the town of Ilmenau, according to a statement by Mayor Seeber at a citizens gathering, had turned against the planned Wümbach station and "opted for the development of the existing line". The Federal Government was expecting an increase of traffic of 1.8 million additional passengers per year after completion, generating almost 800 million passenger-kilometres. The forecast is based on a shift of approximately one million passenger journeys from the road and some 700,000 from the air (as of 2006). DB Netz planned (as of 2002) to spend €37.3 million per year after the opening of the line on a system for collecting data on train movements. The roughly 80 freight trains per day and direction provided for in the federal transport plan for the route are to run mainly between 10 PM and 6 AM. Between 6 AM and 22 PM, one train path each hour and each way would be available for freight traffic. In order to achieve the full freight transport capacity, upgrades at the Fürth node (including a planned freight train tunnel) and the provision of four tracks between Ebensfeld and Nuremberg would be necessary. The traffic forecast for the Federal Transport Route Plan (Bundesverkehrswegeplan) 1992 provided for 24 passenger and 90 freight trains each day and each way on the new line in 2010. In the middle of 1994, Deutsche Bahn considered that there would be 24 long-distance passenger trains and 55 freight trains on the line. The segregation of fast and slow traffic (under the Netz 21 project adopted in 1991) had not yet been considered. Deutsche Bahn planned to have an ICE service running hourly on the line in 2030. An operations study was based on three possible freight train paths per hour in each direction while passenger services were operating. Ebensfeld–Erfurt new line The new line begins north of Ebensfeld near the -mark on the Bamberg–Lichtenfels line and ends in Erfurt at the entrance signals of the station. It is 107 kilometres long, of which 34 kilometres is located in Bavaria and 73 kilometres in Thuringia. The line runs at a normal maximum grade of 1.25%, although parts have grades of up to 2.0%. Curves have a normal minimum radius of 6,300 metres and an absolute minimum radius of 3,700 metres. Normal passing loops are 25,000 metres long and their minimum length is 22,500 metres. It passes through the Thuringian Forest between Truckenthal