New routes, new departure times, but also train cancellations: A lot is changing in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia with the rail timetable change on September 14. An overview - from ticket prices to roadworks.
No price increase on long-distance services
Unlike in previous years, Deutsche Bahn is not increasing prices on long-distance services this time. There are also no changes to railcards. In local transport, the various transport associations have already set higher ticket prices in some cases over the course of the year. Users of the Deutschlandticket will also have to pay more from January: 63 euros instead of the previous 58 euros.
More fast trains via Halle/Erfurt to Berlin and Munich
There will soon be more trains on the heavily used ICE route from Berlin to Munich via Halle and Erfurt. According to Deutsche Bahn, 16 fast ICE trains will run in each direction every day, three more than before. Erfurt and Halle will thus be connected every half hour.
Direct to Paris and Krakow
In future, travelers will be able to travel directly to Paris from Halle and Erfurt. There will be a daily service to the French capital at 8.18 a.m. from Halle and 8.50 a.m. from Erfurt.
It will soon be possible to reach Wroclaw and Krakow directly from Leipzig. In cooperation with the Polish railroad company PKP, two Eurocity trains a day will run on this route. They will also stop in Riesa and Hoyerswerda, among other places.
From May, there will also be a direct service from Dresden to Copenhagen. A night train between Copenhagen and Prague with a stop in Dresden will also be added to the service in the summer.
Cuts to IC connections
Due to weak demand, Deutsche Bahn is cutting services on several IC routes. Between Magdeburg and Hanover, the 5.00 a.m. train to the capital of Lower Saxony and the evening connection at 9.36 p.m. to Magdeburg will be canceled on weekdays.
The service on the Leipzig-Jena-Nuremberg route will also be thinned out. Only two train pairs will remain from five train journeys in each direction. According to Deutsche Bahn, customers on this route prefer to use the similarly fast local services, especially with the Deutschlandticket.
S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland to be restructured
There are numerous changes in local transport, which is operated by different transport companies. One of the biggest is the new structure of the S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland. Among other things, the route from Leipzig to Naumburg will be integrated into the network. In future, the S6 will run there instead of the Regionalbahn 20. The S5/S5X from Zwickau via Altenburg to Halle will be extended to Halle-Trotha. The next major change to the S-Bahn network is due in 2026: The private Länderbahn will then take over some of the routes.
Construction work on many routes
The railroad has to renovate its rail network - and this will lead to a number of restrictions. The general refurbishment of the important Berlin-Hamburg route will continue until April, which is why trains will be rerouted through Saxony-Anhalt and take longer.
The Nuremberg-Regensburg-Passau route is also being refurbished. From February 7, the two daily connections from Erfurt to Vienna will therefore be discontinued. Instead, there will be one direct connection per day to Innsbruck.
A general overhaul has also been announced for the route between Halle and Kassel. Local trains will generally run every hour there in future. However, travelers will face long closures of individual sections.
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