of 4%. This unique feature requires the higher power-to-weight ratio: ICE 3 with its power linear eddy current brakes is only train type licensed to operate on this railway: no other service, namely slower regional trains, is permitted. This makes Limburg Süd the only in Germany to be served exclusively by high speed train services. Public transport Limburg (Lahn) station in central Limburg is connected to Limburg Süd by bus and taxi service. In the beginning, the shuttle bus service between both stations was provided, and its timetable was co-ordinated with the arrivals and departures of ICE service. However, the low demand caused the service to be eliminated and replaced with several local bus lines, which offer the passengers more options than the shuttle bus service. Several long distance bus operators also stop at Limburg Süd. DeinBus, Flixbus, and OneBus offer the connections to Aachen, Bonn, Cologne-Bonn Airport, Frankfurt am Main, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Stuttgart Airport, and Tübingen. Despite its proximity in the district of Eschhofen, no direct road link to Eschhofen is ever built. Parking On the west side of the station is 306-space car park for short-term parking. Adjacent to the station in the east is a six-storey parking garage with 573 spaces for vehicles, 24 for bicycles, charging station (for electric vehicles), and public toilet facilities. It was opened in 2011 after 19 months of construction. Because of the parking fees, many commuters prefer to park on the streets rather than pay to use the parking garage. History The planning of a Cologne–Gross-Gerau high-speed railway in the 1970s envisaged a station between Limburg and Diez on its right bank (east of the Rhine) route option. The station would have been located south of the Lahn and west of the existing station and above the Lahntal railway. Trains on the existing line from Wetzlar would have connected to services to Cologne and trains from Niederlahnstein would have connected to services towards Frankfurt. The four-track infrastructure would have had, in addition to the two central through tracks, two external platform tracks connected by scissors crossovers (with four sets of points) at each end of the station. The proposed station was assessed as having "predominantly regional importance", which justified "only a limited number of train stops". After the completion of the route selection process, Federal Cabinet decided on 20 December 1989 that the line would be built on the route of