ICE Berlin–Frankfurt

Joins the political and banking capitals via Kassel and the Fulda gap, the Velaro D holding 250 km/h over the wooded ridges of northern Hesse.

The capital-to-capital-of-money run threads the Sprinter philosophy: leave on the hour, skip almost everything, arrive under four hours later beside the Main. The route crosses the old inner-German border country near the Harz foothills, drops through Göttingen and the tunnels of the 1991 high-speed line, and passes Fulda’s monastery town before the Frankfurt towers stack up ahead. Ordinary ICEs fill the gaps with more stops; the Sprinters carry the laptops.

Stations

1. 0 kmBerlin Hauptbahnhof
2. 15 kmBerlin-Spandau
3. 215 kmBraunschweig Hauptbahnhof
4. 258 kmHildesheim Hauptbahnhof
5. 336 kmGöttingen
6. 381 kmKassel-Wilhelmshöhe
7. 470 kmFulda
8. 569 kmFrankfurt (Main) Süd

The stations OpenStreetMap lists for this service, in order, with the distance along the line as drawn here. A train may skip some of them.

Along the way

• Brandenburg and Elbe flats
• Old border country near the Harz edge
• Göttingen curve
• Fulda monastery town
• Main plain arrival

How this line was checked

• Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 7797053 — 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 7 m from it
• The operator publishes this line's timetable: Deutsche Bahn — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
• Wikipedia has an article for this line
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the ICE?

The ICE runs 545 km from Berlin to Frankfurt.

How long does the ICE take?

The fastest scheduled journey is 3 h 56 min for the 545 km. That is an average of 139 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 280 km/h.

Who runs the ICE?

DB Fernverkehr, with ICE 3 Velaro D.

How old is the ICE?

The line has been in service since 1991. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.

How often does the ICE run?

Hourly (Sprinters + standard ICEs).

View on the world railway map →

Read more on Wikipedia ↗