The Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway is a -long high-speed line in Germany between Erfurt and Leipzig and Halle. It is listed in Germany's Federal Transport Plan (Bundesverkehrswegeplan) as "German Unity Rail Project no 8.2" (Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit Schiene, VDE 8.2) and is a section of the Munich–Berlin high-speed route, part of the Line 1 of Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) and on the east–west axis between Dresden and Frankfurt. To the north, it connects with the previously completed Berlin-Halle and Leipzig railways (VDE 8.3) and to in the south with the Nuremberg-Erfurt high-speed railway (VDE 8.1), which was opened in December 2017. The travel time from Munich to Berlin has been reduced to about four hours. The design speed is largely , reduced to on the branch to Halle. of the -long high-speed line is located in three tunnels; the six viaducts of the route together are more than long. With a length of approximately 6465 metres, the Saale-Elster Viaduct is the longest bridge structure in Germany and the longest bridge on a long-distance railway in Europe. The Unstrut Viaduct at 2668 m is the second longest railway bridge in Germany. Scheduled operations commenced on 13 December 2015. This shortened the journey times for ICE services over the between Erfurt and Leipzig from 70 to 43 minutes and the between Erfurt and Halle from 75 to 34 minutes. The cost of the project was estimated in mid 2014 to be €2.967 billion. Lines Route The line runs east from Erfurt Hauptbahnhof parallel with the Halle–Bebra railway. The two lines pass through the southern edge of Erfurt marshalling yard and past that Vieselbach freight distribution centre (Güterverkehrszentren), which lies to the south of the existing line in Azmannsdorf. West of Vieselbach the new line leaves the existing line and runs in a northeasterly direction. When passing through the Thuringian basin, it passes the towns of Großmölsen, Neumark, Krautheim and Buttstädt. Apart from the Scherkonde Viaduct () and the Gänsebach Viaduct (), the line in this section has no major engineering structure. The Großbrembach overtaking loop lies between the two viaducts. The line reached the Finne ridge in Herrengosserstedt and runs through the Finne Tunnel (6965 m) between Rastenberg and Bad Bibra. After a short section that includes the Saubachtal overtaking loop the line passes over the Saubach Viaduct (). This is immediately followed by the Bibra Tunnel () where the line passes below