ICE Sprinter and long-distance services 

Designed to provide relief for the crowded ICE trains on the Dortmund- Cologne- Stuttgart- Munich line The "Frankfurt-Berlin" Sprinter now starts from Darmstadt New direct service from Monday to Friday at 05:43 h from Darmstadt to Berlin (arriving at 09:44 h), stopping only in Frankfurt/Main.

In the evening, journey time reduction to less than 4 hours by optimised connection to Darmstadt in Frankfurt/Main (leaving Berlin at 18:13 h, arriving in Darmstadt at 22:10 h) Additional stop for Cologne - Hamburg Sprinter in Duisburg.

New, fast direct service between the port and logistics terminals of Duisburg and Hamburg, leaving Duisburg at 06:51 h, arriving in Hamburg Central Station at 09:46 h; flexible afternoon/ evening arrangements back to Duisburg on the IC/ICE every hour

Additional capacity will be provided on the following lines:

Supplementary IC and ICE trains will run between Hamburg and Berlin on Friday and Sunday afternoons, and on Monday mornings.

Deployment of 5 additional ICEs on Fridays and Sundays at peak periods between Cologne and Stuttgart on the Cologne–Frankfurt highspeed rail link. The new trains will also stop in Siegburg/ Bonn.

Improved services and greater travel comfort for commuter traffic between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart by operating additional IC trains; the Stuttgart- Karlsruhe commuter trains that only operate from Monday to Thursday in the afternoon will now also run on Fridays.

Direct services at attractive times were added at the following lines:

Attractive direct service between Trier and Hanover- Berlin. This new ICE, which leaves Trier at 05:00 h, is at the same time an ideal airport feeder from the Mosel Valley and from Koblenz to Cologne/ Bonn Airport.

An additional IC with optimum connections to Zurich will operate between Norddeich-Mole, Koblenz and Stuttgart, from Monday to Thursday. In the opposite direction, the train will travel from Stuttgart from Monday to Friday.

New service for commuters from the Oberrheingraben: a new direct IC service will operate every morning from Monday to Friday from Offenburg via Baden-Baden and Rastatt to Stuttgart (arriving at 07:24 h), returning in the afternoon (leaving Stuttgart at 16:41 h) to Offenburg

New direct services will also operate from Thuringia/ Saxony to Frankfurt Airport and to Mainz/ Wiesbaden, and from Karlsruhe/ Stuttgart to Dresden as well as from Bonn/ Koblenz to Stuttgart. Details of the new services include:

Extension of the Dresden- Leipzig- Frankfurt ICE line to Wiesbaden via Frankfurt Airport and Mainz.

Direct service from Fulda and from major cities in Thuringia (e.g. Erfurt) and Saxony (e.g. Leipzig and Dresden) to Frankfurt Airport

4 new direct services daily between Karlsruhe, Nuremberg and Dresden.

Additional IC services from North-Rhine Westphalia to Mannheim–Stuttgart along the Rhine Valley: 4 new direct services daily from Bonn and Koblenz to Mannheim and to Stuttgart