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Travel News A Summary of Major Maintenance and Construction Projects
The current European major railway works that will be impacting on rail services

A Summary of Major Maintenance and Construction Projects

Check if your train journey will be impacted by current and future major rail construction projects!

| Last Updated: 3 days ago
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The vast majority of the work to improve railway lines, which impacts on the frequency and journey times info as per the journey guides, is completed over one Sat/Sun period.
So if you can't find a usual route or a train departure online, it can be worth having a look at the links to the national construction work, which you will find below.
You may then have to translate what you'll find, but it can be worth the effort to discover what's occurring and to glean whether you'll need to take a bus for part of the journey, or whether trains are being diverted.
Alterations to the usual service are often not particularly obvious when looking up the journey on a ticket booking service.

The information included below is a guide to the the more extensive construction projects which are impacting on train services for a week or more.
Therefore these are the projects which are good to be aware of if you're planning a rail pass itinerary and want to avoid any hassle, or are wondering why a typical connection isn't available on multiple dates.

Also worth knowing is that many major construction work projects, which require timetable alterations, aren't confirmed until around two months ahead.

Upcoming major construction works by country

These are the upcoming rail construction projects which;

  • last more than a weekend, so also impact on Monday to Friday travel
  • affect long-distance express trains
  • result in trains being diverted, with longer journey times (which impacts on connections)
  • Or, are being substituted by buses for part of the journey.

Austria:

1: The Tauern Railway

A key rail route in Austria, the Tauern Railway, is to be closed for more than six months, for construction work until early on July 14th.
The Tauern Railway is the main railway route in south-west Austria, as it links Salzburg with Villach and Klagenfurt, but until March 2nd the plan is for express buses to replace trains between Bischofshofen and Spittal-Millstätter.
Though trains will be able to travel beyond Bischofshofen to provide a direct service between Salzburg and the other key destination along the route, which is Bad Gastein.

So until June 27th there will be no trains operating between Bad Gastein and Spittal-Millstätter.
The long distance services which typically travel the length of the Tauern Railway are on these two routes.

  1. Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt
  2. Wien Hbf - St Polten - Linz - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt
    A key function of these trains to/from Wien Hbf is to provide a direct link between both Wien and Linz with Bad Gastein, but during the work these trains will be turned around in Salzburg.

There will be EC trains operating a Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein service, but until June 27th there will be no direct trains between Salzburg and the resort towns on the Worthersee between Villach and Klagenfurt.
The trains taking the Wien - Leoben ↔ Klagenfurt - Villach route are unaffected and it looks as though more of them will have their journeys extended beyond Villach to/from Spittal-Millstätter.

What will be impacted by the work on the Tauern Railway are the daytime rail journeys which link Germany, Salzburg and other destinations in western Austria with Slovenia and Croatia.
The trains on the Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt route typically connect at Villach with trains taking a Villach ↔ Lesce-Beld - Ljubljana - Zidane Most - Zagreb - Vinkovici route.

2: Vienna / Wien ↔ Salzburg

Due to construction work, long-distance trains will run with modified travel times between Vienna Hbf and Salzburg Hbf from May 12, 2025 to June 5, 2025.
The night trains and long-distance trains will be diverted between Vienna Hbf and St. Pölten Hbf .
Some long-distance trains cannot run and connections cannot be guaranteed.
Due to the construction work, there may be some restrictions when booking seat reservations.

3: Linz ↔ Graz

Due to construction work the direct IC trains on the Linz ↔ Graz route will not be running between Linz/Donau Hbf and Selzthal Bahnhof from August 1, 2025 , to September 7, 2025.
A rail replacement bus service will be provided.

4: Salzburg ↔ Kufstein
All long-distance trains which travel between Vienna/Wien and Innsbruck, take a route between Salzburg and Kufstein which travels through Germany.
Due to construction work by the German, national rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, some long-distance trains will not be running between Salzburg Central Station and Kufstein Station from August 1, 2025 (9:00 p.m.) to August 11, 2025 (6:00 a.m.).
A rail replacement bus service will be provided.
The travel times of other long-distance trains will be changed.
Due to the construction work, there may be some restrictions on seat reservations.

5: Wien/Vienna ↔ Linz

Due to construction work, some long-distance trains will operate between Linz/Donau Hbf and Vienna Hbf (U) with modified schedules from August 29, 2025 (2:00 a.m.) to September 1, 2025 (4:00 a.m.) and from September 4, 2025 (10:30 p.m.) to September 8, 2025 (4:00 a.m.).
Therefore during this time connections cannot be guaranteed.

6: Bischofshofen ↔ Stainach-Irdning

Due to construction work, some long-distance trains will not be able to run between Stainach-Irdning and Bischofshofen from September 8, 2025 (4:30 a.m.) to October 6, 2025 (4:30 a.m.).
Rail replacement buses will be in places for the affected day trains and night trains will be rerouted.
Due to the construction work, there may be some restrictions on booking seat reservations.
The route is taken by the EC and IC trains which typically travel between Graz and both Innsbruck / Salzburg.

7: Innsbruck ↔ Feldkirch

Due to construction work, no long-distance trains will run between Ötztal (west of Innsbruck) and Bludenz (east of Feldkirch) from October 6, 2025 , to November 3, 2025.
This route is used by all long-distance trains which typically travel between Innsbruck and both Bregenz and Zurich.
A rail replacement bus service will be provided.
Night trains will be rerouted.
Due to the construction work, there may be some restrictions on seat reservations.

Denmark:

From Monday, July 14th through Saturday, July 19th, the railway will be closed between Slagelse and Korsor
All trains between Kobenhavn and Odense will be affected.

For he Lynn services on the Kobenhavn Lufthavn - Kobenhavn H - Odense - Aarhus - Aalborg route:
Trains will operate Kobenhavn Lufthavn - Kobenhavn H - Slagelse
There will be replacement buses between Slagelse and Korsor
Trains will operate Korsor - Odense - Aarhus - Aalborg, with additional calls in Middlefart and Nyborg

For the IC services on the Kobenhavn H - Odense - Fredericia route:
Trains will operate Kobenhavn H - Slagelse
There will be replacement buses between Slagelse and Korsor
Trains will be available Korsor - Odense - Fredericia; there will be fewer trains Odense ↔ Fredericia.

France:

1: Until July 6th Amiens is the focus of construction work.
Fewer trains than the usual timetable will be operating between Amiens and Paris, Lille and Rouen,

2: Until June 13th work is being undertaken to electrify the Abbeville <> Boulogne <> Calais route which is taken by the TER trains which travel between Paris and both Boulogne and Calais.
Some trains are cancelled and replaced by buses, or with alternative routes which are up to two hours longer.
A small number of scheduled departures per day are operating to the usual timetable.

3: Until June 6th the Clermont Ferrand <> Nimes service is replaced by buses between Langeac and Langogne; and the Clermont Ferrand <> Le Puy service is replaced by buses between Langeac and Le Puy.

Germany (long-distance services):

1: Koln / Cologne - Bonn - Koblenz
Until June 5th, 2025 (11:59pm)
Long-distance trains between Koblenz and Cologne will be diverted to the right bank of the Rhine with travel times extended by up to 15 minutes.
Affected long-distance routes:

  • (Hamburg) - Dortmund - Koln - Koblenz - Mainz - Karlsruhe - Freiburg - Basel - Zurich / Interlaken by EC train
  • Hamburg) - Dortmund - Koln - Koblenz - Mainz - Frankfurt Flughafen - Heidleburg - Stuttgart / Karlsruhe by ICE train
  • Hamburg) - Dortmund - Koln - Koblenz - Mainz - Frankfurt Flughafen - Frankfurt (Main) - Nurnberg - (Passau) - Linz - Wien / Vienna - by ICE train
  • Berlin - Hannover - Hamm - Koln - Bonn by ICE Sprinter
    Until June 5th these services and other long-distance trains will not be calling in Bonn Hbf, Andermatt and Remagen
    Trains will be stopping in Bonn-Buel instead of Bonn Hbf - and most of the diverted trains will be using Koln Messe-Deutz station instead of Koln HBF.

2: in Berlin
From June 6 (1 a.m.) to July 4, 2025 (9 p.m.) the ICE and IC trains which travel between Berlin and both Hannover / Hildesheim, will be diverted away from the Berlin-Spandau - Berlin Zoo - Berlin Hbf - Berlin Ost route, to take an alternative route between Berlin-Spandau and Berlin Hbf.
Hence during these dates, these trains will be using the lower level (tief) platforms in Berlin Hbf.
Also the temporary doubling of the service on that Berlin-Spandau ↔ Berlin Hbf may cause delays.

2: Hannover ↔ Koln / Cologne
A bridge is being worked on Herford and as a consequence:

  • From June 7th to August 8th no ICE trains on this route will be calling in Bielefeld and Hamm;
  • The additional trains on the Aachen / Cologne-Dortmund-Bielefeld-Hanover-Berlin route will be cancelled.

3: Berlin ↔ Rostock ↔ Warnemünde
Work on the main route between Berlin and the north is having the following impact.
From April 5th to November 29th, all trains between Berlin and Warnemünde will only operate from/to Rostock Central Station, alternative local transport service will be provide between Rostock and Warnemünde.

4: Mannheim ↔ Stuttgart
From April 17 to June 6th
Due to the renovation of Freudenstein Tunnel the high-speed line between Mannheim and Stuttgart will be closed between these dates.
As a consequence:

  • the ICE service on the Mannheim - Stuttgart - Munich route will be reduced to 1 x train per hour.
  • these hourly trains will be diverted on to a longer route between Mannheim and Stuttgart with journey times being extended by around 40 minutes.
  • According to the OBB website, the EC trains between Germany and Salzburg which typically travel between Frankfurt and Munich, will be turning around in Munich and won't be calling at any station north of Munich.

5: At Dortmund
From June 20 (9 p.m.) to July 25, 2025 (9 p.m.)
Due to the reconstruction of Dortmund's station fewer trains will be calling at Dortmund Hbf between these dates
The ICE/IC/EC trains which travel between Hamburg and Koln/Cologne and destinations to the south including Basel, Frankfurt and Munich, will be diverted and won't be calling in Dortmund or Bochum.
Though the trains on the Berlin ↔ Koln route will be calling in Dortmund hourly, with some of the them having their journeys extended to/from Frankfurt (Main).

6: Leipzig ↔ Dresden
From June 23 (9 p.m.) to June 29, 2025 (5 p.m.)
The direct route via Riesa will be closed and instead trains will be calling in Elsterwerda.
As a consequence:

  • Direct trains between Leipzig and Dresden, will only be available every other hour.
  • Those remaining trains will have their journey times extended by between 30 and 60 minutes.
  • The ICE trains on the Wiesbaden - Mainz - Frankfurt - Erfurt - Leipzig - Dresden route will be operating Wiesbaden ↔ Leipzig.

7: Halle / Leipzig ↔ Erfurt
From June 26 (11:40 PM) to July 12, 2025 (4:30 AM)
Due to bridge work the ICE trains will be unable to use the high-speed line north of Erfurt.
As a consequence:

  • The ICE trains on the Wiesbaden - Mainz - Frankfurt - Erfurt - Leipzig - Dresden route will be operating Wiesbaden ↔ Leipzig
  • Fewer trains will be available on the Berlin - Halle - (Leipzig) ↔ Erfurt Nurnberg - Munchen route and the Berlin - Halle - (Leipzig) ↔ Erfurt - Frankfurt route
  • Though hourly trains will still be operating between Berlin and both Nurnberg and Munchen.
    The trains on the Berlin - Kassel - Frankfurt route are unaffected.

8: Berlin ↔ Erfurt
From September 24 (midnight) to December 13, 2025 (midnight) construction work will be taking place at multiple locations between these two locations.
As a consequence between these dates:

  • Trains will be diverted between Erfurt / Leipzig and Berlin, leading to extended journey times of between 45 and 60 minutes.
  • Due to the diversion, trains between Erfurt / Leipzig and Berlin won't be calling in Südkreuz or Lutherstadt Wittenberg
  • All ICE trains which typically take the Frankfurt - Erfurt - Berlin route will be cancelled, leaving Frankfurt - Kassel - Berlin as the only service between Frankfurt (Main) and Berlin
  • At least an hourly service will still be available on the Munich - Nuremberg - Erfurt - (Leipzig) - Berlin route

9: Hamburg ↔ Berlin
From Aug 1st 2025 to April 30th 2026
Due to the renovation of the Hamburg - Berlin route, there will be maximum of 1 x express (ICE) train per hour between the two cities and journey times will be extended by around 45 minutes.

Great Britain:

1: Bristol / Swindon ↔ South Wales

From 9 Jun 2025 to 20 Jun 2025 and from 7 July 2025 to 13 July 2025 the Seven Railway Tunnel is closed for renewal.

Impact on GWR services:

  • Carmarthen / Swansea ↔ London services will divert between Newport and Swindon via Gloucester, and will not call at Bristol Parkway. And will have extended journey times
  • Cardiff ↔ Portsmouth will be diverted to run between Bristol Parkway and Portsmouth Harbour - they will still call at Bristol Temple Meads . An alternative train service will run between Cardiff Central and Bristol Parkway via Gloucester to connect to trains between Bristol Parkway and Portsmouth Harbour.
  • Cardiff ↔ Taunton / Exeter (and beyond) services will be turned around at Bristol Temple Meads; and won't be serving Newport and Cardiff

2: Inverness ↔ Wick via Thurso

From Monday 9 June to Sunday 29 June work is taking place between Dingwall and Georgemas Junction.
As a consequence:

  • Buses will replace trains between Inverness and Invergordon / Tain / Ardgay / Lairg / Wick, but the buses will not be serving Altnabreac and Scotscalder.
  • A limited number of trains will still be available Inverness ↔ Dingwall
    Trains on the Inverness ↔ Kyle of Lochalsh route are unaffected.

Italy

1: Until December the Bressanone/Brixen ↔ Lienz route is closed between Bressanone/Brixen and Brunico/Bruneck due to reconstruction work
Bressanone/Brixen is on the Innsbruck - Bolzano - Trento - Verona route and Lienz has trains which take a Klagenfurt - Villach - Spittal - Lienz route.

2: Until Monday 30th June, due to scheduled maintenance work, the trains are suspended between Battipaglia and Potenza stations, which is on the Rome ↔ Bari - Lecce route.
The IC and Regional trains are replaced by buses between these two stations, but seemingly the Frecce trains will be diverted.

3: From June 8th to Sept 29th due to the reconstruction of a bridge on the primary Genova ↔ Milano railway, the Regionale trains on the Genova ↔ Milano route are replaced by buses.
It looks as though the IC express trains between Genova are being diverted on to an alternative route.

Switzerland

From June 27th to August 24th inclusive the route between Bern and Fribourg/Freiburg will be closed due to construction work, so replacement bus services will be operating between the two cities.
The route is used by the IC1 service; St Gallen - Zurich - Bern - Fribourg/Freiburg - Lausanne - Geneve and the IR 15 service; Luzern - Bern - Fribourg/Freiburg - Lausanne - Geneve.

Impacts on international routes:

These are the upcoming major works on the railway lines, that will be impacting on international railway routes over sustained periods of time.

Germany ↔ Italy night trains

Due to construction work Tauern Valley route in southern Austria, the night trains on these routes are to be suspended from November 17, 2024 to July 13, 2025.

  • Stuttgart - München - Salzburg ↔ Udine - Venice
  • München ↔ Verona - Milano Rogoredo - Genova - La Spezia
  • München ↔ Firenze - Roma

Amsterdam ↔ Koln

From June 27 to August 24, 2025 and from October 20 to November 2, 2025, buses replace trains between Arnhem in The Netherlands and Emmerich in Germany.
The ICE trains on the Amsterdam ↔ Frankfurt (Main) route will be diverted and won't be calling in Dusseldorf, Duisburg and Arnhem, but will instead be calling at Monchengladbach and Venlo.
The travel time between Germany and Amsterdam will be 30mins longer than usual.

Copenhagen ↔ Hamburg

From Monday, July 14th through Saturday, July 19th, the rail route to the east of the the Great Belt Fixed Link will be closed.
InterCity runs instead of EuroCity Copenhagen ↔ Slagelse.
There will be replacement buses between Slagelse and Nyborg.
The EuroCity services will be operating Nyborg ↔ Hamburg Hbf and therefore still calling in Odense, but EuroCity 1194 and 1195 will not be running .

Then from July 25 to August 3, most of these EuroCity trains will run to and from Hamburg-Altona instead of Hamburg Hbf.
If you are traveling between Hamburg-Altona and Hamburg Hbf, please take the S-bahn S1 towards Hamburg-Pollenbüttel, S2 towards Aumühle or S3 towards Hamburg-Neugraben.

Also on August 2nd and August 3rd, these trains will be diverted to operate between Fredericia and Hamburg-Altona.
If you are traveling from Copenhagen, you should take InterCity to Odense and then take Togbus to Fredericia.

Wien / Vienna ↔ the main station in Bratislava

Regional trains between Wien / Vienna and Bratislava usually depart hourly in two different routes:

  • to Bratislava hl.st, the city's main railway station, via Marchegg, which is route REX8
  • to Bratislava Petrzalka station, which is located on the south bank of the River Danube, which is route, REX6

However, until July 5th, due to construction work by the Slovak Railways (ZSR), trains on line REX8 can't be used between Marchegg station and Bratislava hl.st - A rail replacement service with buses will be set up for some trains between Marchegg and Bratislava.
During this time journeys between Vienna and Bratislava will mainly only be possible by using route REX6 - Though the Railjet train on the Zurich ↔ Bratislava route will be calling at both Bratislava hl.st and Bratislava Petrzalka.

Salzburg ↔ Frankfurt / Saarbrucken

From April 17 to June 6th the EC trains between Germany and Austria via Salzburg will be turning around in Munich and won't be serving any station north of Munich.

Zurich ↔ Wien/Budapest/Bratislava

These Railjet trains take a route between Salzburg and Kufstein which travels through Germany.
Due to construction work by the German, national rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, some of these services will not be running between Salzburg Central Station and Kufstein Station from August 1, 2025 (9:00 p.m.) to August 11, 2025 (6:00 a.m.).
A rail replacement bus service will be provided.

Then from October 6, 2025 , to November 3, 2025 these Railjet trains will be replaced by buses between Ötztal (west of Innsbruck) and Bludenz (east of Feldkirch).

Graz ↔ Zurich

Due to construction work the daily 'Transalpin' EC train may be replaced by buses between Stainach-Irdning and Bischofshofen from September 8 to October 5.

Then from October 6, 2025 , to November 3, 2025 this train will be replaced by buses between Ötztal (west of Innsbruck) and Bludenz (east of Feldkirch).

Praha/Prague ↔ Munchen/Munich

From June 15 to August 22 buses replace trains in the Regensburg ↔ Schwandorf section of the Regensburg↔ Hof line, which is used by trains taking the Praha/Prague ↔ Munchen/Munich route.
Therefore during this time these trains to/from Praha/Prague are being turned around in Schwandorf.
During this time the Munchen/Munich ↔ Regensburg part of the route will be covered by the usual regional (RE) train service.

Bologna / Verona / Venice ↔ Munchen/Munich

From August 11th to August 18th due to maintenance work in Italy, the majority of trains on the EC/RJ line: Munich – Innsbruck – Verona – Venice/Bologna are cancelled along the entire route.

The trains RJ 82/83 and RJ 84/85 which traveel Munich ↔ Venice will diverted on to an entirely different route with station calls in Villach and Salzburg.

Stuttgart ↔ Zurich

From June 20 (9 p.m.) to July 5, 2025 (9 p.m.) track renewal work is taking place at multiple locations on the railway between Stuttgart and Singen.
As a consequence:

  • The direct connections between Stuttgart and Zurich will not be available.
  • A replacement bus service operate Sulz (Neckar)/ Rottweil ↔ Herrenberg and with stops in Horb, Sulz, Oberndorf and Rottweil.
  • Trains will operate every two hours Zurich ↔ Sulz (Neckar) with connecting express buses operating Sulz (Neckar) ↔ Herrenberg.
  • During the other hour, trains only run between Zurich ↔ Singen.

Dresden ↔ Praha/Prague

From June 29 (9 a.m.) to July 4, 2025 (7 p.m.) maintenance woks is closing the route between Dresden and the Czech border;
As a consequence:

  • The Hamburg - Berlin - Dresden - Prague - Budapest / Vienna trains will be split to operate Hamburg / Berlin ↔ Dresden and Decin ↔ Praha/Prague,
    Trains will not be calling at Bad Schandau
    A replacement bus service will be set up between Dresden and Usti nad Labem, with connections to EC trains from/to Berlin/Hamburg and the Czech Republic.

Genova ↔ Zurich

From June 8th to Sept 29th due to the reconstruction of a bridge on the Genova ↔ Milano railway, the daily EC train which takes a Genova ↔ Zurich route will only be operating Chiasso ↔ Zurich.

Geneva / Basel ↔ Milano

From June 9th to July 27th inclusive and from August 31st to September 13th inclusive, a section of the railway will be closed between Domodossola and Milano, so the train service will be substituted by replacement bus services from and to Milano Centrale.
The EC trains on the Geneve ↔ Milano route and the Basel - Bern Milano route will therefore be turning around in Domodsolla.

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Simon Harper

I wanted to share my passion for train travel and explain how anyone can take the fantastic journeys I have taken.

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