Editing Intercity Express (section)

=== Second generation ===
{{main|ICE 2}}
[[File:ICE2 Hilpodrom.jpg|thumb|Two coupled ICE&nbsp;2 trainsets near [[Ingolstadt]]]]
From 1997, the successor, the '''ICE&nbsp;2''' trains pulled by Class 402 powerheads, was put into service. One of the goals of the ICE&nbsp;2 was to improve [[Weight distribution|load balancing]] by building smaller train units which could be coupled or detached as needed.

These trainsets were used on the ''ICE line 10'' Berlin-Cologne/Bonn. However, since the [[Control car (rail)|driving van trailers]] of the trains were still awaiting approval, the DB joined two portions (with one powerhead each) to form a long train, similar to the ICE&nbsp;1. Only from 24 May 1998 were the ICE 2 units fully equipped with driving van trailers and could be portioned on their run from [[Hamm (Westfalen) railway station|Hamm]] via either [[Dortmund Hbf]]–[[Essen Hbf]]–[[Duisburg Hbf]]–[[Düsseldorf Hbf]] or [[Hagen Hbf]]–[[Wuppertal Hbf]]–[[Solingen Hauptbahnhof|Solingen-Ohligs]].

In late 1998, the [[Hanover–Berlin high-speed railway]] was opened as the third [[high-speed rail|high-speed line]] in Germany, cutting travel time on line 10 (between Berlin and the [[Ruhr valley]]) by 2½ hours.

The ICE 1 and ICE 2 trains' [[loading gauge]] exceeds that recommended by the international railway organisation [[International Union of Railways|UIC]]. Even though the trains were originally to be used only domestically, some units are licensed to run in Switzerland and Austria. Some ICE 1 units have been equipped with an additional smaller [[Pantograph (rail)|pantograph]] to be able to run on the different Swiss [[overhead lines|overhead wire]] geometry.
All ICE 1 and ICE 2 trains are single-voltage [[15 kV AC railway electrification|15 kV AC]], which restricts their radius of operation largely to the German-speaking countries of Europe. ICE 2 trains can run at a top speed of 280&nbsp;km/h (174&nbsp;mph).