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Hanover in a rail rush: More ICEs and fast connections from December!
New ICE connections and Sprinter from December 2025 will improve the connection from Göttingen to Hanover and Hamburg.
Hanover in a rail rush: More ICEs and fast connections from December!
From mid-December 2025, rail travelers in Hanover will have more sprinters and ICEs available! Loud t-online.de The timetable change will bring groundbreaking changes to life. Deutsche Bahn has significantly expanded its offering and is bringing more long-distance connections to the Lower Saxony state capital.
This new timetable will further strengthen long-distance transport between Hanover and many German cities. The ICE trains will run almost every half hour, which will make the journey between Hamburg, Hanover, Göttingen and further to southern Germany much easier. Bookings for the new connections are now also possible, which will be crucial for travelers to be able to cope with the pre-Christmas travel. Reported appropriately ndr.de that prices in long-distance transport remain stable, despite the challenges that the railway industry has experienced in recent months.
New timetable brings speed
The new Sprinter connections from Hamburg to Frankfurt take travelers to their destination in just three and a half hours and operate four times a day. There will also be more seats available on the popular connections to southern Germany thanks to the use of larger ICE trains. This means less crowds on the popular routes! These measures are also useful for users of the heavily frequented north-south axis, as in zdf.de is to be read.
An interesting innovation: The direct ICE connection via Passau to Vienna will be discontinued. Travelers now have to change trains in Munich, which is a change for some. In addition, Hannover-Langenhagen Airport will lose its long-distance traffic stops, which is due to low usage. The stops in Peine are also canceled for the same reasons.
Planned construction work and diversions
But not everything goes smoothly! From May 1, 2026, major construction work and a total closure on the Hamburg–Hanover route will take place, which will last until July 10, 2026. During this time, the travel time on the Hamburg-Hannover-Southern Germany connections will increase by around 45 minutes, which will pose challenges for many travelers.
However, a ray of hope comes in the form of a new night train connection from Hamburg via Bremen to Göttingen and on to Zurich. The journey is carried out comfortably on modern Nightjet trains, which offer a variety of travel options in the form of sleeping and couchette cars.
Demand for long-distance transport has fallen, as the consumer advice center notes, but the new offer could change that again. It is therefore recommended to book tickets early, especially for the popular trips around Christmas time. It can pay to plan early, even if you still have a few months left to book - after all, traveling is more fun when you know everything is organized!