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 15 December 2024. The network currently has 35 scheduled lines.
Lines 1, 3, 4, 6 and 9 are all Sprinter lines, which means they have fewer stops.
Line 1 was introduced in December 2025 and is the former Sprinter line 39. It runs three times a day as a Sprinter between Hamburg and Cologne and two times a day it continues as a normal ICE to Nuremberg and once to Passau. Only one ICE in the direction of Nuremberg stops at Bingen.
Line 3 is the former line 16. It has the character of a Sprinter line and connects Berlin and Frankfurt am Main via the Hanover freight bypass line. Three trains run daily in each direction. One pair of trains extends to Saarbrücken, the other two trains end in Frankfurt Airport regional station
Line 4 runs as a Sprinter line between Hamburg and Frankfurt Airport. In December 2025 the service was expanded to four times a day, with one train extending to Flensburg and during the Summer further to Padborg.
Line 6 was introduced in December 2025 and runs between Berlin and Stuttgart once a day and only stops in Nuremberg. Trains start in Berlin Gesundbrunnen.
Line 9 runs between Berlin and Bonn and only stops in Cologne. It runs three times a day and starts either at Berlin Südkreuz or Ostbahnhof.
The lines start in Berlin. Lines 10, 14, 16 and 19 start at Berlin Ostbahnhof or Südkreuz and run to Hanover. 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 may start or end in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen (11 and 15) or Binz (15).
Line 10 runs hourly between Berlin and Cologne. Every second train is divided or combined in Hamm depending on their travel direction. A part of the trains run via Essen and Düsseldorf to Cologne. The other trains runs via the Bergisches Land to Cologne. Since December 2023, runs every two hours via the Bergisches Land, providing an hourly service in combination with the line 10 portion.
The 1540/1541 train pair operates in the early morning on a different route between Hanover and Berlin, running via Potsdam, Magdeburg and Braunschweig instead of Wolfsburg.
Line 11 runs every two hours between Berlin-Gesundbrunnen and Frankfurt and Munich, using the ErfurtâÂÂLeipzig/Halle high-speed railway between Leipzig and Erfurt and the MannheimâÂÂStuttgart high-speed railway between Mannheim and Stuttgart. Since December 2022, the line has run via the WendlingenâÂÂUlm high-speed railway.
The 698/699 train pair operates during the night and stops and some extra stations like Bitterfeld, Halle, Frankfurt Airport, Heidelberg and Günzburg.
Furthermore, ICE 991 runs at 5:40 am from Wiesbaden via Mainz, Mannheim and Stuttgart to Munich.
Services on the line run every two hours from Berlin via Brunswick, Kassel, Frankfurt and Mannheim to Basel and further into Switzerland. From Karlsruhe, it runs on parts of the unfinished KarlsruheâÂÂBasel high-speed railway. Some trains continue to Zürich, Chur, Interlaken or Brig.
Line 12 overlaps with line 13 every hour between Berlin and Fulda, and line 43 between Mannheim and Basel.
Train pair 273/1272 operates during the night from Frankfurt to Berlin and from Berlin to Zürich via Hanover instead of Brunswick.
This line was introduced at the timetable change in December 2017. It connects Berlin and Frankfurt south via Brunswick. It replaced line 11, which now runs via Erfurt instead of Brunswick. The trains run every 2 hours. Three trains end in Frankfurt Airport, while three continue to Karlsruhe via Darmstadt and one train to Stuttgart.
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.
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. The line continues five times a day from Berlin to Stralsund and Binz and twice a day it continues from Frankfurt to Darmstad and Mannheim and Saarbrücken.
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.
In December 2025, line 16 became a new line between Berlin and Bremen via Hanover with one train extending to Oldenburg
Line 19 was introduced for the 2024 annual timetable and connects Berlin with Cologne and Bonn every 2 hours via Hagen and Wupptertal; one trip is extended south to Koblenz. 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.
In the evening ICE 550 runs via Dortmund and Dússeldorf instead of Hagen and Wuppertal.
The primary route segments of lines 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 all begin in Hamburg. Some services continue to Kiel, Oldenburg or Stralsund and Binz.
Lines 18, 23, 28 and 29 go to or via Berlin, while lines 20, 22, 24, 25 and 26 go via Hanover. Lines 20 and 22 pass through several stations in larger cities without stopping.
Line 18 was re-introduced with the opening of the NurembergâÂÂErfurt high-speed railway. The trains start in Hamburg-Altona. Line 18 runs exclusively via Halle. With the redesign of the ICE lines between Berlin and Munich for the timetable year 2026, the line received a new route and also stops in Büchen, Ludwigslust and Wittenberge.
In the 2026 timetable year, Coburg is served by one southbound train (ICE 805) and one northbound train (ICE 700). The trains reverse direction in Nuremberg and travel via Augsburg, with further stops in Donauwörth and Munich-Pasing, before reaching Munich Central Station. Treuchtlingen will only be served by one northbound train (ICE 700) on this line.
The line operates every two hours, with two gaps in service between Hamburg and Berlin, which are filled by the two Berlin-Vienna ICE train pairs that travel via Leipzig. Together with lines 28 and 29, it provides a 30-minute service between Erfurt and Nuremberg. Due to the line's detour via Augsburg, this 30-minute service to Munich requires a transfer in Nuremberg. Between Berlin and Erfurt, it combines with lines 15 and 29 to create an approximate 30-minute service. Between Hamburg and Berlin, it combines with line 23 to provide hourly service, and with lines 27 and 28 to create an approximate 30-minute service.
Since the 2024 annual timetable, an IC set has been running between Westerland and Berlin as part of line 29. From 1 May 2026, this line is to be served by an ICE L set each day (2074/75).
Line 20 connects Hamburg every two hours with Basel. Between Hamburg and Frankfurt, it overlaps with line 22 to produce an hourly frequency. One ICE service per day runs from Hamburg to Wiesbaden (ICE 79) and back (ICE 78).
Line 22 connects Hamburg with Stuttgart every two hours. Five train pairs conect to/from Kiel. Between Hamburg and Frankfurt (Main) it overlaps with line 20 to produce an hourly frequency.
Line 23 was introduced in December 2025 and is a short line between Hamburg and Berlin. The trains stop alternately at Wittenberge and Ludwigslust. One train pair also stops in Büchen and Hamburg-Bergedorf.
Line 24 was separated from line 26 for the 2021 timetable year and comprises several trains that run between Hamburg and Kassel one hour later than the two-hourly line 26, serving additional destinations. These include (weekend) supplementary services between Hamburg and Munich or Austria.
From 2 May 2026, one train pair will start or end in Westerland (Sylt) and, from Kassel, will run via the Main-Weser Railway, stopping in GieÃÂen and terminating at Frankfurt. This train service was previously operated as an Intercity (IC) service and was part of line 26 until December 2025.
Services on the line run hourly from Hamburg to Munich. Since 2019, the line has operated exclusively on the NurembergâÂÂIngolstadt high-speed railway. Until 2026, every two hours, a train portion began either in Bremen or Oldenburg, which was coupled in Hannover with another train portion coming from Hamburg, Kiel or Lübeck. It was discontinued for the 2026 timetable to make the timetable more reliable. Since then, only ICE 4 trains have operated on line 25. Some trains to and from Bremen stopped in Verden and Nienburg, and some trains were extended via Delmenhorst to Oldenburg. The daily service to Lübeck was also discontinued with the timetable change. Furthermore, Lüneburg station is now served hourly.
ICE line 26 runs every four hours between Bremen and Karlsruhe (once daily as ICE 1573 from Oldenburg). Between Kassel and Frankfurt, it does not use the HannoverâÂÂWürzburg high-speed line, but instead takes a longer route via the Main-Weser Railway, stopping in Wabern, Treysa, Marburg, GieÃÂen and Friedberg.
Until 2025, line 26 ran every two hours between Karlsruhe and Hamburg, some train running on to Stralsund and Binz, stopping at some stations not served by most ICE lines, for example , and .
Line 27 connects Hamburg and Prague every two hours using ÃÂeské dráhy Railjet sets. One train pair starts or finishes Budapest and another in Vienna. Five train sets start or finish in Hamburg-Altona, three in Copenhagen and one in Kiel.
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.
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 ErfurtâÂÂLeipzig/Halle high-speed railway and between Erfurt and Nuremberg via the NurembergâÂÂErfurt 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 was extended to Hamburg in December 2021. Since 14 December 2025, the line has operated hourly, no longer runs to Hamburg, and now stops in Ingolstadt every two hours. All trains now stop in Halle and Erfurt again. This means there are now 16 pairs of Sprinter trains running daily between Berlin and Munich, with a journey time of only about 4 hours.
Line 33 was introduced in December 2025, running every two hours between Hamburg and Ostseebad Binz.
Since the 2023 timetable year, the IC trains formerly part of line 30 between Cologne and Westerland have been operating as line 39. From 1 May 2026, this line is to be served by ICE L sets. It is operated once or twice a day.
Lines 41, 42, 43, 45, 47 and 49 all usually begin in Cologne, Essen or Dortmund and run on the CologneâÂÂFrankfurt high-speed rail line:
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.
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.
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.
Individual trains run between Dortmund and Cologne via Bochum, Essen, Duisburg and Düsseldorf instead of via Hagen, Wuppertal and Solingen.
Line 43 connects Hamburg with Basel every two hours. Since 2026, the trains have regularly stopped in Baden-Baden instead of Offenburg, swapping it with Line 20. The last train from Basel runs via Essen to Dortmund. Line 43 overlaps with line 42 every hour between Cologne and Mannheim, and with line 12 between Mannheim and Basel. Until 2025, one train pair started and ended in Binz (Baltic Sea resort) or Hanover. In its place, individual train services run to Zurich/Chur (ICE 109/105) or Brig (ICE 107). Some trains run between Dortmund and Cologne via Hagen, Wuppertal and Solingen instead of via Bochum, Essen, Duisburg and Düsseldorf.
Line 45 starts in Cologne main station and stops at some stations of the CologneâÂÂFrankfurt 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 â Mainz â Frankfurt.
The line, which was introduced with the 2014 timetable change, connected individual services between Dortmund and Stuttgart running over the CologneâÂÂFrankfurt and MannheimâÂÂStuttgart 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 WendlingenâÂÂUlm high-speed railway from December 2022.
Since the 2024 timetable year, a pair of trains has been running from Stuttgart to Norddeich Mole and back on Saturdays. It follows a slightly different route than the rest of the line. The stops at Leer, Papenburg, Meppen, and Lingen are served only in the direction of Stuttgart.
Line 49 runs between Cologne and Frankfurt (Main) and stops at all stations of the CologneâÂÂFrankfurt high-speed rail line.
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:
This line has been steadily converted to ICE operations since 2023. Other services on the line are operated as .
One train pair (IC 2012/IC 2013 Allgäu) connects North Dortmund with in the Allgäu region. The stops at Plochingen and Göppingen are only served when traveling towards Oberstdorf. This will be operated by ICE sets from July 2026.
This service has run via the WendlingenâÂÂUlm high-speed railway, replacing an IC service, since the timetable change in December 2022. It runs every two hours between Munich and Karlsruhe (1068/1069, 568/569, 566/567, 564/565, 560/561). One train pair runs to/from Basel SBB (266/267). Two train pairs (562/563, 1090/1091) run daily from Munich via Stuttgart to/from Saarbrücken instead of Karlsruhe. The 1090/1091 train pair is extended past Munich to/from Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Saturdays and Sundays.
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 ÃÂBB continued to run as . As of 2026 the line consists of two train pairs per day between Frankfurt and Graz (116/117, 210/211) and one between Münster and Graz (118/119).
ICE 218/219 (Bodensee) also runs once a day:
Lines 77, 78 and 79 are international lines. They connect to the Benelux countries:
From September 2025, Intercity-Express trains of the ICE 3neo type were gradually introduced on the line towards Amsterdam. These will run until the newly acquired ICE L trains are ready for service. From November 2025, all services have been run exclusively as ICE trains. The first service of the day departs from Münster as an ICE 4 set.
Line 78 connects Frankfurt am Main with Amsterdam and runs over the CologneâÂÂFrankfurt high-speed railway. Arnhem is the first stop beyond the Dutch border. Services on the line run every two hours and stops twice a day in Siegburg/Bonn. Once a day the train runs between Munich and Amsterdam, this train runs over the MannheimâÂÂStuttgart and the WendlingenâÂÂUlm high-speed railway. The train to Munich does not stop in Oberhausen and goes via Cologne Messe/Deutz instead of Cologne Hauptbahnhof.
Line 79 connects Frankfurt (Main) with Brussels and operates in Germany on two high-speed lines: the CologneâÂÂAachen high-speed railway and the CologneâÂÂFrankfurt 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.
Lines 82 to 84 are international lines operated with the TGV from SNCF Voyageurs connecting western and southern Germany with France:
The line 82 begins at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and ends at Paris Gare de l'Est, a daily train pair also runs between Berlin and Frankfurt via Erfurt. It operates over the LGV Est, a French high-speed line. Trains run every four hours on the route via Saarbrücken, stopping 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.
Line 83 starts in Stuttgart. From there, five pairs of trains run over the LGV Est to Paris Est. One train pair per day also runs between Stuttgart and Munich.
The line 84 connects Frankfurt with Marseille over the LGV Rhin-Rhône and the LGV Méditerranée once a day.
Lines 85, 88, 89, 90 and 91 are international lines that end in Switzerland, Austria and Hungary:
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. Since 2024, SBB RABe 501 ("Giruno") trainsets (previously ETR 610) of Swiss Federal Railways are used.
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.
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. It runs as EuroCity (EC) in Austria and Switzerland.
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.
The 90 line connects Munich with Vienna and Budapest every two hours. It is one of the few ICE lines operated with Railjets (RJX).
Line 91 begins in Dortmund and runs via Würzburg and Nuremberg to Vienna every two hours. Two trains a day continue to Berlin and one onwards to Hamburg.