Construction work will shape rail traffic next year

Deutsche Bahn is expanding its long-distance services in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia with the timetable change in mid-December. According to a Deutsche Bahn press release, the larger cities such as Halle, Erfurt and Dresden will be the main beneficiaries. In other places, train connections will be canceled, such as on the route from Leipzig via Jena and Saalfeld to Nuremberg. According to Deutsche Bahn, the numerous construction sites in particular will affect train services in the coming year and lead to numerous changes for rail travelers in the three federal states.

"People want to travel by train," said Michael Peterson, DB Board Member for Long-Distance Passenger Transport. "Where there are already many passengers, we are offering even more train journeys in the new timetable." For example, more fast trains will be used on the route between Berlin and Munich. Halle and Erfurt in particular will benefit from this, as they will be connected to the capital every half hour. Thanks to a new route, Erfurt and Halle will also be connected to the route from Berlin to Paris. Leipzig will also be better connected internationally with a connection via Wroclaw and Krakow to southern Poland and Dresden with a connection to the Danish capital Copenhagen.

Construction work will characterize the coming year for the railway

At the same time, however, the railroad is thinning out its services in smaller cities. The daily direct connection Leipzig/Lutherstadt Wittenberg to Binz on Rügen will be discontinued. In the Saale Valley between Leipzig, Jena and Nuremberg, long-distance services will be reduced from five to two intercity train pairs per day. In Magdeburg, early and late connections to Hanover will also be discontinued.

Next year will again be particularly characterized by numerous construction works on the railroad lines. Although the connection between Dresden via Berlin to Hamburg will be significantly faster at 40 minutes once the construction work is complete, there will be restrictions in other places due to the construction work. From next fall, for example, long-distance trains will temporarily no longer be able to stop in Stendal. And all IC connections on the section between Erfurt, Weimar, Jena and Gera will also be canceled due to construction work.