Frankfurt, Germany via Cologne & Düsseldorf to Utrecht & Amsterdam in The Netherlands on a ICE 3 NEO

DB Premium is a special space in DB lounges for very loyal travelers (You need to be a Platinum BahnBonus member (aka spend 6000€ a year on DB tickets) and travel on the most expensive 1st class ticket) or a BahnCard 100 1. Klasse (almost 8.000€) These lounges offer better and more relaxed seating, warm food, and a personal employee that can help you with all things related to your travels with DB. Before 2023 there were a lot more ways to gain access, like with a Lufthansa Miles&More HON Circle Card, but thats not the case anymore. When these lounges were new, a lot of people actually bought tickets that could give them access to the lounge and then just canceled them with a refund once they were inside, which is why you now also need a Platinum BahnBonus status.

Thanks for the info in your video. I’m hoping to visit Germany in September 2025.

I found Frankfurt station very dirty. I've been there many times. So far, I really like Hannover and Leipzig stations. I have to use that station when arriving to Germany, then DB to final destination .

To correct a tiny bit:
The ICE 3Ms were all DE/NL/BE enabled, but as you rightly pointed out, few of them were delivered and they suffered pretty terrible reliability issues, you could apply the same logic of taking another one of these to go between the three countries but that was relatively difficult. The ICE 3 Neo is supposedly more polished an reliable, closer to the Velaro D used for France services, itself replacing equally unreliable ICE 3 MFs.
So just to say it's not that the ICE 3 Neos are more flexible than their older counterparts since they also were, but reliability and numbers are what Siemens and DB are promising more here than the previous ICE 3 Ms.

Frankfurt is in de vroege ochtend niet veilig. Er maken dan veel zwervers en junkies gebruik van het station

How to book train tickets? Recommend me a best app

There are no mobile signal repeaters onboard these trains. Those were used in the past, but not anymore. There is a new technology implemented by DB to laser etch the windows in order to allow the mobile signal to pass through, eliminating the need for repeaters. You can in fact see this etched surface when you look through the window

The "normal" lounge is for all Status Customers of DB, however the Premium is reserved for Platin customers OR 1st Class Tickets that are not a "Sparpreis". The difference is that in Platinum Lounge you get also alcoholic beverages and meals (The normal lounge is just equipped with free softdrink and coffee machines).

Take a look at dicke butz👍🏽

oh i hope you did not visit the area in front of frankfurt main station :D

awesome the DB has finally took the right decision to remove their outdated version who caused a lot technical issues during it's commercial service to holland and Belgium

15mins of chat makes the video not worth watching just rambling on

I wonder when 1st class will be banned, or at least using more space than 2nd class?
I believe Norway has no 1st class.
Why shall people, with more money, be allowed to pollute with more CO2?

The investment in ICE is waste of money. They always fall short of the last 120 km/hr. Will they ever get there?

It is not a BR406, it is a BR408

Ben ook heel erg benieuwd naar deze trein.

Great video as always....I'm in Germany now traveling on a Eurail pass

You've mentioned you're tall so you should be able to anwer a question I had and as a short guy never thought of it untill I started to see a few Americans complain on the new Venturecars in the Midwest. They said that the head wings made the seat very uncomfertable as their sholders hit it. i've never heard such complaint before on trains in other places so I was wondering if it's a design thing in tthe US or just someing no one mentioned before, which I assume will be very annoying and uncomfortable.

Altijd leuk weer met de ICE! Wel altijd rekening houden met vertragingen.

Mooie video met zeer veel informatie! Ben al benieuwd naar de volgende....

MY HIGLIGHT CITY IS FRANKFURT ON MAIN, CENTRAL GERMANY

Great that there is pace for bikes👍

Thanks for another great trip report! 👌

Lounge Access you get with status- silver, gold, Platin and any valid Long distance ticket (any saver , but Never Deutschland Ticket). Or a flex price ticket in 1st Class.

Where a Premium Lounge is, besides an ordinary lounge, Like in Frankfurt, Platin status or first Class flex price gives you access to the premium area. A light meal and Even beer and wine are included there. Seating is better there, too.

8 bikes 🤔

The ICE 4 program is finished: there will be no successor to the ICE4 neither in its current configuration in the XXXL version of 14 cars nor internationally to replace the ICE-3M or Velaro D bound for Paris.           For comparison, the Siemens PowerTrain system, assembled like a construction set, which characterizes the ICE 4 reaches its limits in its different configurations L (composed of 7 cars), XL (composed of 12 cars), XXL (composed of 13 cars).       The ICE 4 XL from the 2009 ICx project arrived in 2017, reached a top speed of 250 km/h and the commercial speed of the ICE4 XXL arrived in 2021 at the same time as the 30th anniversary celebrations of the first commercial service, on June 3, 1991, is increased to 265 km/h while the most recent ICE 4 L arriving simply in 2022 has a speed identical to the Talgo ICE L whose first commercial service to Amsterdam is postponed to the second quarter of 2025. Deutsche Bahn, which suffers from chronic delays in its schedules, therefore has no interest in continuing the long and tedious development like ICE4 with an ICE 5 of the same configuration.             For this reason, the choice falls on the ICE3 velaro neo.            



The ICE 3 neo (408 series) is not new, but an improved multi-system version of the ICE 3 Velaro D (407 series) based on the same platform as an ICE-3M (406 series). The trains were assigned to the ICE 3 fleet of the 300 km/hour Fleet of DB Fernverkehr. and called ICE 3 neo.   


The manufacturer of these ICE 3s, Siemens Mobility, calls them Velaro MS (MS for MultiSystem) they are equipped with the European train control system Siemens TrainGuard (abbreviated ETCS, acronym for European Train Control System) is an innovative railway signaling system associated with speed control. The Siemens TrainGuard 200 system, in place of Ansaldo STS. It is a component of the European rail traffic management system (abbreviated ERTMS, acronym for European Rail Traffic Management System) which is intended to eventually replace the large number of trackside signals, signal repetition systems and signaling systems. in the cabin currently used on the various European railway networks. in clear ERTMS provides on-board automatic train control functions and radio communication between trains and the command post or Centralized Traffic Control (CTC), which makes it possible to position more trains over the same distance while reducing delays by completely safe. 

  


In 2019, to modernize its 300 km/h long-distance fleet, Deutsche Bahn ordered 90 ICE 3 neo from railway manufacturer Siemens for a value of 3 billion euros, the last of which are expected to be delivered by August 2028. Until 'now it had always indicated that the express trains should be delivered by 2029.

The Munich manufacturer managed to develop these trains in a record time of two years, which is short for an intercity train traveling at 320 km/h at commercial speed.  The ICE 3 Neo has been used in Germany since 2022 and on international routes such as Belgium since 2023. A partnership with NS Internationales has also been in place since June 2024 and makes it possible to replace the ICE 3-M with these new purchases.   

Thank you very much for this very informative trip, greetings from Lorient, Frédérique.

Saw the new interior version running on this route yesterday; might want to check that out too.

You fail to mention who built this thing. You should do that on every postings because the history of all these things is intertwined with the history of manufacturers.

My theory is trains are usually on time until they reach anywhere close to Frankfurt (Mannheim, Munich and Stuttgart also) but the bottleneck is so much that the entire line is disrupted and trains have wait for platforms to clear up as previous trains have to halt, reverse and then clear out (Not the case in Mannheim, this station and its signal switching issues are legendary and just cursed)
The Project to allow trains to pass through will definitely help massively in all of these stations.