ICE

Germany's answer to the TGV was the ICE – Inter City Express – a streamlined, white and red liveried supertrain capable of running at high speed over traditional railway lines or, more and more, on dedicated high-speed lines specially constructed. The first trains ran, on an experimental basis, in 1985, one of them setting a then world record speed for a train of 253 mph (407 km.h) in 1988, but it was not until 1989 that the ICE began scheduled services, initially between Hamburg and Munich, via Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Early versions of the ICE train were pulled by a locomotive, but nowadays the ICE 3 train-sets are units with driving cabs at both ends. There is also a tilting ICE train for use on certain routes where the tracks curve more than normal.

The ICE network can run on conventional track throughout Germany and does share certain routes with slower traffic, occasionally restricting the speed of the ICE unit, though several dedicated high-speed lines have been constructed over the years, all with overhead wires, though one class of ICE was built as a diesel unit. Most of the newer models also have dual voltage systems to allow them to run in neighbouring countries, primarily Switzerland, Holland, Austria and France.

The interior design is extremely luxurious, with internet access and headset connections at each seat, are fully air-conditioned and have touch-screen technology on board to allow passengers access to timetables and other information. The longer trains have a special dining car whilst some of the trains on shorter routes just have a bistro.

DB (German Railways) promotes some early morning and evening trains as a special Sprinter service, running at high speed and with extra services on-board (newspapers, free drinks and meals) in a bid to outdo the airlines on certain routes, something that is being very successful. The main routes at present are Berlin-Frankfurt, Hamburg-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Munich, and on reach route the total city-to-city journey is under four hours, making it faster than air travel, once the journey time to and from the airport, check-in and security measures are taken into account.

The ICE train is also, sadly, the only high-speed train service to have suffered a major accident when, in June 1998 a train travelling from Munich to Hamburg was derailed near Eschede at 125 mph (200 km/h), sending ten carriages crashing into a bridge and killing 110 passengers. It was caused by a broken wheel. The ICE trains have also encountered several engineering and maintenance problems and the newest models, the ICE-T, a tilting train, has been subject to withdrawals and delays due to maintenance problems. This has rather disrupted the German timetables at the end of 2008 and also led to some safety concerns.