Hail to the InterRegio - I loved it...even have a door sign from the Berlin-Eisenach InterRegio that I "borrowed".

The shift over to IC was even obvious to me as a foreigner as a blatant money grab.  And the fact it became difficult to figure out in your head how much a ticket would cost (so many Pfennig per km was so easy).

This coming from a guy who rode the SW Ticket across the country - Kassel to Freiburg (Brsg), Dresdent to Kassel and Salzburg to Mainz.

"now this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." W. Churchill