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Long distance in Germany


Long distance in Germany

Inter City Express (ICE).
Inter City Express (ICE).
All major cities are linked by DB's ICE (InterCity Express) and regular InterCity trains. ICE is a system of high speed trains that are capable of speeding with 330km/h, the condition of tracks and signals however allows top speeds of only 160 km/h (usual), 200 km/h (routes with special electronic equipment called "Ausbaustrecke") or 250 km/h to 300 km/h (designated high-speed tracks only called "Neubaustrecke"). The top speed of 330km/h is reached on the journey from Cologne to Paris, France. Although significantly faster than by road (unless you are driving a Porsche), they are also expensive, with a 1 h trip ( Frankfurt to Cologne, around 150 km) costing around €65 one-way (normal price without any discount). However when you book the ticket online in advance, you can get a considerable discount (see Discounts). Reservations are not mandatory but are recommended, especially when you travel on weekends or holidays. This means, that with Interrail or Eurail pass you can use domestic ICE trains without supplement (except for for international ICE trains) Next are the regular InterCity (IC) and EuroCity (EC) trains. The latter connect the larger European cities and are virtually identical to the regular ICs. These trains are also fairly comfortable, even if they lack the high-tech feeling of the ICE. On the major lines, an ICE or IC train will run each hour or so during the day, and even certain minor cities of touristic importance like Tübingen or Heringsdorf are connected on a daily or weekly basis. Before you shell out the money for the ICE ticket, you may want to check if it actually makes a significant time difference. ICE trains travel faster than other IC trains only on specially equipped high-speed routes. There are also long distance trains operated by other companies than Deutsche Bahn, usually running over secondary routes. These are usually comfortable enough (although not as comfortable as ICE) and sometimes considerably cheaper, but most of them stop at almost every station en-route. Despite being fast, modern and highly profitable, German railways are known for their frequent delays specifically on main lines--trains usually do not wait for one another (most local trains normally do for up to 5 min) you should not rely on connecting times of less than 15 min.

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Germany Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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