[enzo1982]

> A big impediment is the federal structure of Germany, as high-speed trains need to have at least one stop in every federal state they cross for political reasons, which of course makes them slow.

That's not generally true. For example, the ICE train from Hamburg to Berlin goes through 3 other states (Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg) without stops.

There may be local politicians in some states making such demands ("If you want to build your tracks through _my_ state, ..."), but I would assume they are trying to make an impression in an election campaign or something.

[majewsky]

In this particular case, it works because there are other long-distance services on the same line that do the extra stops. The EuroCity towards Prague stops in Büchen, Ludwigslust and Wittenberge, which (funnily enough) maps precisely onto the three states that the train passes through.

Edit: It turns out this EuroCity (line 27) is the only long-distance line that stops between Hamburg and Berlin. Lines 18, 28 and 29 go non-stop, as per https://assets.static-bahn.de/dam/jcr:b4fca34a-4b95-4d82-98d...