Originally Posted by Track
The new line under construction in eastern France (to Strasbourg and for connections to Switzerland and southern Germany) is to be served by new TGV-R (French) and ICE-3 (German) trains. Top speed to Switzerland is to be 320 km/h and to Germany 300 km/h on both train types. 320 km/h is planned for the near future in eastern France on this route, and later 350 km/h will be the top speed.
Between Frankfurt and Cologne the German ICE-3s now run at a scheduled top speed of 300 km/h and can run up to 320 km/h to catch up on schedule delays. Some of these trains continue from Cologne into Belgium, where they compete with the French/Belgian/Dutch/German Thalys trains. Between Cologne and Aachen the top speed is 200 km/h, as this is not a new line but only an improved old line. In eastern Belgium a new line has been built for the Cologne-Brussels connection, with a top speed IIRC of 300 km/h.
The ICE-3 (not souped-up) has been tested up to 368 km/h and a souped-up TGV at a higher speed, but it did so much damage to the tracks and wires that no further tests were carried out.
The DB website says 2007 for the first improvements to be ready for Paris-Frankfurt, offering travel times of under 4 hours:
"Ziel ist, ab 2007 auf der Strecke Paris–Ostfrankreich–Frankfurt/Stuttgart eine direkte schnelle Schienenverbindung von unter vier Stunden anzubieten."