Fahrplanwechsel! I have updated the long-distance train map of Germany again. It shows the systematic ICE, IC and EC trains in Germany. You can find the older version here.
This year, some IC and ICE lines along the Rhine have been rearranged. The lines ICE 43 and IC 55 have been extended, so that there are more direct trains through Cologne, Düsseldorf and the Ruhr area. In addition, the line ICE 47 has been extended from Stuttgart to Munich. Between Stuttgart and Munich, the new high speed line Wendlingen-Ulm has been opened. Most of the IC and ICE trains run via the new line instead of the old one via Plochingen and Göppingen. In that way, the travel times are reduced by about 15 minutes.
In addition, there are smaller changes in the north and south. There are more trains to the islands Sylt and Rügen. In the south, fewer trains run through Basel to Zurich, Chur or Interlaken. Contrary to this, changing trains in Singen (Hohentwiel) on the line Stuttgart-Zurich will be required less often throughout the year. The Austrian train company Westbahn has introduced direct trains from Vienna to Munich.
I made an effort on analysing the timetables carefully. However, if you discover any mistake in the maps, please let me know. Just be aware that I had to make numerous simplifications because the long-distance service is at times not very systematic.
Please also make sure to have a look at the newer version of this map, the map showing the “Deutschlandtakt” or the map showing the night trains.
Official Map:
ICE/IC Network Map 2023
lars' transport maps 
Nice map! Just a few corrections: there should be a direct ICE line from NL to Basel SBB. It’s suspended as of right now but I believe only temporarily, for the summer. Also the line to Warsaw could be relabelled perhaps as there are also direct trains to Poznan and Przemysl.
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Thanks! I am aware of the direct trains from Amsterdam to Basel and Berlin to Poznan and Przemysl. Do those trains run more than once a day? I couldn’t find more than one daily train. I excluded trains that run less than three times a day, because otherwise the map would become too chaotic. I applied this rule to all national and international long-distance trains.
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Nice map, I just saw that you missed the ICE Connection 118/119 (Innsbruck-Dortmund) and the Railjet 890/897 (Frankfurt-Wien) that run over Lindau-Reutin and Ulm.
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Thank you! I am aware of these connections and even planned to use them myself once. But in total there are only two daily connections between Innsbruck and Ulm. So they only appear as a thin dashed line without any further labelling. I had to apply this simplification to all connections that run less than three times a day, as otherwise the map would no longer be clear due to the enormous number of deviations.
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There are some “once daily” trains from Freiburg missing:
6:36 TGV 9590 via Offenburg to Paris
6:45 ICE 267 (Basel Bad) – Freiburg – Karlsruhe – Stuttgart – München
10:24 ECE 151 Freiburg – Basel – Milano
What about the Flixtrains?
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Thank you! I know these connections. These trains do not run a systematic route, but a “once a day” route. Like all “once a day” trains, they are not explicitly shown if there are other systematic train connections running this route. I had to apply this simplification to all connections that run less than three times a day, as otherwise the map would no longer be clear due to the enormous number of deviations or “once daily” trains.
As far as I know, Flixtrains do not run at least three times on a route every weekday. So I applied the same rule as written above. But maybe I am no longer up to date with Flixtrain. So if there are connections that run at least three times a day, please let me know.
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I absolutely love it!!!
I am not a German myself (Romanian here, actually) and will probably never use Deutsche Bahn services other than the S-Bahn in Munich and Berlin, but I appreciate the map nonetheless.
I love how you put points with an outline that matches the colour of the line the point is on at smaller stations, a blob at bigger stations, and a dot of that colour inside the blob if the line starts/ends at an important station or a dot of that colour inside the little circle if it is a smaller station.
It would also be nice to see you make a map of a major city’s metro system. Your choice though. I’m not going to force you.
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Thank you! Indeed, I have thought about making metro system maps. I do not want to rule out I will make a metro map one day. However, rail maps attract me more, as there are no official ones in most cases.
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