European Rail Travel - Trains mentioned on tickets - mandatory or not?

I used bahn.de to purchase a ticket from A - B stopover) - C all on the same day.
It is 'Fully Flexible', but it has train numbers shown.

If I'm right in reading the sticky correctly, I do not have to use those specific trains if I choose not to. Seeing as the first leg is on an ICE, could I end up using an ICE on the second leg if the schedules work out better?

Normalpreis (Einfache Fahrt)

When you buy a ticket from the DB website, it will always show a specific train connection based on what you were looking at. However, if the ticket is flexible you are not bound by it as long as you travel during the validity. Whether or not you can use an ICE depends on what it says on the ticket, in your case it seems you bought one which is valid on the ICE.

Excellent, just what I wanted to read. Many thanks!

You should be careful if you have specifically selected a connection that mixes ICE and IC/EC legs. On some routes (mainly those that involve regional trains running in parallel to the ICE lines), the entire ticket is issued as an ICE ticket and you may easily use ICE trains on the entire route.

However, there are routes (for example the Mannheim-Saarbrücken route) where there is also a regular IC/EC service. On those routes, you need a ticket which is issued for ICE service on all legs. You can tell whether this applies to you by checking


whether the ticket machine has asked you to select a specific itinerary
or whether the routing code on the ticket includes something like "(ICE:A*B)*C"


If any of this holds true, you may be on a restricted ticket that is not valid for ICE service on specific legs of your journey. In the latter example, you may only travel on the ICE between A and B, not between B and C.

If any of this holds true, you may be on a restricted ticket that is not valid for ICE service on specific legs of your journey. In the latter example, you may only travel on the ICE between A and B, not between B and C.

Although this thread is a bit old - for others reading this: This is not true. It was like this until a few years ago. Today, any full fare ("Normalpreis") ticket issued with ICE (even if it's only one stop) will be valid for any and all ICEs along the route show - the "ICE:(A*B)*C" routing remarks as above don't exist anymore.

You need to make sure the route remarks are actually correct for the other train you will be taking, though. If you booked a train from, say, Nuremberg to Cologne with a change in Frankfurt and you booked an ICE from Nuremberg to Frankfurt and an IC from Frankfurt to Cologne, the routing will be along the old route along the Rhine river. With the ticket you may also take an ICE from Frankfurt to Cologne running along the Rhine river but not an ICE from Frankfurt to Cologne that uses the high speed rail line.