>>1195630Germany is not France, where the TGV is primarily there to connect 2nd level important cities in the outer corners of the country to Paris. The ICE network is more like a nation-wide metro system that serves to connect equally important cities all over Germany as efficiently as possible, which means more stops and lower speeds.
Great effort has been put into reaching the highest possible speed between the stations and extending the network into less HSR friendly areas with for example the ICE T tilting train which even has a diesel version (ICE TD). The ICE 4 is gonna improve service on middle-long distances even more by replacing some more IC's.
I think the power of German public transport is that they always find the most efficient sollution suitable to the scale of the problem rather than falling for memes. Hence all their middle-large cities have ridiculously extensive tram networks instead of a small unfinished metro network. Meanwhile in my Netherlands they're always wasting billions on needlessly big stuff to show off with like the overpriced new metroline in Amsterdam or the failed high speed rail that skips half of the country.
