Rail expands connections to the Baltic Sea and Switzerland

With the timetable change, Deutsche Bahn is expanding its connections to the Baltic Sea and Switzerland. For example, an additional overnight connection from Berlin via Stendal to Zurich is planned, as announced by Deutsche Bahn. This is in response to the high demand for seat carriages on the existing night train connection, it said. The new timetable will apply from December 15, 2024 and there will also be the following changes:

ICE connection to the Baltic Sea

From March 8, 2025, an ICE train will run daily from Eisenach via Erfurt, Leipzig and Lutherstadt Wittenberg to Waren (Müritz) and Rostock via Berlin without the need to change trains. In addition, an ICE train from Berlin to Halle and Erfurt will depart from Stralsund (8.04 a.m.) on Mondays to Fridays.

Trains between Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden and Prague

The new ComfortJet trains from Czech Railways, which are already in operation, will be used on further journeys between Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Bad Schandau and Prague in future. The new trains have 555 seats and a dining car.

Early connection from Nuremberg to Leipzig

The Intercity between Nuremberg, Erlangen, Bamberg, Lichtenfels, Saalfeld, Jena, Naumburg, Weißenfels and Leipzig is to be optimized in terms of time - with a new early connection from Nuremberg (6.20 a.m.). In the opposite direction, an IC will also run in the evening on Sundays to Fridays in future.

Update for Chemnitz

The IC Chemnitz-Berlin-Rostock-Warnemünde will once again run daily via Freiberg (Saxony) and Dresden. According to the information provided, an additional fast IC train pair is also planned for the weekends in the Capital of Culture year, running non-stop from Berlin to Chemnitz in the morning and returning late in the afternoon.

Improvements at the weekend in Thuringia

After a two-year break, an additional intercity train pair will be running again on Fridays and Sundays via Eisenach, Gotha, Erfurt and Weimar, for example to and from Cologne, Dortmund, Paderborn and Kassel. Additional IC services for Eisenach, Gotha and Erfurt will also run from Stuttgart to Leipzig on Fridays and back on Sundays.