TWO million passengers have used German Rail’s (DB) Berlin – Munich high-speed line within six months of the opening of the final section of the line, more than double the amount traveling on the old line during the same period last year.

DB says it sells an average of 15,000 tickets a day for the connections along the 623km route, and had already doubled the number of advance tickets for the summer holidays during July and August, which usually have weak demand.

From December, DB will add two more Sprinter limited-stop trains taking DB’s connections to five a day each way, providing 23,000 seats between Berlin and Munich.

It also announced it will double the number of seats on two weekend services between the cities from June 30.

It will also offer a new direct train on the Berlin – Halle – Nuremberg – Vienna route from December, the first international service on the new Erfurt – Ebensfeld line which will reduce the time to Vienna by between 30 and 70 minutes. On Fridays, the train to Berlin will be extend to Rostock on the Baltic coast.

DB will introduce the nre ICE 4 train on the route, which allow bicycles to be taken for the first time and with 830 seats provide 10% more capacity than the previous model.