Overview

• DB expands its half‑hourly high‑speed pattern from 900 to 2,300 kilometers, bringing 21 cities into a 30‑minute ICE rhythm on corridors such as Hamburg–Kassel and Berlin–Erfurt–Nuremberg.
• Sprinter offerings grow with an hourly sub‑four‑hour Berlin–Munich link, a new Berlin–Stuttgart service, and more fast runs on Hamburg–Frankfurt, while Berlin–Cologne/Bonn nonstop Sprinters end on February 7 due to works.
• Weakly used long‑distance links are pared back, including Leipzig–Nuremberg via Jena cut from five to two daily trains and the loss of stops in Lübeck and Berchtesgaden, and standardization removes some directs such as Hamburg–Vienna.
• The new step‑free ICE L debuts on Berlin–Cologne at up to 230 km/h, cross‑border options widen with 40 new or extended trips and a Leipzig–Kraków EuroCity, DB starts selling many TGV and Eurostar tickets, and VBB local tickets will no longer be accepted on specified long‑distance sections in Berlin‑Brandenburg from December 14.
• Five multimonth corridor rebuilds in 2026 will close sections including Hamburg–Berlin (to April 30), Hagen–Wuppertal–Cologne and Nürnberg–Regensburg (February to mid‑July), Obertraubling–Passau (mid‑June to mid‑December), and Troisdorf–Wiesbaden (mid‑July to mid‑December).