ICE 4 to Operate on the Berlin – Munich High-Speed Line

With the Deutsche Bahn (DB) timetable change on December 9, 2018, the ICE 4 will inaugurate service on the high-speed line between Berlin and Munich. In addition to the ICE 3 trains operating as Sprinters along the route, the ICE 4 will make more stops along the way. Compared to the Sprinter’s five intermediate stops, the ICE 4 will make eight. The new trains will connect Berlin-Gesundbrunnen, Berlin Central Station, Berlin-Südkreuz, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Leipzig, Erfurt, Bamberg, Erlangen, Nürnberg and Munich Central Station. With the launch of ICE 4 service and additional Sprinters, there will be around 3,000 more seats available on this route every day. The new DB flagship also operates on the Cologne-Rhine-Main route, and between Hamburg and Munich, and to Stuttgart. All in all, nineteen 12-car ICE 4 trains will be in service beginning on Sunday.

“We’re writing a new chapter in the success story of the ICE 4 with the timetable change. Starting in December, the ICE 4 will run on additional routes and offer our passengers more space and comfort as well as greater reliability,” said Michael Peterson, Marketing Director at DB Fernverkehr.

“With the timetable change on coming Sunday and the expanded ICE 4 service, our ICE 4 is increasingly becoming the backbone of Germany’s mainline traffic. The initiating operations on the VDE 8 route equipped with ETCS is another enormously important milestone in the German Unity Railway Project Nr. 8 (VDE 8) that we’ve reached right on schedule. This is especially important for us, since our train now connects the Siemens Mobility locations in Berlin, Erlangen, Nuremberg and Munich,” said Sabrina Soussan, CEO of Siemens Mobility.

In October, Germany’s Federal Railway Authority (EBA) approved the ICE 4 for operating with the European Train Control System (ETCS) in Germany. With this approval, the ICE 4 can now, as planned, begin operation on the ETCS-equipped rail line between Berlin and Munich. All 137 of the ordered trains will be equipped with ETCS and can thus run on the VDE 8 route.