How to travel from Berlin to Frankfurt (Main) by train

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Berlin to Frankfurt by train

What won't be obvious when looking up a journey by train from Berlin to Frankfurt (Main) is that the ICE trains between the two cities now take three different routes:

  1. Berlin - Halle - Erfurt - Frankfurt (these are the fastest services)
  2. Berlin - Halle - Leipzig - Erfurt - Fulda Frankfurt
  3. Berlin - Braunschweig - Kassel - Fulda - Frankfurt (this route is longest in terms of distance, but much more of this journey is on high speed lines, so journey times are comparable with the route through Erfurt).

However, the departures are not evenly distributed, there can no departures at all in certain hours, while in others there are trains leaving on all three routes, though two trains per hour is most typical.

The cheaper tickets on the faster ICE trains inevitably sell out faster, but other factors worth keeping in mind when planning this journey are:

  • The trains all arrive at the same station in Frankfurt (Main), the main hauptbahnhof (there are some other ICE trains from Berlin to Frankfurt (Main) Sud station, but avoid those if you will be heading to the city centre).
  • The trains all depart from the main central station in the capital, Berlin Hbf, but the other stations they call at in the city depends on the route; the trains on that third route via Kassel also depart from Berlin Ost and Berlin Spandau; while the trains on the other two routes also call at Berlin Sudkreuz.
  • If you want to travel with a non-folding bicycle you will need to take the ICE 4 trains.

There also slower, but typically cheaper, non high speed trains from Berlin to Frankfurt which are operated by Flix.
But they arrive at a station named Frankfurt (Main) Sud, which lives up to its name with a location to the south of the city centre.

Also note that Frankfurt (Oder) is a different town, which also has direct trains from Berlin, so make sure that you are looking at trains to Frankfurt (Main) when booking tickets online and ignore any info you see for Frankfurt (Oder) when you're at the station.

Routes you can take to go from Berlin to Frankfurt (Main)

When travelling between most cities by train there is only one logical option, though on other journeys there is a choice between different trains or alternative routes. If different options are available you can use the info to decide which is best for you.

Choose one of the following options:

Route Information

Option 1: the fastest ICE services
Travel Time (approx)

3hr 52min - 3hr 54min

Frequency

Daily

Travel Info

Mon-Thurs = 5 x trains per day
Friday = 6 x trains
Sat/Sun = 4 x trains per day

Route Information

Option 2: depart in the even hours by ICE train
Travel Time (approx)

4hr 11 min - 4hr 17min* (approx)

Frequency

Daily

Travel Info

7 x trains per day

Route Information

Option 3: these slightly slower ICE trains can be cheaper
Travel Time (approx)

4hr 11min - 4hr 17min (approx)

Frequency

Daily

Travel Info

7 x trains per day

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