Germany - Lines with Obscure or Sparse passenger services

Introduction

Owing to the size and complexity of the German railway system, the Obscure Services listing is subdivided by Land (Province). Berlin and Bremen are separate Länder, but it is convenient to include them with Brandenburg and Niedersachsen respectively. Details of Other Sparse Services, Services not included in the DB Kursbuch and Deletions since previous edition can be found below.

The stations at which long-distance trains start and terminate may vary, depending on the date. Where there are more than two possibilities, such as a train terminating at Kassel, Hannover or Hamburg, only the shortest and longest itineraries are indicated in the lists on this site.

A brief Guide to German railway terminology is available.

This list is based on the timetable dated from 12 December 2021 to 10 December 2022, unless otherwise stated.

List of Länder (Regions)

Baden-Württemberg	Includes Mannheim and Stuttgart	entries starting with 'DExx/601'
Bayern	Includes München and Nürnberg	entries starting with 'DExx/651'
Berlin and Brandenburg	Includes Falkenberg (Elster) and Cottbus	entries starting with 'DExx/251'
Hamburg		entries starting with 'DExx/051'
Hessen	Includes Frankfurt am Main and Darmstadt	entries starting with 'DExx/501'
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	Includes Rostock and Stralsund	entries starting with 'DExx/101'
Niedersachsen and Bremen	Includes Hannover and Osnabrück	entries starting with 'DExx/151'
Nordrhein-Westfalen	Includes Köln and Dortmund	entries starting with 'DExx/351'
Rheinland-Pfalz	Includes Koblenz and Ludwigshafen	entries starting with 'DExx/401'
Saarland	Includes Saarbrücken	entries starting with 'DExx/451'
Sachsen	Includes Leipzig and Dresden	entries starting with 'DExx/301'
Sachsen-Anhalt	Includes Halle (Saale) and Magdeburg	entries starting with 'DExx/201'
Schleswig-Holstein	Includes Lübeck and Kiel	entries starting with 'DExx/001'
Thüringen	Includes Erfurt and Nordhausen	entries starting with 'DExx/551'

Trams

See Germany - Tram services over obscure routes

Other Sparse Services

174	Inselstadt Malchow – Karow (Meckl) – Plau am See / Parchim	Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays in summer only; Malchow – Alt Schwerin also on weekdays in high summer
186	Bad Doberan – Ostseebad Kühlungsborn West	Limited winter service
190	Bergen auf Rügen – Sassnitz-Mukran Fahrhafen	Two trains on Saturdays only from May to mid-October
209.20	Priort – Falkenhagen and Hennigsdorf – Birkenwerder (b. Berlin)	No weekend service over these sections
209.27	Wensickendorf – Schmachtenhagen	Weekends only
209.73	Kyritz Am Bürgerpark – Pritzwalk	Only four trains on weekdays; three at weekends
209.74	Pritzwalk West – Pritzwalk – Meyenburg	Five trains on weekdays, three at weekends between Pritzwalk and Meyenburg. Very limited schoolday-only service to Pritzwalk West
238	Zittau – Kurort Jonsdorf/Kurort Oybin	Limited service for most of the winter
257	Dessau Hbf – Wörlitz	No winter service
326	Drei Annen Hohne – Eisfelder Talmühle	Variable, but limited, service
333	Alexisbad – Hasselfelde and Eisfelder Talmühle	Variable, but limited, service
357.1	Einbeck Mitte – Einbeck BBS/PS-Speicher	Limited service weekdays, no service at weekends on this newly-reopened section
397	[Leer –] Ihrhove – Weener	No trains until probably December 2024, following destruction of the River Ems bridge
479	Boppard – Boppard Süd	Very limited schoolday-only service
509	Radebeul Ost – Radeburg	Five trains daily; only two beyond Moritzburg. Closed most of March and November.
513	Freital Hainsberg – Kurort Kipsdorf	Only two trains daily plus one short working to Dippoldiswalde. Closed most of March and November.
517	Cranzahl – Vejprty (CZ) [– Chomutov]	Three trains on summer weekends only
518	Cranzahl – Kurort Oberwiesenthal	Four trains daily; closed most of March and November
544	Bad Brambach – Plesná (CZ)	Only five trains daily
566	Ilmenau – Rennsteig	Weekends only
662.1	Monsheim – Münchweiler (Alsenz)	Summer Sundays only. Service suspended until 2024.
666	Ramsen – Eiswoog	Weekends only
675.1	Bundenthal-Rumbach – Hinterweidenthal Ost	Summer Wednesdays, Saturdays & Sundays only
692	Perl – Thionville [France]	Weekends only; limited service
707	Neckarbischofsheim Nord – Hüffenhardt	Five trains on summer Sundays and holidays only, only three of which run beyond Siegelsbach
732.1	Stockach – Mengen	Three trains on summer Sundays only
737	Lauchringen – Weizen	Five trains on weekdays to and from Stühlingen except school holidays; only two trains on summer Sundays to and from Weizen
743	Geisingen-Leipferdingen – Blumberg-Zollhaus	Limited service
752	Aulendorf – Bad Wurzach	Summer Sundays only
754	Aulendorf – Pfullendorf	Summer Sundays only
758	Amstetten – Gerstetten	Summer Sundays only
759	Gammertingen – Engstingen	Limited service at weekends and during school holidays
767	Eyach – Hechingen (HzL)	Summer Sundays only
769	Balingen – Schömberg	Summer Sundays only
772	Maulbronn West – Maulbronn Stadt	Summer Sundays only
790.11	Kornwestheim – Stuttgart-Untertürkheim	Mondays to Fridays peak hours only. Also used by NJ468/469 Wien Hbf – Paris Est MThSO and v.v. TFSuO

Regular services not in the Kursbuch

The following lines are not included in the online DB Kursbuch, but timetables can be found on the websites shown. Long-distance services appear in most, but not all, tables in the Kursbuch where they would be expected to be found, so the DB journey planner or the European Rail Timetable is often the best guide to these.

	All Flixtrain services	flixtrain.com/all-timetables. Note that both flixtrain.com and flixtrain.de just redirect to the Flixbus site so this particular address needs to be used.
133	Kiel Hbf – Oppendorf	nah.sh
136.1	Niebüll – Tønder (DK) [– Esbjerg]	nah.sh
137	Neumünster – Kaltenkirchen – Hamburg-Eidelstedt	nah.sh
138	Ulzburg Süd – Norderstedt Mitte	nah.sh
139	Elmshorn – Barmstedt – Ulzburg Süd	nah.sh
145	Lüneburg – Lübeck – Kiel	nah.sh
201	Magdeburg – Berlin – Frankfurt (Oder) – Cottbus	ODEG
former 203	Berlin – Elsterwerda (RE8S)	ODEG
209.12	Berlin – Löwenberg (Mark) – Templin Stadt	Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB)
209.25	Berlin – Werneuchen	Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB)
209.26	Berlin – Küstrin-Kietz [– Kostrzyn (PL)]	Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB)
209.27	Berlin-Karow – Groß Schönebeck/Schmachtenhagen	Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB)
209.33	Potsdam Hbf – Jüterbog	ODEG
209.35	Furstenwalde (Spree) – Bad Saarow-Pieskow	Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB)
209.36	Königs Wusterhausen – Frankfurt (Oder)	Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB)
209.46	Cottbus – Forst (Lausitz)	ODEG
209.51	Rathenow – Brandenburg	ODEG
209.54	Löwenberg (Mark) – Rheinsberg (Mark)	Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB)
209.60	Eberswalde – Wriezen – Frankfurt (Oder)	Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB)
209.63	Eberswalde – Joachimsthal	Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB)
209.73	Neustadt (Dosse) – Pritzwalk	Hanseatische Eisenbahn
209.74	Pritzwalk – Meyenburg	Hanseatische Eisenbahn
RB TES	Erkner – Fangschleuse Tesla Süd (new service from 04.09.23)	eberswalde.ffo.de (Unofficial)
220	Cottbus – Görlitz – Zittau	ODEG
229	Görlitz – Hoyerswerda	ODEG
236	Seifhennersdorf – Zittau	Trilex
238	Zittau – Kurort Oybin / Kurort Jonsdorf	SOEG
257	Dessau – Wörlitz	Dessau-Wörlitzer Eisenbahn
269	Stendal – Tangermünde	Hanseatische Eisenbahn
360.1	Minden (Westf) – Hannover – Haste (S1)	Transdev Hannover
360.2	Nienburg (Weser) – Hannover – Haste (S2)	Transdev Hannover
360.3	Hannover – Hildesheim (S3)	Transdev Hannover
360.4	Bennemühlen – Hannover – Hildesheim (S4)	Transdev Hannover
360.5	Hannover Flughafen – Hannover – Paderborn (S5)	Transdev Hannover
360.6	Hannover – Celle (S6)	Transdev Hannover
360.7	Hannover – Lehrte – Celle (S7)	Transdev Hannover
former 484	Düren – Heimbach (Eifel)	Rurtalbahn
514	Freiberg (Sachs) – Holzhau	Freiberger Eisenbahn
758	Amstetten (Württ) – Gerstetten	Schwäbische Alb-Bahn
former 12474	Düren - Euskirchen	Rurtalbahn

Deletions since previous edition

DE22/004	Burg (Fehmarn) West	Line closed for several years for complete rebuilding in conjunction with the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel project
DE22/353	Hagen-Vorhalle – Abzw Hagen-Hengstey – Schwerte (Ruhr) (– Westhofen(Westf))	Winter ski trains were suspended in 2020 because of the pandemic and have not run since
DE22/359	Hilden – Opladen	No booked services so moved to Engineering Work section as DE23/392
DE22/452	Merzig – Merzig Ost	MECL Eisenbahnfreunde e.V. have not operated trains over this connection since 2016
DE22/666	Prien Bahnhof – Stock Hafen	This museum line runs hourly every day in summer so can neither be considered obscure nor sparse