Bavaria adds faster rail links but faces new disruptions

Bavaria’s new rail timetable will add faster long-distance services but bring months of disruption from construction work, BR reports. Starting on 13 December, the schedule will not cut any regional rail services in the state, contrary to earlier fears. Ticket prices will not rise, and bookings open on Wednesday.

From Nuremberg, two additional ICE Sprinter services a day will run to Stuttgart and Berlin. The journey to Stuttgart is scheduled to take just under two hours, while trains to Berlin will take about two hours and 45 minutes without stopping. However, most weekdays will see the removal of an early and a late Intercity service between Stuttgart and Nuremberg, which stop in Ellwangen and Ansbach. The railway said demand for those trains was low.

The Nuremberg-Regensburg-Passau route is due to reopen after renovation when the timetable changes. Direct ICE trains from Nuremberg to Linz and Vienna are set to return, with an additional evening service from Sunday to Friday. A new early train will leave Vienna for Franconia at 4.57am. The railway plans to run 10 direct services a day between Nuremberg and Vienna.

A new Hamburg-Munich Sprinter will run three times a day in each direction, saving 20 minutes. It will stop only in Hanover and Nuremberg, ending stops in Lüneburg, Göttingen and Fulda. On weekends, an additional direct TGV service will link Munich and Augsburg with Paris via Strasbourg. The new afternoon departure will be matched by an early-morning return from Paris, leaving at 7.42am.

From summer 2027, the Frecciarossa is due to take passengers from Munich to Milan and Rome via Verona without a change. The railway says the service could cut journey times by up to an hour. Initially, one train a day will run towards Italy, with a morning service returning to Bavaria.

Direct ICE services from Munich, Nuremberg and Würzburg to Paderborn, Lippstadt and Hamm are also set to return after construction work. A year-round ICE connection to Innsbruck will resume for passengers from Würzburg, Ansbach and Donauwörth.

Further disruption is planned on the Munich-Rosenheim-Salzburg line from February to early July 2027. During the renovation, long-distance passengers travelling to Salzburg will have only three Eurocity trains a day in each direction, diverted via Mühldorf am Inn and hauled by diesel locomotives.

ICE services between Donauwörth and Berlin will be reduced in stages. From 5 February 2027, one of the eight daily connections from Augsburg and Donauwörth via Nuremberg to Berlin will be withdrawn. From May, only two ICE trains a day in each direction will run on the route without stopping in Nuremberg. From 16 October, trains will run only to and from Nuremberg, leaving Donauwörth without a direct service to Berlin.

From 13 August 2027, eight ICE trains a day between Frankfurt and Nuremberg will also be withdrawn, including two services to and from Passau. The railway says at least hourly ICE services will continue between Frankfurt and Nuremberg.