List of Intercity-Express lines in Germany



This list of Intercity-Express lines in Germany includes all Intercity-Express lines in Germany. The latest changes to the Intercity Express network took place at the timetable change on 10 December 2023. The network currently has 35 scheduled lines.

Legend

 * Line
 * The official line name given by DB Fernverkehr for each line. Some lines, which have many branches, are divided into individual sections, which deviate slightly from the basic line.


 * Route
 * The route represents all stops on a route. Stops, which are served only by a few trains during the day, but are passed through or bypassed several times a day, are shown in italics.


 * Stock
 * This column indicates which type of ICE train usually runs on this line.

2–9
Lines 2, 4, 8 and 9 are all Sprinter lines, which means they have fewer stops.

2
Line 2 runs between Düsseldorf and Munich and stops at Köln Messe/Deutz, Frankfurt Airport and Nuremberg. It runs twice a day in each direction.

4
Line 4 runs between Hamburg and Frankfurt. One train goes from Stuttgart to Kiel and one train goes from Hamburg-Altona to Frankfurt Airport.

8
Line 8 was introduced in December 2023 and runs between Berlin and Munich every two hours and only stops in Halle, Erfurt and Nuremberg. Trains either start in Berlin Gesundbrunnen or Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

9
Line 9 runs between Berlin and Bonn and only stops in Cologne. It runs three times a day and starts either at Berlin Südkreuz, Ostbahnhof or Ostkreuz.

10–15, 17, 19, 21
The lines start in Berlin. Lines 10, 14 and 19 start at Ostbahnhof station and run toward Cologne. Lines 12 and 13 operate from Berlin Ostbahnhof via Brunswick to Frankfurt, while lines 11 and 15 run from the low level of Berlin Hauptbahnhof via Erfurt to Frankfurt. Some trains start/end in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen (11 and 15), Hamburg (11) and Warnemünde (15).

10
Line 10 runs hourly between Berlin and Düsseldorf or Cologne. In Hamm every second train is divided or combined depending on direction of travel. One portion of the train runs via Essen to Düsseldorf, some continuing to Cologne. The other train portion runs via the Bergisches Land to Cologne. Since December 2023, has run every two hours via the Bergisches Land, providing an hourly service in combination with the line 10 portion. One train pair each day continues from Hanover onto Bremen and Oldenburg.

11
Line 11 runs from Berlin and Frankfurt to Munich. The services run over the Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway between Leipzig and Erfurt and the Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railway between Mannheim and Stuttgart. The section from Berlin to Munich is served every two hours. Some trains start or end in Hamburg-Altona. The trains starting in Berlin start in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen or Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Once a day a train continues to Innsbruck. Since December 2022, the line has run via the Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway.

At 8:45 pm on Sunday evening, ICE 990 leaves Munich Hauptbahnhof and runs via Ulm, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Hanover to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, which it reaches around 6:00 in the morning. This ICE does not run from Fulda over the high-speed line to Hanover, but first via Bad Hersfeld and only from Göttingen on the high-speed line. On other days of the week this service ends in Frankfurt.

Furthermore, ICE 991 runs from Mondays to Fridays from Wiesbaden via Mainz, Mannheim and Stuttgart to Munich.

On some days another night ICE is added from Munich to Berlin with the following route:

12
Services on the line run every two hours from Berlin via Brunswick, Kassel, Frankfurt and Mannheim to Switzerland. From Karlsruhe, it runs on parts of the unfinished Karlsruhe–Basel high-speed railway. Trains run via Basel to Interlaken three times a day and some trains run from Basel to Zürich.

Line 12 overlaps with line 13 every hour between Berlin and Fulda, and line 43 between Mannheim and Basel.

Monday to Friday, the last northbound train is the ICE 272 from Göttingen to Hamburg-Altona, where it arrives at 2:00 a.m.

13
This line was introduced at the timetable change in December 2017. It connects Berlin and Frankfurt via Brunswick. It replaced line 11, which now runs via Erfurt instead of Brunswick. The trains run every 2 hours. In 2024, line 13 will also serve Stendal and thus take over the stop from.

The ICE 1598 service runs as a Sprinter between Frankfurt and Berlin Spandau, using the Hanover freight bypass.

In addition, an extra train runs as ICE 1193 (Sunday) and ICE 1195 (Sunday, Friday to Frankfurt Hbf) from Berlin via Hanover to Stuttgart as line 13.

14
Since 2007, ICE line 14 has been running additional services between Berlin and Essen. The first IC trains from Berlin to Herzogenrath were already operated in 2009 as IC 2222/2223 and extended to Aachen in 2014. Individual trains also went to Stralsund (IC1944) or Cologne (IC1945). The train pair ICE 1545/1548 was operated with ICE vehicles for the first time in December 2020 and runs daily between Berlin and Aachen. Since December 2020, the additional trips to Stralsund and Cologne have been eliminated. By 2026, the ICE 14 trains will run from Aachen to Essen with a train section to Hamburg-Altona (ICE 1555/1558) with stops in Recklinghausen, HH-Harburg, Hamburg Hbf and HH-Dammtor.

15
Line 15 is an ICE line, parts of which have the character of a Sprinter line. It was introduced in December 2015. Four pairs of trains (six pairs on Fridays and Sundays) connect Berlin with Frankfurt in less than 4 hours, making the connection around 15 minutes faster than the one via Braunschweig. The service on the entire section between Berlin and Frankfurt was increased to two-hour intervals with the timetable change in December 2017.

Already in the annual timetable 2003/2004 there was an ICE line 15 as a successor to the Interregio line 15, but with a route via Potsdam, Dessau and Naumburg and Weimar. In the timetables 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 there were three train pairs of the ICE line 15 Frankfurt-Erfurt-Halle-Berlin together with the ICE line 51 Dortmund-Paderborn-Kassel-Erfurt-Leipzig-Dresden as a line exchanger in time with the ICE Line 50 Frankfurt-Erfurt-Leipzig-Dresden.

Since December 2017, some services have been operated by ICE 3 (instead of ICE T), achieving a travel time reduction of about ten minutes.

17
On Saturday one train pair connects Warnemünde with Berlin, stopping in Oranienburg exclusively in the direction of Berlin. The other trains on this line usually operate as.

19
Line 19 was introduced for the 2024 annual timetable and connects Berlin with Cologne every 2 hours; some trips are extended south to Bonn, Koblenz or Stuttgart. In contrast to, line 19 does not stop in Wolfsburg and Hamm. Lines 10 and 19 together form an approximate hourly service between Cologne and Berlin via Wuppertal and Hagen.

21
Five trains a day connect Binz via Stralsund with Berlin. Not all trains will run on all days of the week. Trains only stop in Bernau bei Berlin on the way to Binz.

18, 20, 22–29
The primary route segments of lines 18, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28 and 29 all begin in Hamburg-Altona station. Some services continue to Kiel and Lübeck, Oldenburg or Stralsund and Binz. The trains to Lübeck and Kiel do not stop in Hamburg-Altona.

Lines 18, 28 and 29 go via Berlin, while lines 20, 22, 24, 25 and 26 go via Hanover.

Occasionally a train portion begins in Bremen, which is then coupled in Hanover with a portion from Hamburg. Lines 20 and 22 pass through several stations in larger cities without stopping. During some exhibitions, lines 20, 22, 25 and 26 also serve Hannover Messe/Laatzen station.

18
Line 18 was re-introduced with the opening of the Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway. The trains start in Hamburg or, in some cases, in Berlin Gesundbrunnen or Kiel. Line 18 runs exclusively via Halle. Coburg is only served by one northbound train and one southbound train, one pair of which runs via Leipzig. From Nuremberg, trains either travel over the Nuremberg–Ingolstadt high-speed railway or via Donauwörth and Augsburg to Munich. Treuchtlingen is only served by northbound trains. The line runs every two hours; together with line, which runs via Leipzig, there is an hourly service between Hamburg and Nuremberg. Since line 18 runs via Augsburg every four hours with a longer journey time, the hourly service continues to Munich only to a limited extent.

20
Line 20 connects Hamburg every two hours with Zurich, Chur or Basel. Between Hamburg and Frankfurt, it overlaps with line 22 to produce an hourly frequency. Some trains start back in Kiel, then run via Neumünster and Hamburg Dammtor to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. This line passes through some stations like Hamburg-Harburg, Lüneburg, Uelzen, Fulda or Hanau without stopping.

Every day, the first ICE service of the line runs from Wiesbaden to Hamburg-Altona (ICE 672).

22
Line 22 connects Hamburg with Stuttgart every two hours. Between Hamburg and Frankfurt (Main) it overlaps with line 20 to produce an hourly frequency. Some trains which start back in Kiel do not serve Hamburg-Altona. Besides Hamburg-Harburg, the stations Fulda and Hanau are not served by this line. One train pair runs from Frankfurt (Main) to Oldenburg.

24
Line 24 was spun off of line 26 for the 2021 timetable and includes trains that run between Hamburg and Kassel one hour later than the services on line 26, which run every two hours, and serve other destinations. These include trains running between Hamburg and Munich or Austria as well as a daily pair of Intercity trains from Hamburg-Altona, which run to Augsburg. One section of the train then continues via Buchloe and Kempten to Oberstdorf while the other half continues via Munich East and Rosenheim to Berchtesgaden. Only services in the direction of Hamburg stop at the intermediate stations between Bad Reichenhall and Freilassing.

25
Services on the line run hourly from Hamburg to Munich. Only a few trains stop in the stations of Lüneburg, Uelzen and Celle between Hamburg and Hanover. Every two hours, a train portion begins either in Bremen or Oldenburg, which is coupled in Hannover with another train portion coming from Hamburg, Kiel or Lübeck. Since 2019, the line has operated exclusively on the Nuremberg–Ingolstadt high-speed railway. One train to Bremen stops in Verden and Nienburg, while some trains are extended via Delmenhorst to Oldenburg.

The last ICE service on the line each day runs from Hamburg to Wiesbaden.

26
Services on the line run every two hours between Hamburg and Karlsruhe and stop at a few stations that are not served by most ICE lines, for example in Lüneburg, Uelzen and Celle. In addition, it does not use the Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway between Kassel and Frankfurt, but runs between Kassel and Frankfurt via the Main–Weser Railway, which takes longer. A pair of trains run as an Intercity service to Westerland.

27
Line 27 consists of a of train that starts in Berlin Hauptbahnhof, but operations in the opposite direction end in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The train pair supplements the  service and connects Berlin with the Czech Republic and Austria using a České dráhy Railjet set.

28
Services on line 28 begin in the north of Germany, either in Hamburg, Stralsund or seasonally in Binz. The line runs via Leipzig, while the otherwise similar line 18 runs via Halle. Only a few stops are served between Hamburg and Berlin. After crossing Berlin, trains run via Leipzig and Erfurt. In Coburg, there are three trains to the south and two trains to the north, since a stop in Coburg would cause a travel delay of about 12 minutes, making it impossible to achieve a two-hour connection with lines 18 or 28. Between Nuremberg and Munich all trains run via Ingolstadt, but only one service (running south) stops. The service runs every two hours, together with line 18 there is an hourly service between Hamburg and Nuremberg and for part of the day continuing to Munich.

29
Line 29 was re-launched in December 2017. It connects Berlin and Munich. Until 2018, three pairs of trains daily connected Berlin with Munich in under 4 hours. The line runs between Halle and Erfurt via the new Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway and between Erfurt and Nuremberg via the Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway. With the timetable change in December 2018, services were increased to 5 Sprinter train pairs, resulting in an approximately two-hourly service. The line has been extended to Hamburg since 12 December 2021. Almost all trains end or begin in Hamburg

Two more pairs of trains connect Munich and Berlin via Augsburg as additional services. These trains are not run as Sprinters and also stop in Donauwörth and Coburg. The ICE 1092/1093 train pair runs between Nuremberg and Berlin coupled with the ICE 92/93 train pair on line 91 to/from Vienna.

30–39
Line 39 connects Hamburg with Cologne. A few ICE trains run on lines 32 and 35 between Norddeich Mole and Koblenz.

32
118/119 train pair (Bodensee) has run since June 2023 as an ICE from Dortmund to Innsbruck, returning from Innsbruck to Münster. Line 32 also includes  train pair 2012/2013 (Allgäu)

35
Until December 2023, there was one pair of ICE trains between Norddeich Mole, Cologne and Stuttgart. Since the 2024 annual timetable, a pair of ICE trains has been running daily between Emden Outer Harbor and Cologne and another pair between Norddeich Mole and Koblenz. On Saturdays another ICE pair also runs between Norddeich Mole and Cologne.

The remaining services on the line are operated as with IC2 sets.

39
Line 39 was introduced with the 2021 timetable for trains between Hamburg-Altona and Cologne.

41–49
Lines 41, 42, 43, 45, 47 and 49 all usually begin in Cologne, Essen or Dortmund and run on the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line:

41
Line 41 starts in Essen and runs hourly via Frankfurt am Main and Nuremberg to Munich. Individual trains begin or end in Dortmund. The stops at Cologne/Bonn Airport, Siegburg/Bonn, Montabaur and Limburg South are served by only a few trains. From Monday to Wednesday, the last ICE service from the Ruhr ends in Würzburg and continues in the morning to Essen. A pair of trains leaves for Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Saturdays.

One train runs from Darmstadt to Munich with a detour through the Ruhr area. It starts on Saturdays and Sundays in Cologne Messe/Deutz.

The return train runs from Munich via the same route to Limburg Süd from Monday to Friday, but then runs via Wiesbaden and Mainz to Frankfurt. On Saturdays it ends early in Cologne and on Sundays in Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof.

42
Line 42 connects Hamburg and Munich every two hours. Together with line 43, it runs hourly between Hamburg and Dortmund, with line 55 between Dortmund and Cologne, with line 43 between Cologne and Mannheim and with line 11 between Mannheim and Munich.

A train pair begins and ends in Kiel instead of Hamburg-Altona. Individual trains run between Dortmund and Cologne via Bochum, Essen, Duisburg and Düsseldorf instead of via Hagen, Wuppertal and Solingen.

43
Line 43 connects Cologne, and since 11 December 2022 also Hamburg, with Basel every two hours. The first train starts from Dortmund. Another comes from Amsterdam and is coupled in Cologne with another portion of the train to Basel. On the return journey, both portions of the train run to Cologne, where they are split, one returning to Amsterdam and the other running to Dortmund. At the edges of the day, the trains also stop in Baden-Baden and the last train from Basel runs to Dortmund via Essen.

Line 43 overlaps with line 42 every hour between Cologne and Mannheim, and with line 12 between Mannheim and Basel.

45
Line 45 starts in Cologne main station and stops at some stations of the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line. At the end of the high-speed line, it runs to the west and goes via Wiesbaden and Mainz to Stuttgart.

From Monday to Friday, one train (ICE 712) runs from Mainz to Cologne only and one train (ICE 713) runs Cologne – Mainz – Frankfurt.

47
The line, which was introduced with the 2014 timetable change, connected individual services between Dortmund and Stuttgart running over the Cologne–Frankfurt and Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed routes. Frankfurt is served only at the airport and not at the main station. In addition, the frequency has been increased to approximately once every two-hours. The line was extended to Munich over the new Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway from December 2022.

49
Line 49 runs between Cologne and Frankfurt (Main) and stops at all stations of the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line.

From Monday to Friday, two trains start from Dortmund:

In addition, from Monday to Thursday, a train runs from Cologne to Hamm:

50
Line 50 is the only east-west ICE line in central Germany. It begins in the east in Dresden and runs via Riesa to Leipzig. After Erfurt, the line runs on the new line. In the city of Frankfurt (Main), trains stop at the Hauptbahnhof (main station) and the airport and continue to Wiesbaden via Mainz. Until the timetable change in December 2015, a train pair ran from Eisenach via Bebra, Kassel, Paderborn and Hamm to Düsseldorf.

There are services every two hours between Dresden and Wiesbaden.

During the daytime it is partly operated as follows:

55
Since 2023, a pair of trains has run over line 55 with 9-coach ICE 1 sets. Other services on the line are operated as.

60
This service has run via the Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway, replacing an IC service, since the timetable change in December 2022. It runs every two hours between Munich and Karlsruhe. One train pair runs to/from Basel Bad.

62
A pair of trains on line 62 was switched to operate as Railjets (RJX) at the timetable change in December 2016. At the timetable change in December 2023, train pairs operated by DB were switched to ICE services, while the remaining train pairs operated by ÖBB continue to run as.

77–79
Lines 77, 78 and 79 are international lines. They connect to the Benelux countries:

77
Line 77 currently operates as from Amsterdam to Berlin, but it is scheduled to be operated with ICE L sets in 2025. Currently, some ICE sets run on the German section of the line from Berlin to Osnabrück, continuing to Münster.

78
Line 78 connects Frankfurt am Main with Amsterdam and runs over the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed railway. Arnhem is the first stop beyond the Dutch border. Services on the line run every two hours.

79
Line 79 connects Frankfurt (Main) with Brussels and operates in Germany on two high-speed lines: the Cologne–Aachen high-speed railway and the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed railway. The first station beyond the Belgian border is Liège-Guillemins. The trains previously ran every four hours until services were intensified from December 2016 to run every two hours. On the edge of the day individual services stop at Limburg Sud, Montabaur, Siegburg/Bonn and Cologne/Bonn Airport. Occasionally the trains between Frankfurt and Cologne are coupled with those of line 78.

82–84
Lines 82 to 84 are international lines operated with the TGV from SNCF connecting western and southern Germany with France:

82
The line 82 begins at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and ends at Paris Gare de l'Est. It operates over the LGV Est, a French high-speed line. Trains run every four hours on the route via Saarbrücken. It stops in Forbach only once a day. Since the commissioning of a new section of the LGV Est in 2016, two train pairs are also routed via Strasbourg, creating an approximate two-hour cycle between Frankfurt, Mannheim and Paris. Both TGVs and ICEs run on the line.

83
Line 83 starts in Stuttgart. From there, five pairs of trains run over the LGV Est to Paris Est. One train pair per day starts or ends in Munich.

84
The line 84 connects Frankfurt with Marseille over the LGV Rhin-Rhône and the LGV Méditerranée once a day.

85–91
Lines 85, 88, 89, 90 and 91 are international lines that end in Switzerland, Austria and Hungary:

85
Line 85 has connected Frankfurt with Milan once a day through the Gotthard Base Tunnel since December 2017. It runs as EuroCity 151 from Basel to Milan.

The line runs in Germany as EuroCity-Express (ECE) 85 and therefore it is not an ICE line, strictly speaking.

In the opposite direction, the train runs between Milan and Olten via the Lötschberg axis (through the Lötschberg Base Tunnel). The journey time is 7:36 hours, which is only two minutes longer than the return journey. The train runs as EuroCity 52 as far as Basel.

88
Line 88 is a EuroCity-Express service, that was introduced in December 2020. Since then, six pairs of trains have run between Munich and Zurich every two hours, replacing EuroCity line 88. It is operated with Alstom ETR 610 (Astoro) sets of the Swiss Federal Railways.

89
Line 89 was reintroduced with the timetable change in December 2016. Munich is connected with Feldkirch via Innsbruck once a day. Services on the line run only on Saturdays in the winter sports and the summer season.

90
The 90 line connects Munich with Vienna and Budapest every two hours. At the weekend, a train pair is extended via Stuttgart to Frankfurt, although Günzburg is served only by trains running towards Frankfurt. It is one of the few ICE lines operated with Railjets (RJX).

91
Line 91 begins in Dortmund and runs via Würzburg and Nuremberg to Vienna every two hours. A pair of trains leaves from Würzburg deviating via Fulda to Hamburg, which means that cities west of Würzburg have a frequency gap in both directions.

There are two daily train pairs between Berlin and Vienna (ICE 92/93 and ICE 94/95). These services stop at Straubing rather than at Plattling, the usual stop between Regensburg and Passau for line 91.