Frankfurt/Rhine-Main in the context of "Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region"

Aschaffenburg (German pronunciation: [aˈʃafn̩bʊʁk] ; Hessian: Aschebersch, pronounced [ˈaʒəˌbɛːʃ]) is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg, despite being its administrative seat, is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg.

Aschaffenburg belonged to the Archbishopric of Mainz for more than 800 years. The town is located at the westernmost border of Lower Franconia and separated from the central and eastern part of the Regierungsbezirk (administrative region) by the Spessart hills, whereas it opens towards the Rhine-Main plain in the west and the north-west. Therefore, the inhabitants speak neither Bavarian nor East Franconian but rather a local version of Rhine Franconian.

The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (German: Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, pronounced [metʁoˈpoːlʁeˌɡi̯oːn ˌʁaɪnˈnɛkaʁ]), often referred to as the Rhein-Neckar Triangle, is a polycentric metropolitan region located in south western Germany, between the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region to the north and the Stuttgart Region to the south-east.

Rhine-Neckar has a population of some 2.4 million, with major cities including Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg. Other cities include the former free imperial cities of Speyer and Worms. The metro area also encompasses parts of the Baden and Palatinate wine regions, the second largest vine region of the country (Deutsche Weinstraße), and territory from the three federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It has a strong local identity as a successor to the historical Electorate of the Palatinate state.

The Rhine-Main S-Bahn system is an integrated rapid transit and commuter train system for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, which includes the cities Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Darmstadt. The network comprises nine S-Bahn lines, eight of which currently travel through the cornerstone of the system, a tunnel (the "City Tunnel") through central Frankfurt. The first section of this tunnel was opened on May 28, 1978. Further tunnel sections were opened in 1983 and 1990, before its completion in 1992. The system belongs to the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) and is operated by DB Regio, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn.

End-to-end journey times on the nine lines in the system range from 36 minutes (on line S7) up to 87 minutes (on line S1). The longest journey time into central Frankfurt (Hauptwache), from any point on the network, is 54 minutes. Services on some lines start shortly after 4 a.m., while all lines have services from about 5 a.m. onwards. A full service is maintained from 6 a.m. until about 8 p.m., and a somewhat reduced service is run until the late evening. The last services leave Frankfurt at 2:12 a.m. The S8/S9 runs 24/7.