A half-hourly long-distance train service between Berlin and Hamburg is scheduled to start running in December this year - earlier than planned. The connection is the first step towards a coordinated, nationwide timetable, the so-called “Deutschlandtakt” project. 

Berlin to Hamburg every 30 minutes

Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer announced on Sunday that Deutsche Bahn will begin operating its first coordinated connection between the two German cities in December 2020, a few months earlier than anticipated. The route will be served by an ICE train every 30 minutes.

“With the timetable change in December, Deutsche Bahn wants to focus on the first route and run every half hour between Berlin and Hamburg,” Scheuer told Bild am Sonntag, adding that further routes are planned for the not-too-distant future. 

A Germany-wide, coordinated timetable

The Deutschlandtakt project is an ambitious plan to gradually convert all rail traffic in Germany to a nationwide timetable by 2030. 

The aim is to have a coordinated train timetable across the country, to make transport more predictable and reliable, and therefore more attractive to customers - for instance by making it easier to change trains, with a 30-minute changeover time planned for each major crossing-point.