along the route (of which far more than half are volunteers) are to be alerted, regardless of the exact incident. The only professional fire brigade is in Erfurt. The accesses to emergency exits are to be cleared of snow in winter. Nuremberg–Ebensfeld upgraded line The 83 km long line is part of the existing railway highway circuit from Nuremberg via Saalfeld to Halle and is being upgraded to a maximum speed up to trains. Between Nuremberg and Erlangen it is upgraded for up to , between Erlangen and Ebensfeld for up to . For about 41 kilometres, the route will be operable at , for about ten kilometres at and otherwise at . Situation prior to the upgrade In the section of line between Fürth and Bamberg, an Intercity-Express, a Regional-Express and an S-Bahn run regularly (hourly in both directions). There are additional RE services every hour during the peak hours, resulting in a service every half hour. There is also an S-Bahn service to Forchheim every hour, so that all stops are served at least half-hourly between Nuremberg and Forchheim. In the section between Bamberg and Ebensfeld an ICE, an RE (running as the Franken-Thüringen-Express) and a Regionalbahn (RB) service run hourly in both directions. The RE runs to Hof/Bayreuth on a two-hourly schedule, as do additional RE services on working days. Between Bamberg and Breitengussbach, agilis services run on the line every hour. In addition, about 60–70 freight trains run each day. Operational restrictions particularly affect in the Fürth district. Trains to Würzburg cross the tracks of trains from Bamberg, trains to and from the Nuremberg marshalling yard cross the tracks of the trains from Nuremberg Hbf to Würzburg (and vice versa). Since the completion of the extension of four tracks on the Nuremberg-Fürth section, the situation in Fürth has eased somewhat. At Breitengüßbach and Zapfendorf stations between Bamberg and Ebensfeld, the access to the platforms was over a passenger level crossing, which meant that when regional services stopped, the track next to the station building had to be blocked for the safety of passengers. Planning The project was included in the Federal Transport Plan (Bundesverkehrswegeplan) 1992. Between Nuremberg and Ebensfeld, different route options were tested: four-track upgrade of the Nuremberg–Fürth–Bamberg–Lichtenfels line construction of a two-track line between Nuremberg and Großgründlach and upgrade the line between Großgründlach and Lichtenfels to four tracks a two-track line on the left