The trains will replace most of the ICE 1 sets operating on the Hamburg - Frankfurt - Karlsruhe - Basle - Zurich - Chur route. In June 2020, ICE 4 trains will start to run on Berlin -Frankfurt - Karlsruhe - Basle - Bern - Interlaken service.

DB has ordered 137 ICE 4 trains from Siemens and these are being delivered at the rate of one train every three weeks. ICE 4 has a higher seating capacity than earlier types of ICE and can carry bicycles.

Elsewhere, DB, in cooperation with Czech Railways (CD) and Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), will introduce a new Railjet service on the Berlin - Dresden - Prague - Vienna - Graz in May 2020. This will be the first time Railjet has operated to Berlin and will restore the through service on this route.

From summer 2020, the journey time between Berlin and Warsaw will be reduced by 30 minutes. The EuroCity service currently takes six hours.

DB is also expanding its night services on December 15. DB will introduce new InterCity night services on the Zurich - Berlin and Zurich - Hamburg routes. The trains will run in conjunction with the Nightjet sleeping-car trains operated by ÖBB.

Germany

In addition to the new Rostock - Berlin - Dresden InterCity service, with the new timetable in December DB will operate more ICE trains on the Berlin - Erfurt - Munich and Berlin - Braunschweig - Frankfurt routes, and run more Sprinter limited-stop and conventional InterCity trains on the Hamburg - Rhine Ruhr corridor to increase the offer by 15%.

From the end of 2021, DB plans to operate a 30-minute-interval ICE service between Hamburg and Berlin for the first time.