Whether from Cologne to Munich, from Hamburg to Frankfurt or from Berlin to Warsaw: With the timetable change in long-distance traffic on Deutsche Bahn, passengers on important routes should be able to travel more frequently and faster from mid-December.
A new night train line of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) between Prague, Berlin and Zurich should then start, as Deutsche Bahn announced on Monday.
In particular, the completion of the new Wendlingen-Ulm line, which along with Stuttgart 21 is part of the Stuttgart-Ulm railway project, will create additional capacity between north-west and southern Germany.
"The new route will also connect the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria even faster and more frequently," said long-distance transport board member Michael Peterson on Monday at the presentation of the new timetable, which will come into force on December 11th.
Among other things, Peterson announced that in future he would offer a direct connection between Cologne and Munich twice an hour.
There should also be more connections to Frankfurt Airport, especially from cities in the north.
"The Basel-Cologne-Dortmund ICE line will be extended to Hamburg, which will further improve the quality of the axis between the cathedral city and the Hanseatic city," the railway said.
"This means that travelers from Münster, Osnabrück and Bremen can get to Frankfurt Airport even more frequently without having to change trains."
New ICE generation in action
The first trains of the so-called ICE 3 Neo are to be in service between NRW and Frankfurt from mid-December - a new train based on the well-known ICE 3, from which the railway will receive three dozen new vehicles in the coming year.
You should then be traveling from Dortmund via Cologne in the direction of the Main.
In the course of the coming year, the new vehicles will also be used between Dortmund and Munich.
There are also changes to ÖBB's night train offerings.
In the coming year, a new night line will connect Prague and Zurich via Berlin, Leipzig and Erfurt, the railway said.
"The existing Zurich-Hamburg night train will change its route from the timetable change in the north and will then also connect Bruchsal, Heidelberg, Darmstadt, Hanau, Verden and Nienburg to international night train traffic," it said.
From December, Deutsche Bahn will also be offering additional regular services from Berlin to Prague and from Stuttgart to Zurich.
However, the numerous frequency increases next year say little about the reliability of the express trains.
At least Peterson did not have a new punctuality target for 2023 ready on Monday.
The only thing that remains clear is that numerous construction sites will continue to slow down traffic in the coming year.
For example, between Fulda and Kassel and on the Warnemünde-Berlin-Rostock route, connections would have to be withdrawn for several weeks, and trains would take longer, said Peterson.
"Construction measures lasting several weeks are already included in the new timetable"
From the point of view of the honorary chairman of the Pro Bahn passenger association, Karl-Peter Naumann, the construction measures are extremely necessary in many places.
"There is rather too little being built here than too much," he told the German Press Agency on Monday.
“There are also good alternatives there.
That's not the really big problem.”
With the timetable change on December 11, the new offers are accompanied by an increase in fares.
Deutsche Bahn will then raise long-distance transport prices by an average of five percent.
The group had already announced this at the end of September.
The so-called flex tickets then even cost almost seven percent more.