New Daytime pan-European Rail Routes from December 15th

The rail companies and networks co-ordinate their annual major timetable updates so that the new schedules are in place from the second Sunday in December; Though because of how the calendar falls in 2024, the new timetables will commence from Sunday December 15th.
These were the key changes which occurred from December 2023.
Thanks to the schedule changes occurring in early to mid-December, travellers over the Christmas and New Year holiday periods can benefit from any service improvements.

This summary of the key changes to the daytime train services from December 15th, will be added to amended between now and the timetable switchover - because other updates will become apparent over the weeks to come.

The fact that the pan-European rail timetables changes in mid-December, also provides an opportunity for major construction work, which will impact on long-distance rail services, to commence from the date of the schedule change.

Hence from December 15th until June 27th the route in Austria that links Salzburg with Villach, is to be closed between Bad Gastein and Spittall, with buses substituting for daytime rail services.
The daytime long-distance services which typically come this way are on these routes:

• Wien Hbf - St Polten - Linz - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt
• Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt (these trains typically connect in Villach with trains taking a Villach ↔ Lesce-Beld - Ljubljana - Zidane Most - Zagreb - Vinkovici route).

Though the route is also taken by these international night trains, which are being temporarily cancelled completely while the work is carried out:

• Stuttgart - München - Salzburg ↔ Udine - Venice
• München ↔ Verona - Milano Rogoredo - Genova - La Spezia
• München ↔ Firenze - Roma
  Note that all of the night trains which typically connect Germany and Italy will be impacted.

The night trains on these routes are to be re-routed via Graz:

• Stuttgart - München - Salzburg ↔ Ljubljana - Zagreb
• Zurich - Buchs - Feldkirch - Salzburg ↔ Ljubljana - Zagreb.

Since early July the main rail route to the south of Frankfurt (Main), between the city and Mannheim, has been closed due to construction work, but it will re-open from December 15th.

As a consequence the usual schedule will be restored on these routes which link Germany with Switzerland via Freiburg

• Hamburg - Hannover - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Freiburg - Basel - Zurich - Chur by ICE trains
• Berlin - Braunschweig - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Freiburg - Basel - Bern - Thun - Interlaken by ICE trains
• Hamburg - Bremen - Dortmund - Koln - Bonn - Mainz ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Freiburg - Basel - Zurich by the daily IC / EC train
• Hamburg - Bremen - Dortmund - Koln - Bonn - Mainz ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Freiburg - Basel - Bern - Thun - Interlaken by the daily IC / EC train
• Hamburg - Bremen - Dortmund - Koln - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Freiburg - Basel by ICE trains

Also, in September, the Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Milano service was restored, but on a new route in both directions; Frankfurt (Main) - Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Freiburg - Basel - Zurich ↔ Zug - Bellinzona - Lugano - Chiasso - Como - Milano Centrale.

The regular service pattern will also be restored on these ICE routes within Germany:

• Hamburg - Hannover - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart
• Berlin - Leipzig - Erfurt - Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart - Ulm - Augsburg - München
• Dortmund - Koln - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart - Ulm - Augsburg - München

Since the opening of the high-speed lines to the north and south of Rotterdam, travellers taking trains between Bruxelles and both Rotterdam and Amsterdam have had a choice between:

1. taking a high speed train, which are now all branded as Eurostar services, or
2. taking a regular train, that are operated as InterCity services.
   The InterCity trains are inevitably slower - and they also divert off the direct route to serve Breda.

However, they also have some advantages over the high-speed trains:

• They call at Bruxelles-Central and Bruxelles-Nord stations.
• They call at Bruxelles-Airport station, hence they provide a direct rail link between the airports in Bruxelles and Amsterdam.
• When booking last minute tickets at the station they are cheaper.
• The rail pass reservation fees to travel on the Eurostar (formerly Thalys) high-speed trains are comparatively expensive, but the InterCity trains provide a hop on service to users of valid Eurail and InterRail passes.

The key negative of the InterCity trains is their comparatively basic on-board experience - Older trains had to restored to service more than a decade ago, when the first attempt at replacing them ended in failure.

New trains...

A second attempt by the Dutch national rail operator NS at introducing new trains, capable of taking advantage of the high-speed route in The Netherlands, has thus far been eminently more successful
The new generation InterCity trains have proved to be a winner on the Amsterdam ↔ Rotterdam high speed route - And from the timetable change on December 15th they will also be travelling along the cross border high-speed line which connects Rotterdam with Antwerpen.
However, they will not be replacing the existing InterCity services, instead they will be providing an additional service on a new route - and are to be branded as ECD trains!

...a new service pattern

From the timetable change on December 15th the pattern of rail services between Bruxelles and the Netherlands will be:

1. A Eurostar service in most hours calling at Bruxelles-Midi - Antwerpen-Centraal* - Rotterdam-Centraal - Schiphol Airport - Amsterdam-Centraal (*= trains to/from London don't call in Antwerpen).
2. An hourly ECD service calling at Bruxelles-Midi - Antwerpen-Centraal - Rotterdam-Centraal - Schiphol Airport - Amsterdam Zuid - Almere Centrum - Almere Buiten - Lelystad Centrum.
3. An hourly IC (EC) service calling at Bruxelles-Midi - Bruxelles-Central - Bruxelles-Nord - Brussels Airport-Zaventem - Mechelen - Antwerpen-Berchem - Antwerpen-Centraal - Noorderkempen - Breda - Rotterdam-Centraal.

Summary of the impact of the service changes
As with any major change to a long-standing rail timetable, the new service pattern delivers a mix of positives and negatives; In summary they are:

• A 30%+ increase in the number of Bruxelles-Midi ↔ Rotterdam services.
• More fast services Bruxelles-Midi ↔ Schiphol Airport.
• A new direct Bruxelles-Midi and Antwerpen ↔ Amsterdam Zuid rail link; Amsterdam Zuid station is located in the city's business district and has Metro services to the city centre.
• The rapidly developing cities of Almere and Lelystad will have a direct rail link to/from Bruxelles and Antwerpen.
• Easy connections will be available in Lelystad with trains to/from Groningen, Leeuwarden and Zwolle.
• Eurostar services will be the only direct trains between the main stations in Brussels (Bruxelles-Mid) and Amsterdam (Amsterdam-Centraal)
• Bruxelles-Centraal and Bruxelles-Nord stations lose their direct rail link to and from Amsterdam.
• There will no longer be a direct rail service between the airports in Brussels and Amsterdam.

In recent years rail travel in Germany has been impacted by multiple major construction sites on the routes taken by the express ICE train.
However, now that this phase of railway enhancements has been completed, opportunities have been seized to introduce new routes to be taken by ICE trains - while others have been improved.

From December 15th, the capital cities of France and Germany are to be linked by a daytime rail service!

Heading east a daily ICE train will typically follow this schedule:

• Paris Gare de l'Est, depart at 09:55
• Strasbourg, depart at 11:46
• Karlsruhe Hbf, arrive at 12:34
• Frankfurt (Main) Süd, arrive at 14:04
• Berlin-Spandau, arrive at 17:46 - connect for Berlin Zoologischer Garten station in West Berlin
• Berlin Hbf, arrive at 18:03
• Berlin-Ost, arrive at 18:16
  All station calls have been included, as this train will in effect be operating as a 'Sprinter' service in Germany.

Connections will be available in Strasbourg with trains from Lille, Colmar and Mulhouse.
The scheduled arrival time in Berlin Hbf will enable connections on to Dresden, Leipzig and Prague.

Heading west a daily ICE train will typically follow this schedule:

• Berlin-Ost, depart at 11:41
• Berlin Hbf, depart at 11:54
• Berlin-Spandau, depart at 12:12
• Frankfurt (Main) Süd, depart at 15:53
• Karlsruhe Hbf, depart at 17:07
• Strasbourg, arrive at 17:36
• Paris Gare de l'Est, arrive at 19:59.

Connections will be available at Berlin Hbf with trains from Dresden, Krakow, Leipzig, Prague and Wroclaw
Conveniently timed connections will be available in Strasbourg with trains on to Colmar, Metz and Mulhouse.

Note that the trains on this route will not call at Frankfurt's central station, Frankfurt (Main) Hbf - By stopping instead at Frankfurt (Main) Sud, the end-to-end journey time in both directions, is at least 20 minutes faster.
Frankfurt (Main) Sud is linked to the city centre by frequent local S-Bahn trains.
There are also multiple Paris Est ↔ Frankfurt (Main) Hbf trains available daily.

From December 15th, a new ICE train service will be taking a Amsterdam ↔ München / Munich route, thereby providing these new direct daytime rail connections: Amsterdam + Utrecht + Arnhem ↔ Mannheim + Stuttgart + Ulm + Augsburg + München / Munich.

Heading south the departure from Amsterdam Centraal will typically be shortly after 08:30 with a scheduled arrival into München Hbf shortly before 15:30.
Connections will be available at München Hbf into trains on to Budapest, Graz, Innsbruck, Linz, Salzburg and Wien/Vienna.

Heading north the train will typically depart from München Hbf shortly before 16:30, with scheduled arrivals into

• Arnhem Centraal, arriving shortly before 22:30
• Utrecht Centraal, arriving shortly before 23:00
• Amsterdam Centraal, arriving shortly before 23:30.

Connections will usually be available in München Hbf with trains from Bad Gastein, Bologna, Bolzano, Budapest, Innsbruck, Linz, Klagenfurt*, Salzburg, Verona, Villach* and Wien/Vienna
*= not until June 28th.
Despite the late in the day arrival into Utrecht, connections will typically available with trains on to Den Haag, Gouda, Eindhoven, Rotterdam and Zwolle.

Though in effect this Amsterdam ↔ München / Munich service replaces the long-standing Amsterdam ↔ Basel ICE train, which was permanently withdrawn earlier this year.

The German national rail operator DB is increasing the volume of its ICE-Sprinter services - the services which are either non-stop between cities, or make fewer station calls than the regular ICE services.
One route which sees a significant rise in its volume of 'Sprinter' services from December 15th is Berlin ↔ Frankfurt (Main); There will be 3 x non stop - trains per day in each direction and a faster service in most hours.

Hamburg ↔ Dresden

Dresden is to gain an ICE service taking a Hamburg - Berlin ↔ Dresden route.
The train will depart daily from Dresden Hbf at 07:00 and from Dresden-Neustadt at 07:07; In the opposite direction it will depart Hamburg Hbf around 16:50.

Wiesbaden to gain additional direct rail links

The direct services which link the cities of the Rhine-Ruhr area with Austria are to be altered - Taking advantage of the fact they have become ICE services.
From December 15th the trains on these routes:

• Munster - Duisburg - Dusseldorf - Köln → Salzburg - Bad Gastein - Villach - Klagenfurt
• Dortmund - Wuppertal - Köln → Friedrichshafen - Lindau - Bregenz - Feldkirch - Landeck-Zams - Innsbruck
• Klagenfurt - Villach - Bad Gastein - Salzburg → Köln - Dusseldorf - Duisburg - Essen - Dortmund
• Innsbruck - Landeck-Zams - Feldkirch - Bregenz - Lindau - Friedrichshafen → Köln - Wuppertal - Dortmund
  will be taking a different route between Köln and Mainz.
  Instead of calling at Bonn and Koblenz, they will be calling at Seigburg/Bonn and Wiesbaden, travelling on the high-speed line between the two stations.
  Wiesbaden will therefore gain direct ICE services with multiple locations including Augsburg, Innsbruck, Lindau, München, Salzburg and Ulm.
  These trains will also be calling at Köln-Messe/Deutz instead of at Köln Hbf.

The Czech rail operator CD is to open up a new daily international route in eastern Europe with the launch of Baltic Express services from December 15th.
Four daily trains in each direction will be taking a Praha - Pardubice - Lichkov ↔ Wroclaw - Poznan - Bydgoszcz - Gdansk - Sopot - Gdniya route (not all station calls have been included in this summary).
The Czech capital will therefore gain new direct rail links to and from six Polish cities!
Wroclaw will also gain additional direct connections with the the Polish resort destinations on the Baltic Coast.

Departures from Praha hln will be at 06:51; 10:51; 14:50 and 18:51
Journey times will be:

• to / from Wroclaw = around 3hr 55 min
• to / from Poznan = around 5hr 40 min
• to / from Gdansk = around 8hr 40 min
• to / from Gdynia = around 9hr 5 min

The routes which will enjoy an expanded rail service from Dec 15th include:

• München / Munich ↔ Zurich = new first and last trains of the day to give 8 x trains per day in each direction
• Berlin ↔ Wroclaw - Katowice - Krakow - Przemysl = doubles to 2 x trains per day
• Leo Express will double its Praha ↔ Katowice - Krakow service = 4 x trains per day in total on the Praha ↔ Katowice - Krakow route.

From the timetable change on Dec 15th, the timetable and rail routes in the French speaking area of western Switzerland is being revised - in order to make the most of enhanced capacity to the west of Lausanne.

In particular, to make the most of its extensive upgrade, Renens VD station, is to become a major connecting hub on the Swiss rail network.

The changes to local (RER) and Regio-Express (RE) services include:

• Two trains per hour on the Neuchatel ↔ Fribourg route.
• 4 x trains per hour between Geneve and Coppet.
• An hourly RER (R7) service which will take the stunning Vevey ↔ Palézieux route - So by connecting in Vevey and Palézieux, the Riviera, Chablais and Valais regions will be linked to Fribourg/Freiburg and Bern, without the need to pass through Lausanne.
• A new hourly RE service which will take a Chêne-Bourg - Geneve - Nyon - Morges - Renens VD - Lausanne - Vevey - Montreux - Aigle - Bex - St Maurice - Martigny route.
  As a consequence, there will be 4 x trains per hour providing an approximate every 15 mins service on the Geneve - Nyon - Morges - Renens VD - Lausanne axis; Plus Aigle, Bex, St Maurice and Martigny will all gain an additional hourly connection with both Lausanne and Geneve.

A change to the long-distance service to and from Genève

The key change to long-distance services is that the IC5 route in Switzerland is to operate only to and from Lausanne - So it will no longer serve Genève / Geneva.
There will still be two IC5 services per hour, but they will be operating on these routes:

1. Lausanne - Renens VD - Yverdon-les-Bains - Neuchâtel - Biel/Bienne - Olten - Aarau - Zürich HB - Zurich Airport - Winterthur - St Gallen - Rorschach
2. Lausanne - Renens VD - Yverdon-les-Bains - Neuchâtel - Biel/Bienne - Grenchen Süd - Solothurn - Oensingen - Olten - Zürich HB (extended every other hour to/from Zurich Airport - Winterthur - St Gallen)

As a result connections will be required at the newly reconstructed and enhanced Renens VD station, when travelling between Genève and multiple locations including Yverdon-les-Bains, Neuchâtel and Biel/Bienne.
Trains on the IC1 Genève - Lausanne - Bern - Zurich - St Gallen route - and one of the two IR trains per hour on the Genève ↔ Visp - Brig route, will also be calling at Renens VD station from December 15th.

Service summary to and from Genève
From December 15th the long-distance SBB services to and from Genève / Geneva, will be the trains on these three routes (not all calls are shown below):

1. The IC1 route: Genève Aeroport - Genève - Renens VD - Lausanne - Fribourg - Bern - Zürich HB - Zurich Airport - Winterthur - St Gallen
2. Genève Aeroport - Genève - Lausanne - Fribourg - Bern - Luzern (IR services)
3. Genève Aeroport - Genève - Renens VD - Lausanne - Montreux - Sion - Visp - Brig (IR services)

When travelling Genève ↔ Basel, connections will now typically be required in Bern and not Biel/Bienne.

The international rail services between Genève / Geneva and Lyon, Milano and Paris are unaffected.

UK rail operator, TransPennine Express (TPE) is introducing a long-planned enhanced timetable from Dec 15th.
It will be operating hourly express trains on these four routes which link Leeds and Manchester:

• Hull - Leeds - Huddersfield ↔ Manchester Victoria - Liverpool Lime Street
• Newcastle - Durham - Darlington - York - Leeds - Huddersfield ↔ Manchester Victoria - Liverpool Lime Street
• Redcar - Middlesbrough - York - Leeds - Huddersfield ↔ Manchester Victoria - Manchester Oxford Road - Manchester Piccadilly - Manchester Airport
• Scarborough - York - Leeds - Huddersfield ↔ Manchester Victoria
  (not all station calls have been included in this summary)

The new pattern doubles the number of fast trains per hour in each direction between Leeds and Manchester Victoria stations.
Manchester Victoria will therefore become the city's dominant station for travel to and from Leeds.
The existing Hull - Leeds - Huddersfield ↔ Manchester Piccadilly stopping service will become a Huddersfield ↔ Manchester Piccadilly service.