München / Munich to Leipzig by train

How to travel from München / Munich to Leipzig by train

Taking the train from München/Munich to Leipzig has been transformed for the better in recent years by the opening of Germany's latest high speed line.

On the departure info at Munchen Hbf you may see other ICE trains heading to Berlin that will be calling at Leipzig.
Those trains take a much longer route via Stuttgart and Frankfurt; hence they're not listed when looking up this journey on DB Bahn and the other ticket booking services.
But if you will be travelling with a rail pass and opted not to make reservation, take care not to board those other trains.

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Routes

From München Hbf/Munich main station to Leipzig Hbf

Travel Information

Final Destination: Hamburg-Altona or Berlin Gesundbrunnen (or Rostock)

All trains also call at: Erfurt

These trains* take the relatively newly opened high speed line between Bamberg and Halle, which has cut the journey time of trains between Munich/Munchen and Leipzig by nearly two hours!

They also travel on the older high speed line between Ingolstadt and Nurnberg, so you should be travelling at more than 250 km/h for around two thirds of the train journey from Munich to Leipzig!

Now that the line has been opened the slower IC trains between Munchen/Munich and Leipzig have been withdrawn.

Mon - Saturday = 7 x trains per day
Sunday = 6 x trains

Tickets

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date - usually

Look for the journeys:

  • with a journey time of around 3hr 15,in
  • that have ICE in the product column
  • '0' in the chg. column

Trains departing at different hours can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day, so you may need to look through the day's departures to find the cheapest fares on your travel date.

Seat reservations:

Reservations are now included when booking 1st class tickets with DB, but they're optional when travelling 2nd class; or if you have a rail pass.
Reservations are almost essential for these journeys, if you want to sit in one seat all the way from Munchen/Munich to Leipzig – rail pass users take note!

Where to book
Ticket Provider Approximate Cost
DB Bahn from €17.90

DB Bahn Guide

DB is the national railway operator in Germany, so its website can be used for booking journeys by German express trains; the ICE and IC trains and it doesn't charge booking fees.
It also sells tickets for journeys by direct trains on all international routes from Germany regardless of whether DB is operating the train service.

It also sells an extensive range of end-to-end journeys which involve making connections both within Germany and in neighboring countries, but journeys between Germany and Britain cannot be booked on DB.

A key feature of DB website worth keeping mind is that it offers 1st class ticket purchasers complimentary seat reservations on journeys both within and to/from Germany.

Seat reservations for daytime in both 1st and 2nd class can also be booked separately from tickets.

Omio from €17.90

Omio Guide

Omio is an online ticket agency which offers tickets for rail journeys in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.

The three key advantages of using Omio are

  • it offers prices in multiple currencies
  • it usually offers price comparison with other modes of travel including flights and buses
  • when visiting Europe, you can book journeys in multiple countries in one transaction.

The disadvantage of booking with Omio is that it often adds a booking fee to the final price; therefore when it does so without offering a price advantage, SMTJ doesn't tend to offer Omio as a booking option.

Saveatrain from €17.90

Saveatrain Guide

Happyrail from €17.90

Happyrail Guide

Happy Rail is a Netherlands rail ticket agency which sells tickets for both national and international journeys within a range of countries including Belgium France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland.

HappyRail doesn't charge booking fees in the conventional sense, but if you're not Dutch you can expect to pay additional transaction fees, which will be added to the total cost.
That's because the most common form of online payment used in The Netherlands is 'iDEAL' and HappyRail doesn't charge a transaction fee for 'iDEAL' payments, but only Dutch residents can sign up to 'iDEAL'.
Other forms of payment include Visa debit cards will incur a fee.

On this journey

Journey Features

Scenic - NoHigh Speed (partial)

Good to Know

As indicated above, the new ICE-4 trains are now being used for most of these Munich to Leipzig journeys and if you'll want to travel with a non-folding bicycle you'll need to take those trains.

Other departures now comprise 2 x ICE-T trains joined together, so there has been a significant increase in the number of seats available per day on this route.

This is a scenically uninteresting journey, so what gives this journey its wow factor is its speed.

The train will travel on a high speed line for the 40 minute journey between Ingolstadt and Nurnberg
Then after travelling through Bamberg it will then spend around 80 minutes travelling at speeds of up to 290 km/h until around 20 minutes before arriving in Leipzig

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