Amsterdam-Berlin trains to be rerouted via Hamburg, adding hour to journey

Friday, 21 August 2026 - 07:00

From October, trains traveling from the Netherlands to Berlin will be rerouted via Hamburg because of long-term construction work between Hannover and Berlin, according to NS. The new route will add an hour to the journey, while the service will be reduced from five to four daily departures.

Three daily ICE services will continue to operate to Hannover, which will become their terminus. Passengers traveling to Hamburg currently have to change trains in Osnabrück, but the new route will allow them to travel there without changing trains.

Instead of bypassing or making passengers transfer at Osnabrück, the rerouted ICE train will run directly from Amsterdam Centraal and make designated stops at Hamburg-Harburg and Hamburg-Bergedorf before continuing east toward Berlin.

From mid-December, the new route to Berlin will also include a stop in Bremen. The journey between Amsterdam and Berlin will take approximately seven hours.

The new route is expected to remain in place until at least the end of next year. Whether services will then return to the current route has yet to be decided and will partly depend on demand for travel to Hamburg and Bremen. NS International director Heike Luiten said the two northern German cities have been on the operator’s wish list for some time.

NS International confirmed that travelers on this route will be riding in Germany's newest-generation ICE trains. These replaced the older, slower multi-piece Intercity Berlin carriages that previously serviced the line, providing passengers with modern seating and faster baseline track speeds.