The new pan-European rail timetable into 2025 commences on Dec 15th - hence the summary of the exciting new opportunities for daytime rail journeys.
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 services which typically come this way are on these routes:
Though the route is also taken by these international night trains, which are being temporarily cancelled completely while the work is carried out:
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
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:
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:
However, they also have some advantages over the high-speed trains:
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:
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:
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 phases 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:
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:
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
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 see 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:
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:
The routes which will enjoy an expanded rail service from Dec 15th include:
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:
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.
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