The Erasmus was an express train that linked The Hague, the Dutch seat of government, with Munich in Germany.

[1] The Erasmus was launched on 3 June 1973 on request of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen in order to provide a direct TEE service between The Hague and Germany.

However, the maintenance of the vista-dome cars (class ADm) had to take place in the DB-works in Münich, which was not on the Rheingold's route at that time.

[9] The only remnant of the latter was that, on Fridays only, the northbound Erasmus started in Nuremberg (and this followed the pre-1976 routing, via Wurzburg),[9][11] which lasted until its discontinuation as a Trans Europ Express.

[9][12] In June 1980, the Erasmus was converted to InterCity class, and thereby began carrying second-class coaches in addition to first-class ones, and at its southern end it was re-extended to Munich and beyond, to terminate at Innsbruck, in Austria.