesbahn initially relied on theDB Class E 50 andDRG Class E 93, switching to theDB Class 151 in the 1980s, then theDB Class E 40 starting in 1988; since 1993, it has been theDB Class 143 responsible for freight service.
In 1985, the section between Stuttgart and Böblingen was incorporated into the network of theStuttgart S-Bahn. Since then, S-Bahn services run from Stuttgart Hbf on theVerbindungsbahn (connection line), which is entirely underground in the centre of the city, and which meets up with the Stuttgart–Horb railway atStuttgart Österfeld station. The Verbindungsbahn cuts down the trip distance of the S-Bahn by 5.5 kilometers, and puts theUniversity of Stuttgart into the rail network, while regional and long-distance trains still use the old line, but Stuttgart West station lost its passenger service in 1985. In the run-up to the integration into the S-Bahn network, Goldberg station was opened in 1982. It is named after a residential area in Sindelfingen, but it is actually in Böblingen.
On 5 December 1992, the Deutsche Bundesbahn extended the S1 line of the Stuttgart S-Bahn from Böblingen to Herrenberg, thus significantly improving local transport between the Korngäu region and the state capital. For this purpose, Hulb station was put into operation on 8 December 1990 in Böblingen, opening up the extensive industrial area there.

By 1991, the number of express trains on the line increased to eight daily trains, with five of those continuing on past Zürich to the cities of Milan,Genoa, andLecce orNaples. On the other hand, traffic to the north was largely eliminated; for example, just a single express trains traveled on toNuremberg at the time. The trip between Stuttgart and Singen now took exactly two hours, and was made by locomotives of the DB Class 110 and DB Class 181. Starting in 1993, the Deutsche Bundesbahn, and, from 1994, the privatisedDeutsche Bahn AG, attempted to shorten express trip times even further. To achieve this goal, the Gäubahn saw test runs of the ItalianPendolino, as well as the SwedishX 2000. Between 1993 and 1995, two trains of theEuroCity service type replaced some of the traditional express trains on the line. For a short time, TEE-RABe trains of theSwiss Federal Railways were in use, which cut the trip time between Stuttgart and Singen to 1 hour and 50 minutes.
On 1 March 1998, two tilting trains of the typeETR 470, owned by the Swiss firmCisalpino AG, replaced some express service trains, since German tilting technology trains were not available for service yet. This replacement did not initially result in shorter trip times. In 1999, the DB AG radically altered long-distance traffic on the Gäubahn, and stopped, with one exception, using locomotive-powered trains altogether. For the first time, trains of the typeDB AG Class 415 with tilting technology were used on the line, and these trains, together with the Cisalpino, made up the bulk of long-distance trains. This resulted in a trip time of 1 hour and 44 minutes between Stuttgart and Singen. The Cisalpini were responsible for the traffic between Stuttgart and Milan, while the ICE trains carried the load between Stuttgart and Zürich; the through traffic between Stuttgart via Genoa to Naples was eliminated. In 2005, the last locomotive-powered express train, the so-calledIC Insubria, was also removed. One year later, in December 2006, the Cisalpino service was stopped, eliminating direct connections to Italy, and making the ICE the only long-distance carrier on the Gäubahn.
From December 2006,ICE T sets composed of five-car sets (class 415), were replaced by seven-car sets (class 411) for ICE services.
After problems with vehicle availability and delays, ICE operations on the Stuttgart–Zürich route were discontinued on 21 March 2010 and replaced by intercity trains with Swiss Federal Railways carriages.[6] Long-distance traffic was then operated solely with rolling stock from the Swiss Federal Railways until 2017.[7] The ICE T would only be used again when they were allowed to travel at high speeds again, which ultimately did not happen. The Swiss Federal Railways had previously opposed attempts by Deutsche Bahn to use rolling stock from former Interregio services on the international line.[8] In spring 2012, at a European timetable conference, Deutsche Bahn spoke out in favour of ending long-distance traffic between Stuttgart and Zürich, but failed again due to resistance from the Swiss Federal Railways.[7]
Until the 2017/2018 timetable change, long-distance services only ran every two hours. Böblingen was not served from 2004 to 2013.[9]
Since December 2017, Deutsche BahnIC2 trains have been running alternately with SBB sets. This results in an hourly cycle, with the SBB trains only stopping in Böblingen, and the IC2 trains also stopping in Herrenberg, Gäufelden and Bondorf. Since then, local transport tickets have also been valid on long-distance trains.[10] Because their class 146.5 and 147 locomotives were not approved for use in Switzerland, these journeys ended in Singen.[11] At the edge of the day, a pair of trains also runs from or to Radolfzell. As of December 2022, DB has operatedKISS multiple units with Swiss approval until the IC2 can be used in Switzerland.[12]
The addition ICE services added in 2017 replaced theRegional-Express (RE) services between Stuttgart and Singen, which had run every two hours. The RE) services between Stuttgart and Rottweil still run every two hours. These trains are split or joined in Eutingen. Going south, one half runs over theEutingen im Gäu–Schiltach railway toFreudenstadt and the other half continues to Rottweil. Going north, these two halves are combined in Eutingen for the trip into Stuttgart. There is an hourly regional service between Stuttgart and Rottweil, since the IC trains can be used with local transport tickets. Since the changeover of the two-houlyr RE to IC2, Ergenzingen and Eutingen im Gäu have only been served every two hours from the direction of Stuttgart without having to change trains. When IC2 trains are running, trips on theKarlsruhe Stadtbahn to Bondorf serve these stops.
In 2004, the DB AG changed the train configuration on the Stuttgart–Singen route from the locomotive-hauled trains withSilberling coaches to the newDBAG Class 425 electrical multiple unit trains, which were occasionally replaced by locomotive-powered trains of the class146, with double-decker coaches, starting in 2006. The use of class 425 sets has been greatly reduced on the Stuttgart–Singen route.

The section between Stuttgart and Herrenberg is integrated into the Stuttgart S-Bahn network. The S 1 service runs from Herrenberg to Stuttgart-Österfeld, where the train leaves the Stuttgart–Horb and travels underground via the Verbindungsbahn to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof. From there, the S 1 service utilises theFils Valley Railway as far asPlochingen, before branching off toKirchheim unter Teck the terminus of the S 1 route. TheDBAG Class 423 is used on this route. The S-Bahn is also managed by the Deutsche Bahn AG, and runs every 30 minutes, except during the peak hour during the work week, where trains are available every 15 minutes. Between Herrenberg and Eutingen (some of these trains only go to Bondorf), DB AG also runsRegionalBahn trains every hour under the week, whose schedules are synchronized with the S-Bahn trains. In addition, during the work week, a train owned by theAlbtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft travels between Freudenstadt, Eutingen, and Herrenberg, where it connects to the S-Bahn.
The Gäubahn is again becoming a significant railway in terms of international freight traffic, particularly as an alternative to the heavily traveledRhine Valley Railway, primarily as a transit route. With the exception of the connecting line to the industrial area of Böblingen-Hulb, no freight is processed for shipment directly on the line.Railion trains travel primarily from the large shunting station nearKornwestheim toSt. Margrethen in Switzerland, and go around Stuttgart Hbf. This was accomplished until the 1970s via thePrag Tunnel, Stuttgart-West station and a connecting curve, but has been handled since the opening of the Stuttgart S-Bahn by running freight trains via theRankbach Railway (Rankbachbahn) from Kornwestheim via Leonberg to Böblingen and the Stuttgart–Horb railway. Class185 locomotives are used mostly.

As part of the Stuttgart 21 project, it is intended to build a bypass of the tunnel-rich and steep section of the Stuttgart–Horb railway in the centre of Stuttgart. It is intended that trains on the line uses the new tunnel from Stuttgart Hbf as far asStuttgart Airport, where it would meet the newWendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway. Under early plans, Stuttgart–Horb trains would have connected toStuttgart Flughafen/Messe station and continued to/from the airport towards Böblingen, taking the existing S-Bahn tracks to Stuttgart-Rohr, where they would have connected to the existing Stuttgart–Horb railway via a new Rohr connecting curve.[13] According to the rail lobby group Pro Bahn, this new line would have extended the distance to Böblingen by 4.4 kilometres and have lengthened the trip for a Regional-Express train by five minutes.[14] For regional and long-distance trains from Horb, this new line would have shortened the trip to the airport and no longer required a change of trains.
The route via Rohr has now been abandoned and planning is continuing using an alternative route, thePfaffensteig Tunnel, which would be realised as a direct link from the Stuttgart–Horb route to the airport. This should merge towards Böblingen at kilometre 22. In this context, the line is to be rebuilt between route kilometres 21 and 24 (Goldberg). For the integration of the tunnel, the line is to be shifted to the north over a length of around 800 m and a flyover structure is to be built.[15]