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 14 December 2025. 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 may deviate from the basic line.

Route The route represents all stops on a route. Stops 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.

Lines overview Line Direction between (Hamburg, Cologne and Passau) (Saarbrücken, Frankfurt and Berlin) (Flensburg, Hamburg and Frankfurt) (Berlin, Nuremberg and Stuttgart) (Berlin, Cologne and Bonn) Berlin, Hanover and Cologne Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich Berlin, Kassel and Switzerland Berlin, Kassel and Frankfurt Berlin, Essen and Aachen Frankfurt, Berlin and Binz Bremen, Hanover and Berlin Hamburg, Berlin and Munich Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart Hamburg, Kassel and Basel Kiel, Hamburg and Stuttgart Hamburg and Berlin Hamburg, Munich and Alps Hamburg, Nuremberg and Munich Bremen and Karlsruhe (Copenhagen, Kiel) Hamburg, Berlin, Prague (Budapest and Vienna) Westerland and Berlin Hamburg, Berlin and Munich Berlin and Munich Hamburg and Ostseebad Binz Essen, Nuremberg and Munich Hamburg, Dortmund, Mannheim and Munich Hamburg, Cologne and Basel (Cologne, Wiesbaden and Mainz) (Dortmund and Stuttgart) (Cologne and Frankfurt) Dresden, Frankfurt and Wiesbaden Dresden, Cologne and Stuttgart Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Munich Munich, Salzburg, Klagenfurt and Graz Hamburg and Copenhagen Amsterdam and Berlin Amsterdam, Cologne and Frankfurt Brussels, Cologne and Frankfurt (Paris, Mannheim and Frankfurt) Paris, Strasbourg and Stuttgart Frankfurt, Strasbourg and Marseille Frankfurt, Basel and Milan Munich and Zurich Munich and Landeck-Zams (Munich, Salzburg and Vienna) (Dortmund), Frankfurt and Vienna (...) = only few trains daily

1–9 Lines 1, 3, 4, 6 and 9 are all Sprinter lines, which means they have fewer stops.

1 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 Route Stock – Hamburg – Essen – Duisburg – Düsseldorf – Cologne – Bonn – Koblenz – Bingen am Rhein – Mainz – Frankfurt Airport – Frankfurt – Hanau – Aschaffenburg – Würzburg – Nuremberg – Regensburg – – Passau

3 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 Route Stock – Berlin – – Frankfurt – ICE 1Mannheim – Neustadt – Kaiserslautern – Homburg – Saarbrücken

4 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 Route Stock – – – –Hamburg – Hannover – Frankfurt – Frankfurt Airport regionalICE 1, ICE 4 – –

6 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 Route StockBerlin Gesundbrunnen – Berlin – Berlin Südkreuz – Nuremberg – StuttgartICE 3

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 or Ostbahnhof.

Line Route StockBerlin Ostbahnhof –Berlin – Berlin Zoologischer Garten – Berlin-Spandau – Cologne – BonnICE 4Berlin Südkreuz

10–17, 19 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).

10

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.

Line Route Stock Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin – Berlin Zoologischer Garten – Stendal – Wolfsburg – Braunschweig – Hanover – Minden – – Bielefeld – Gütersloh – Hamm – Dortmund – Bochum – Essen – Duisburg – Düsseldorf Airport – Düsseldorf – Cologne ICE 2, 7-car ICE 4Hagen – Wuppertal – Solingen –

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.

Route Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin – Berlin Zoologischer Garten – – Potsdam – Brandenburg – Magdeburg – Braunschweig – Hanover – Minden – Bielefeld – Gütersloh – Hamm – Dortmund – Bochum – Essen – Duisburg – Düsseldorf Airport – Düsseldorf – Cologne

11

Line 11 runs every two hours between Berlin-Gesundbrunnen and Frankfurt and Munich, using the Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway between Leipzig and Erfurt and the Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railway between Mannheim and Stuttgart. Since December 2022, the line has run via the Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway.

Line Route Stock Berlin Gesundbrunnen – Berlin – Berlin Südkreuz – Wittenberg – Leipzig – Erfurt – Eisenach – Fulda – Frankfurt – Mannheim – Stuttgart – Ulm – Augsburg – Munich-Pasing – Munich ICE 4

The 698/699 train pair operates during the night and stops and some extra stations like Bitterfeld, Halle, Frankfurt Airport, Heidelberg and Günzburg.

Route Berlin Gesundbrunnen – Berlin – Berlin Südkreuz – Wittenberg – – Leipzig – Halle – Erfurt – Eisenach – Frankfurt – Frankfurt Airport – Mannheim – – Stuttgart – Ulm – – Augsburg – Munich-Pasing – Munich

Furthermore, ICE 991 runs at 5:40 am from Wiesbaden via Mainz, Mannheim and Stuttgart to Munich.

Route Wiesbaden – Mainz – Worms – Mannheim – Stuttgart – Ulm – Augsburg – Munich-Pasing – Munich

12

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 Karlsruhe–Basel 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.

Line Route Stock Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin – – Berlin-Spandau – Wolfsburg – Braunschweig – Hildesheim – Göttingen – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe  – Fulda – Hanau – Frankfurt – Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Offenburg – Freiburg – Basel SBB – Liestal – Olten – Bern – Thun – Spiez – ICE 4 – Zürich – – –

Train pair 273/1272 operates during the night from Frankfurt to Berlin and from Berlin to Zürich via Hanover instead of Brunswick.

Route Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin – Berlin Zoologischer Garten – Berlin-Spandau – Stendal – Woflsburg – Hanover – Göttingen – Fulda – Hanau – Frankfurt South – Frankfurt Airport – Frankfurt – Mannheim – Karslruhe – Offenburg – Freiburg – Basel Bad – Basel SBB – Zürich

13 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.

Line Route StockBerlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin – – Berlin-Spandau – Stendal – Wolfsburg – Brunswick – Hildesheim – Göttingen – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Fulda – Hanau – Frankfurt South – Frankfurt Airport ICE 1, ICE T – Darmstadt – – Weinheim – Heidelberg – – Stuttgart → Frankfurt

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.

Line Route Stock Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin – – Berlin-Spandau – Wolfsburg – Hanover –Osnabrück – Münster – Wanne-Eickel – Recklinghausen – Essen – Duisburg –Düsseldorf – Cologne – Düren –AachenICE 1, ICE 2, ICE 4, ICE T Herford – Bielefeld – Gütersloh – Hamm – Dortmund – Bochum – Krefeld – Viersen – Mönchengladbach – Rheydt – Erkelenz – Geilenkirchen – Herzogenrath –

15 Line 15 is an ICE line connecting Stralsund and Frankfurt every two hours. 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.

Line Route Stock Binz – Bergen auf Rügen – Stralsund – Greifswald – Züssow – Anklam – Pasewalk – Prenzlau – Eberswalde – Berlin Gesundbrunnen – Berlin – Berlin Südkreuz – Halle – Erfurt – Frankfurt – Darmstadt – Bensheim – Mannheim – Neustadt – Kaiserslautern – Homburg – SaarbrückenICE 1

16 In December 2025, line 16 became a new line between Berlin and Bremen via Hanover with one train extending to Oldenburg

Line Route Stock – Berlin – – Hanover – Bremen – – Oldenburg

19 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.

Line Route Stock Berlin Ostbahnhof – – Hanover – Bielefeld – Hagen – Wuppertal – Cologne  – Bonn –  –  – Koblenz ICE 1, ICE 4

In the evening ICE 550 runs via Dortmund and Düsseldorf instead of Hagen and Wuppertal.

RouteBerlin Südkreuz → Berlin → Berlin-Spandau → Hanover → Minden → → → Bielefeld → Gütersloh → Hamm → Dortmund → Bochum → Essen → Duisburg → Düsseldorf → Cologne

18, 20, 22–29

The primary route segments of lines 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 all begin in Hamburg. Some services continue to Kiel or Oldenburg.

Lines 18, 23 and 28 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.

18