GERMAN Rail (DB) has revealed the key features of its 2026 timetable, which comes into effect on December 14. These include an increase in half-hourly long-distance services, expansion of ICE Sprinter high-speed services, introduction of new ICE L trains and a significant increase in cross-border services.
“We are expanding our timetable in a targeted manner with an eye on demand and capacity on the rail network,” says Michael Peterson, DB board member for long distance passenger transport. "We are pleased that, despite planned engineering work, we will be able to maintain a consistently high volume of services in 2026, at the record level of the previous year."
DB will more than double the core high-speed network from 900km to 2300km, serving 21 cities including Berlin, Erfurt, Halle, Hamburg, Hannover and Kassel, all of which will benefit from half-hourly services.
The north-south routes connecting Hamburg with Frankfurt (Main) and Berlin with Munich will be reinforced with 14 new ICE Sprinter services. A new Berlin - Nuremberg - Stuttgart Sprinter service will reduce the previous journey time by 1 hour, achieving a record timing of 4h 45min between the two cities.
The long-awaited ICE L locomotive-hauled trains, currently under construction by Talgo, and which finally received authorisation to operate in German this summer, will debut on Berlin - Cologne services. From May 1 2026, following completion of the comprehensive refurbishment of the Hamburg - Berlin main line, ICE L trains will run to Westerland (Sylt) from Berlin, and from mid-July onwards the new fleet will also run from Frankfurt/Cologne to Westerland, as well as between Dortmund and Oberstdorf.
More cross-border services
The number of cross-border services will increase significantly, with around 40 new or extended cross-border trains daily. Starting in May, new services will begin between Prague and Copenhagen via Dresden, Berlin and Hamburg. This will also result in up to four additional trains per day between Hamburg and Copenhagen, depending on the season. And for the first time, starting in September, there will be four daily ICE services between Cologne and Antwerp via Brussels Airport.
DB says that the new services come as it is simplifying the purchase of tickets for journeys outside Germany. Tickets for travel in Austria, Switzerland, on French TGV high-speed services and Eurostar trains can already be booked via the DB website and DB Navigator app, and DB says tickets for services in other European countries will “be available soon.”
ICE standardisation
On the busiest ICE routes, DB says it is standardising departure and destination stations, intermediate stops, and timetable intervals wherever possible. It aims to ensure that each route is operated by ICE trains from the same series, to improve reliability and service stability. For the same reason, DB will now avoid splitting or joining two-unit ICE trains en route, as this has been a frequent cause of delays.
