Thanks to a relatively new high speed line in Germany the train journey from Munchen / Munich to Berlin has never been faster - and on the latest timetable yet more improvements have been made to the train service from Bavaria to the German capital.
Three new 'Sprinter' services now make only one station call during the journey, to provide a fastest ever journey time of only 3hr 45mins!~
Plus the frequency of the other 'Sprinter' services on the most direct route has been virtually doubled.
So taking these 'Sprinter' services now become the logical choice for the rail journey between the two cities.
There are trains which are only around 30 mins slower, because they divert off the direct route to call in Leipzig - but they usually depart München Hbf within 5 mins of a 'Sprinter' service.
So those trains only become a good choice if they are much cheaper.
There are also other services that are more than an hour slower than the regular 'Sprinter' services, because they travel via Augsburg (and Frankfurt) - so are best avoided.
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.
3hr 45min (approx)
Daily
3 x trains per day
DB is the national railway operator in Germany, so its website can be used for booking journeys by German express trains; the ICE and IC trains and it doesn't charge booking fees.
It also sells tickets for journeys by direct trains on all international routes from Germany regardless of whether DB is operating the train service.
It also sells an extensive range of end-to-end journeys which involve making connections both within Germany and in neighboring countries, but journeys between Germany and Britain cannot be booked on DB.
On journeys within Germany and on most international journeys from and to Germany on trains operated by DB:
When booking both types of the discounted 'Sparpreis' tickets seat reservations are an optional extra, so need to be added when booking if you want an assigned seat(s).
Omio is an online ticket agency which offers tickets for rail journeys in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.
The three key advantages of using Omio are
The disadvantage of booking with Omio is that it often adds a booking fee to the final price; therefore when it does so without offering a price advantage, SMTJ doesn't tend to offer Omio as a booking option.
Three additional daily 'Sprinter' services have been added to the timetable, which only make one station call in Nurnberg on the journey from München / Munich to Berlin
So they provide the fastest ever services on this route!
Despite that tickets will not automatically be more expensive on these trains and rail passes will be valid.
They are typically scheduled to depart from München Hbf daily at 07:56, 11:56 and 15:56.
Final Destination: Hamburg-Altona or Berlin Gesundbrunnen
All trains also call at: Berlin Südkreuz
The first two trains of the day, which will be heading to Hamburg, also call at Berlin Spandau, after they have departed from Berlin Hbf.
Arriving in Berlin:
Berlin Hbf is shown as 'Berlin Hbf (tief) on the DB online timetable and this indicates that these trains will arrive at the lowest level in the station.
Berlin Hbf is the main station in the city so take care not to leave the train at Südkreuz if you're heading to to the city centre.
Check the location of your final destination in Berlin, as Berlin-Sudkreuz station is connected by local S-Bahn trains to the eastern and western edges of the city centre,
It also has direct S-Bahn trains on lines S2 and S25 and S26 which head north into the city centre and call at Anhalter and Brandenburger Tor and Postdamer Platz and FriedrichstraBe stations - amongst others.
Check your connections in Berlin on this public transport map.
This is a scenically uninteresting journey, so what gives this journey its wow factor is its speed.
The train will travel on a high speed line for the 40 minute journey between Ingolstadt and Nurnberg.
Then after travelling through Bamberg it will then spend around 80 minutes travelling at speeds of up to 290 km/h until it switches back to the conventional railway on arrival at Halle.
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings usually open: up to 6 months ahead of the travel date - but this period of time is shorter when looking up journeys in August to October.
A choice of tickets
Four types of tickets are available:
Two types of discounted tickets, which will be cheaper the further ahead you book - Sparpreis and Super Sparpreis
Two types of non-discounted ticket - Flexpreis Aktion and Flexpreis
A key difference between these types of tickets is refunds:
...the other key difference is that both types of Flexpreis tickets live up to their name, as they can be used on any departure on your travel date - in contrast, both types of Sparpreis tickets are only valid on the specific departures selected when booking,
Note that none of the tickets can be exchanged to a different departure.
There's no need for this to be available for both types of Flexpreis tickets, as they aren't train departure specific.
If you book a Sparpreis ticket and want to travel by a different departure you can refund it and then use the travel voucher towards the cost of the new booking.
Super Sparpreis tickets can't be exchanged or refunded.
When travelling to and from the major cities, the Sparpreis, Flexpreis Aktion and Flexpreis tickets also include 'City tickets', which can be used on public transport between locations in the Berlin and Munich city centres and the stations where the trains depart and arrive.
Seat reservations
Seat reservations are optional on ICE trains for journeys within Germany.
They cost €4.90 when travelling in 2nd Class and €5.90 when travelling in 1st class.
When a journey involves two or more trains on which seat reservations are available, the fees when first booking, cover all trains.
Specific seats can be selected from seating plans - you don't have to accept the seat(s) that you will be automatically offered.
They are included within the cost of booking 1st class Flexpreis Aktion tickets and both 1st and 2nd class Flexpreis tickets.
Though despite seats being automatically assigned when booking these three types of ticket - and these tickets being valid on any departure, you will need to pay to re-book the reservations, if you subsequently decide to travel on an alternative train.
So because you won't save by booking these types of tickets in advance, it can be a good idea to wait until you are sure when you will want to travel.
When booking Super Sparpreis, Sparpreis and 2nd class Flexpreis Ation tickets, you have the option of purchasing seat reservations later.
It can be worth re-looking up a journey a week or two ahead of travel, because the DB website will indicate how busy a departure will be.
1st Class tickets
No matter what type of ticket booked, if you choose to travel 1st class, you will have access to the same seating areas on the train, ICE trains do not have Business or Executive lounges.
Though only those who have booked 1st class Flexpreis or Flexpreis Aktion tickets can access the DB Lounges at the major stations.
Booking on the DB website
You can find these direct trains more easily by making a proactive selection of 'Direct Trains Only'.
Or to see all the combinations of trains and journey options, some of which may be cheaper, take off the 'fastest connections' default.
Trains departing at different times can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day, so if you can be flexible with your departure time use the 'best prices' tool - at the top right on the list of journey options.
from 4hr 5mins (approx)
Daily
12 x trains per day
DB is the national railway operator in Germany, so its website can be used for booking journeys by German express trains; the ICE and IC trains and it doesn't charge booking fees.
It also sells tickets for journeys by direct trains on all international routes from Germany regardless of whether DB is operating the train service.
It also sells an extensive range of end-to-end journeys which involve making connections both within Germany and in neighboring countries, but journeys between Germany and Britain cannot be booked on DB.
On journeys within Germany and on most international journeys from and to Germany on trains operated by DB:
When booking both types of the discounted 'Sparpreis' tickets seat reservations are an optional extra, so need to be added when booking if you want an assigned seat(s).
Omio is an online ticket agency which offers tickets for rail journeys in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.
The three key advantages of using Omio are
The disadvantage of booking with Omio is that it often adds a booking fee to the final price; therefore when it does so without offering a price advantage, SMTJ doesn't tend to offer Omio as a booking option.
Happy Rail is a Netherlands rail ticket agency which sells tickets for both national and international journeys within a range of countries including Belgium France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland.
HappyRail doesn't charge booking fees in the conventional sense, but if you're not Dutch you can expect to pay additional transaction fees, which will be added to the total cost.
That's because the most common form of online payment used in The Netherlands is 'iDEAL' and HappyRail doesn't charge a transaction fee for 'iDEAL' payments, but only Dutch residents can sign up to 'iDEAL'.
Other forms of payment include Visa debit cards will incur a fee.
These 'Sprinter' trains take the most direct route from München to Berlin and they also make only three or for station calls during the journey.
They also travel at more than 285 km/h on the high speed line, between Erfurt and Halle - they're scheduled to travel faster than any other train in Germany!
Note that ICE 3 trains are used for these ICE Sprinter departures; Sprinter is the name that DB gives to a service and not the train.
Despite being faster, a premium ticket price is not applied to these 'Sprinter' services; though the limited numbers of discounted 'Sparpreis' tickets will inevitably sell out quickly.
Arriving in Berlin:
Final Destination: Berlin Gesundbrunnen or Hamburg
Berlin Hbf is shown as 'Berlin Hbf (tief) on the DB online timetable and this indicates that these trains will arrive at the lowest level in the station.
All trains also call at: Berlin Südkreuz and Berlin Hbf
Berlin Hbf is the main station in the city so take care not to leave the train at Südkreuz if you're heading to to the city centre.
Check the location of your final destination in Berlin, as Berlin-Sudkreuz station is connected by local S-Bahn trains to the eastern and western edges of the city centre,
It also has direct S-Bahn trains on lines S2 and S25 and S26 which head north into the city centre and call at Anhalter and Brandenburger Tor and Postdamer Platz and FriedrichstraBe stations - amongst others.
Check your connections in Berlin on this public transport map.
The number of these 'Sprinter' services has been doubled on the latest timetable!
Though there also typically two other trains which take this most direct route, but make additional station calls - so they're slower, but only by around 10mins.
They are typically schedule to depart from Munchen Hbf at around 09:55 and 13:55.
This is a scenically uninteresting journey, so what gives this journey its wow factor is its speed.
The train will travel on a high speed line for the 40 minute journey between Ingolstadt and Nurnberg.
Then after travelling through Bamberg it will then spend around 80 minutes travelling at speeds of up to 290 km/h until it switches back to the conventional railway on arrival at Halle.
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings usually open: up to 6 months ahead of the travel date - but this period of time is shorter when looking up journeys in August to October.
A choice of tickets
Four types of tickets are available:
Two types of discounted tickets, which will be cheaper the further ahead you book - Sparpreis and Super Sparpreis
Two types of non-discounted ticket - Flexpreis Aktion and Flexpreis
A key difference between these types of tickets is refunds:
...the other key difference is that both types of Flexpreis tickets live up to their name, as they can be used on any departure on your travel date - in contrast, both types of Sparpreis tickets are only valid on the specific departures selected when booking,
Note that none of the tickets can be exchanged to a different departure.
There's no need for this to be available for both types of Flexpreis tickets, as they aren't train departure specific.
If you book a Sparpreis ticket and want to travel by a different departure you can refund it and then use the travel voucher towards the cost of the new booking.
Super Sparpreis tickets can't be exchanged or refunded.
When travelling to and from the major cities, the Sparpreis, Flexpreis Aktion and Flexpreis tickets also include 'City tickets', which can be used on public transport between locations in the Berlin and Munich city centres and the stations where the trains depart and arrive.
Seat reservations
Seat reservations are optional on ICE trains for journeys within Germany.
They cost €4.90 when travelling in 2nd Class and €5.90 when travelling in 1st class.
When a journey involves two or more trains on which seat reservations are available, the fees when first booking, cover all trains.
Specific seats can be selected from seating plans - you don't have to accept the seat(s) that you will be automatically offered.
They are included within the cost of booking 1st class Flexpreis Aktion tickets and both 1st and 2nd class Flexpreis tickets.
Though despite seats being automatically assigned when booking these three types of ticket - and these tickets being valid on any departure, you will need to pay to re-book the reservations, if you subsequently decide to travel on an alternative train.
So because you won't save by booking these types of tickets in advance, it can be a good idea to wait until you are sure when you will want to travel.
When booking Super Sparpreis, Sparpreis and 2nd class Flexpreis Ation tickets, you have the option of purchasing seat reservations later.
It can be worth re-looking up a journey a week or two ahead of travel, because the DB website will indicate how busy a departure will be.
1st Class tickets
No matter what type of ticket booked, if you choose to travel 1st class, you will have access to the same seating areas on the train, ICE trains do not have Business or Executive lounges.
Though only those who have booked 1st class Flexpreis or Flexpreis Aktion tickets can access the DB Lounges at the major stations.
Booking on the DB website
To see all the combinations of trains and journey options, some of which may be cheaper, take off the 'fastest connections' default.
Trains departing at different times can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day, so if you can be flexible with your departure time use the 'best prices' tool - at the top right on the list of journey options.
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