High-speed route
ICE International
Berlin → Amsterdam · Germany · Netherlands
ICE International in pictures




Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 660 km
- Fastest time
- 5 h 42 min
- Average speed
- 116 km/h
- Top speed
- 250 km/h
- Operator
- DB / NS
- Train
- ICE 3neo · Class 408
- Countries
- Germany, Netherlands
- In service since
- 2000
- Runs
- every 2 h
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Upgraded to new ICE 3neo trains in late 2025, replacing loco-hauled Intercitys on the roughly six-hour cross-border run to the Dutch capital.
Expresses have linked the German and Dutch capitals since the nineteenth century, and the modern service still runs the classic gauge across the North German Plain: Hannover, Osnabrück, then the castle town of Bad Bentheim where Dutch tension takes over the wires. Beyond the border the train drops down the IJssel at Hanseatic Deventer, crosses the Veluwe’s heaths and polder country, and finishes along the IJ into Amsterdam Centraal. Five-plus hours that the timetable planners keep promising to shorten.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 374676 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 5 m from it
- Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits 0.1 km from the shape of ICE 148
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Havelland plains
- Hannover interchange
- Bad Bentheim’s border castle
- IJssel crossing at Deventer
- Veluwe heaths
- Amsterdam Centraal on the IJ
Read more on Wikipedia (in DE) ↗
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Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Amsterdam → Berlin · Berlin → Amsterdam.