Grube: The conditions for entry to the tunnel are so absurd that only the French trains fulfill them. They say, for example, that the train must be 400 meters long.

SPIEGEL: Why don't you just couple two ICEs together?

Grube: But then there's another rule: The passengers have to be able to walk the full length of the train. So it wouldn't work. It's absurd!

Mr. Grube is new to the rail business, so I err on the safe side and assume no one told him that that safety rule has to do with the spacing of cross-passages at every 375 m... Sigh.

In fact the same rule rules out common TGVs completely, as they are around 200 m long and cannot be significantly lengthened; but DB could opt to recombine ICE3 cars in a longer formation, if it doesn't go another way then with two new middle cars, and get that approved. There are 16-car CHR3s for China.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}