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.
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Now that the line has been opened the slower IC trains between Munchen/Munich and Leipzig have been withdrawn.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
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date - usually
Look for the journeys:
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!
Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
---|---|---|
DB Bahn | from €17.90 | |
Omio | from €17.90 | |
Saveatrain | from €17.90 | |
Happyrail | from €17.90 |
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
Sign up to receive the latest travel news stories and to hear about what we've been working on for you.
This is one of more than 1000 journey guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.