Rosenheim-Salzburg rail line faces 150-day closure

Train services between Rosenheim and Freilassing will stop for 150 days from February 7 to July 9, 2027, while extensive railway work is carried out, BR reports. Between Freilassing and Salzburg, only a shuttle service will run.

Up to 15,000 passengers use the route each day. Commuters and day-trippers travelling to the Chiemgau, Salzburg or the Berchtesgaden area will be particularly affected.

Christian Tradler, who is responsible for the project at DB InfraGO, said the railway plans to complete the work in one coordinated phase rather than repeatedly opening separate construction sites. The line is ageing, and bundling the projects is intended to make the work more efficient and improve reliability in the future.

More than 70 buses will provide replacement services for regional trains, with three service levels. Express buses will stop only twice before Freilassing, while the slowest option will call at every stop. Long-distance trains from Munich towards Salzburg will be diverted via Mühldorf, with services continuing to Vienna via Passau.

Journeys to Freilassing could take up to 45 minutes longer, depending in part on traffic on the A8 motorway, which many replacement buses will use. The motorway is prone to congestion, and the Autobahn GmbH told BR that work is planned on the Saalach Bridge near Piding and on the road between Neukirchen and Anger. The company aims to schedule those projects after the railway work and is coordinating with DB InfraGO, but said urgent measures to keep traffic moving could still be needed.

Markus Egger of the Bavarian Railway Company acknowledged that the A8 posed a risk to the replacement plan, but said using local roads throughout the closure would not be an alternative.

Reactions in the region are mixed. Traunstein district administrator Andreas Danzer said the closure was acceptable if the replacement buses had enough capacity to transport passengers promptly. Birgit Seeholzer, who is responsible for business development and tourism in the district, said she hoped for better services in the long term and stressed the need for timely information. The railway says it informed district administrators in 2024, has set up a public information website and has sent information letters to households and offices. An information van is also due to visit affected stations from October 19 to 29, 2026.

Passenger group Pro Bahn fears that frustrated commuters could switch permanently to cars. Its federal chairman, Lukas Iffländer, said preventing that would require reliable timetable information, tickets valid on diversion and replacement routes without extra charges, and bus services with enough frequency and capacity.

Michael Wendl, head of the Bergerlebnis Berchtesgaden tourism association, said he had learned of the closure through the media. He accepted that the work was necessary but said, in his view, extending it into the peak season could have been avoided.