Classic route
ICE
Hamburg → Berlin · Germany
ICE in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 286 km
- Fastest time
- 1 h 45 min
- Average speed
- 163 km/h
- Top speed
- 230 km/h
- Operator
- Deutsche Bahn
- Train
- ICE 4
- Countries
- Germany
- In service since
- 1846
- Runs
- every 30 min
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Germany’s busiest city pair rides an alignment opened in 1846, dead straight across the northern plain.
Germany’s two biggest cities are joined by a dead-flat 1846 racing line across the Elbe marshes: for years the country’s fastest conventional stretch, with ICEs holding 230 km/h nearly throughout. It was also first through the wringer of Deutsche Bahn’s general-renovation programme: closed outright for nine months and rebuilt end to end, reopening in spring 2026 with fresh track, signalling and stations. Half-hourly ICEs make the hop in about an hour and three-quarters, Wittenberge’s Elbe waterfront the one big pause between.
How this line was checked
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 96.7% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 4 m); the longest stretch away from it is 6.5 km
- Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits under 100 m from the shape of ICE 2587
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Hamburg Hauptbahnhof’s single great span
- Elbe marshes at 230 km/h
- Wittenberge riverfront
- Ludwigslust — palace town of the plains
- Spandau approach to Berlin
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Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Berlin → Hamburg · Hamburg → Berlin.