City to city

Munich to Hamburg by train

Hauptbahnhof Süd → Hauptbahnhof/ZOB

Fastest

≈ 5h 57m

Typical

≈ 6h 22m

Direct trains

Yes

Fewest changes

0

Operators

DB Fernverkehr AG, metronom

Trains link Munich (Hauptbahnhof Süd) and Hamburg (Hauptbahnhof/ZOB) in about 5h 57m at best, with no changes needed. The corridor is part of the ICE (780 km, typically 5 h 45 min), one of 1247 routes plotted in the World Train Map atlas.

How long does the train from Munich to Hamburg take?

The fastest trains cover Munich to Hamburg in about 5h 57m; a typical journey takes around 6h 22m.

Is there a direct train from Munich to Hamburg?

Yes: direct trains run between Hauptbahnhof Süd and Hauptbahnhof/ZOB.

Is the train or a flight faster from Munich to Hamburg?

A typical flight works out roughly 2h 25m quicker door to door (about 4h 20m against 6h 40m by train, once airport time is counted) — but the train emits about 3× less CO₂e, even on conservative official emission factors.

Train, door to door

≈ 6h 40m

Flight, door to door

≈ 4h 20m (est.)

CO₂e per passenger

~26 kg train · ~83 kg plane

Flight time and emissions are transparent estimates, not airline schedules — method, factors and all 109 compared pairs on Train vs plane in Europe.

This corridor in the atlas

• ICE Germany’s busiest long-distance axis, the length of the country from the Elbe to the Isar via Hanover, the Fulda gap and Nuremberg.

Legendary routes through Munich or Hamburg

• ICE Sprinter Berlin → Munich
• EuroNight Stockholm → Hamburg
• ICE Hamburg → Berlin
• Nightjet Hamburg → Vienna

Sleepers too: night trains from Hamburg.

More trains from Munich

• Munich → Nuremberg ≈ 1h 11m · direct
• Munich → Salzburg ≈ 1h 45m · direct
• Munich → Innsbruck ≈ 1h 55m · direct
• Munich → Stuttgart ≈ 1h 58m · direct
• Munich → Leipzig ≈ 3h 15m · direct
• Munich → Frankfurt ≈ 3h 17m · direct

All trains from Munich →

More train routes in Germany · Sweden · Denmark.

Journey figures are typical values sampled from public European schedule data; exact times vary by day. Always check the operator when booking.