Changes to Europe's International Trains in 2026

Details are emerging of the service changes on the European rail timetable, which in be in effect for most of 2026.
The changeover date is actually on the second Sunday in December, so the 2026 timings actually kick in from December 14th 2025.

As a consequence of the ever-increasing travel demand, the weight of alterations to the international routes and trains is particularly significant this time around.
Hence this summary of the good to know info for those planning journeys over Christmas and into next year.

These changes will begin to appear on other sources  over the coming months, so ultimately Conductor Sam will pick them up, when looking up future journeys.

Though due enhancement works closing the fastest route between Berlin and Hamburg until April 30th, many of the most exciting changes won't be available until after May 1st.

Plus a deep dive into the new schedules has revealed an eye-catching new service, which won't be commencing until September!

(To make the info easier to skim read, only English names have been used for each location).
Not all station calls have been included in the route summaries.

New Services and New Route Extensions

These are the already confirmed new international journey opportunities which will be available from December 14th 2025 and into 2026:

• Florence will have a direct EC train from and to Zurich, as the existing Zurich ↔ Bologna service will be extended at its southern end. The train's other station calls will include Bellinzona, Lugano and Como, so they will gain a direct rail link with Florence
• Different and new journey options will be available when taking ICE trains between Germany and multiple locations in Switzerland. Highlights include direct links to/from Brig via Visp, plus direct trains between Chur and Cologne.
• Krakow will gain another connection with Germany as two new daily EC trains will be taking a Leipzig - Katowice - Krakow route, with one of the trains in each direction having its journey extended beyond Krakow to/from Przemysl.
• Multiple international trains will be using a brand new railway route in south-east Austria. Graz will gain direct trains to multiple destinations including Cologne, Frankfurt Airport, Florence, Rome and Venice Plus a faster link to/from Trieste thanks to a new Vienna - Graz - Trieste Railjet train.
• Also using this new line will be some of the Railjet trains on the Prague ↔ Graz route, as they will have journeys extended to Villach via Klagenfurt
• International rail journeys in south-east Austria will also be made simpler by new Regional services on two routes; (1) Graz ↔ Maribor and (2) Villach ↔ Trieste via Udine.
• Three new EC trains per day in each direction will be travelling between Vienna and Bratislava.

Prague and Germany ↔ Copenhagen

From mid-June two of the trains which take the Prague ↔ Hamburg via Decin, Bad Schandau, Dresden and Berlin route will have their routes extended to Copenhagen! 
These services will be provided by brand new Comfort Jet trains, pictured at the top of the page.

These two trains per day in each direction will be additions to the Hamburg ↔ København timetable and will provide the locations in Denmark with direct daytime trains to/from both Berlin and Dresden.

From June 14th a third Comfort Jet train will be added, but it will travel overnight.
Heading south it will travel from Copenhagen to Bad Schandau, but going north it will travel from Prague to Copenhagen.
There will also be two additional ECE trains added to the Hamburg ↔ København / Copenhagen route, providing an unprecedented ten trains in each direction between Hamburg and the Danish capital!

Cologne ↔ Antwerp

From Sept 12th the German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn is to deliver on its promise of enhanced services between Belgium and Germany, as two ICE trains per day will be taking an Antwerp - Brussels Airport - Leuven - Liege - Aachen - Cologne route!

Restored Services:

to/from Croatia and Slovenia

Travelling to and from Croatia by train has become easier.
Two long-standing EuroCity routes which had been curtailed in recent years, are seemingly being restored to the timetable.

1. Vienna - Graz ↔ Maribor - Zagreb
2. Munich - Salzburg - Bad Gastein - Spittal - Villach ↔ Lesce Bled - Lubljana - Zagreb

This latter service also restores direct rail links from both Munich and Salzburg to and from Ljubljana.
Journeys to and from Slovenia will also be made easier by the restoration of the Villach - Lesce Bled - Ljubljana regional trains, which will be available in every other hour.

Berlin ↔ Vienna

The Berlin - Dresden ↔ Decin - Prague - Brno - Breclav -Vienna service by Railjet trains will return, but will be departing mid-afternoon.
Until the next major timetable chance on December 12th 2026, this will be the only direct daytime train service linking Berlin and Vienna.

Enhanced Services

These existing routes are to be improved with the addition of extra daily departures:

• Zurich - Bellinzona - Lugano ↔ Como - Milan
• Berlin ↔ Poznan - Warsaw
• Hamburg ↔ Odense - Copenhagen
• London - Rotterdam -Amsterdam

The Lausanne - Geneve ↔ Lyon - Avignon - Marseille service by TGV Lyria train is to be expanded.
It will return as daily service in July and August, but in April, May, June, September and October it will also be available on Thursday to Monday.

The daily Paris ↔ Berlin service by ICE train has been diverted on to a new route between Frankfurt and the German capital.
It has cut 20 mins off its journey time despite new station calls in Erfurt and Halle; plus it will also call at Frankfurt (Main) Hbf instead of at Frankfurt (Main) Sud.

Other routes will benefit from the introduction of brand new trains:

• Very smart ICE neo trains are now being used on the Amsterdam - Amersfoort - Osnabruck - Hannover - Berlin route.
• Though the plan was for the even newer ICE-L trains to be used on both that Amsterdam ↔ Berlin route and the Copenhagen ↔ Hamburg route. So presumably they will be introduced to the services to/from the Danish capital at some time in 2026, as the coaches used on the existing service are to be withdrawn.
• The very impressive Nightjet New Generation sleeper trains will begin to used on the routes between Zurich and Amsterdam, Hamburg and Vienna.
• New Comfort Jet trains are now also making the epic journey on the Hamburg - Berlin - Dresden ↔ Decin - Prague - Brno - Breclav -Bratislava - Vac - Budapest route.

Changes Due To Railway Maintenance Works

Not all of the significant maintenance and enhancement projects which will be occurring in 2026 have been confirmed, but what's already known is that that three of Europe's key international routes will be impacted at various times during the year:

1. Nuremberg ↔ Linz
2. Buchs ↔ Feldkirch
3. Brig ↔ Domodossola

The Nuremberg ↔ Linz route:

From February 7th 2026 until December 12th 2026, Deutsche Bahn will be enhancing the railway in south-east Germany which links Nuremberg to Passau via Regensburg.

Hence during this time these ICE routes won't be available;

• Hamburg - Hannover - Kassel - Wurzburg - Nuremberg - Regensburg - Passau ↔ Wels- Linz - Vienna
• Berlin - Halle - Erfurt - Nuremberg - Regensburg - Passau ↔ Wels - Linz - Vienna; until May 1st this service will be switched to a Berlin - Halle - Leipzig- Erfurt - Nuremberg - Munich - Kufstein - Worgl - Innsbruck route

From Feb 7th to July 10th the services which will be available are:

• One ICE train per day taking a Munich - Regensburg - Passau ↔ Wels - Linz - Vienna route
• One ICE train per day which will take a Frankfurt (Main) - Wurzburg - Nuremberg - Ingolstadt - Regensburg - Passau ↔ Wels Linz - Vienna route
• One ICE train per day which will take a Frankfurt (Main) - Wurzburg - Nuremberg - Ingolstadt - Regensburg - Passau ↔ Wels Linz - Vienna route
• Dortmund - Essen - Dusseldorf - Cologne - Bonn - Koblenz - Mainz Frankfurt Airport - Frankfurt (Main) - Wurzburg - Nuremberg - Ingolstadt - Regensburg - Passau ↔ Wels Linz - Vienna route

Note that these trains travelling via Nurnberg will be diverted on to a longer route via Ingolstadt.

From July 11th to December 12th the services which will be available are:

• One ICE train per day taking a Cologne - Frankfurt Airport - Frankfurt (Main) - Wurzburg - Nuremberg - Regensburg route
• One ICE train per day taking a Hamburg - Hannover - Kassel - Wurzburg - Nuremberg - Regensburg route.
• Two EC trains per day taking a Munich - Simbach ↔ Wels - Linz - Vienna route.T

The Nightjet trains on the Amsterdam ↔ Vienna and Hamburg ↔ Vienna routes will still be available, but will be diverted to travel through Munich.

The Buchs ↔ Feldkirch route:

From June 14th to October 14th this route is being enhanced to enable a single line to be double tracked.
The services which typically use it are:

1. Zurich - Buchs ↔ Feldkirch - Innsbruck - Salzburg - Linz - Vienna services by Railjet trains. Some of these trains will be cancelled and the remaining trains won't be extended to travel beyond Vienna to and from Bratislava and Budapest.
2. The Zurich - Buchs ↔ Feldkirch - Innsbruck - Zell am See - Seltzhal - Graz service will only be operating between Innsbruck and Graz.
3. The night trains between Zurich and both Vienna and Budapest will be diverted.

The Brig ↔ Domodossola route:

This route is to be unavailable from May 30th to July 27th, the trains which use it include the EC services on these two routes:

1. Basel - Bern - Thun - Spiez - Visp - Brig ↔ Domodossola - Stresa - Milan
2. Geneva - Lausanne - Sion - Brig ↔ Domodossola - Stresa - Milan

Withdrawn Routes and Services

Unfortunately these routes aren't included on the new timetable:

• Paris ↔ Berlin by overnight Nightjet trains
• Paris ↔ Munich - Salzburg - Linz - Vienna by overnight Nightjet trains; so Paris is to once again to have no international sleeper train services.
• The EC/IC trains on the Hamburg - Bremen - Dortmund - Cologne - Bonn - Koblenz - Mainz - Mannheim - Karlsruhe ↔ Switzerland route. There are still ICE trains on a Cologne -Mannheim - Karlsruhe ↔ Switzerland route.
• The EC train on the Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - Munich ↔ Salzburg - Seltzhal - Graz route, In effect it has been replaced by ICE trains taking a Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - Munich ↔ Salzburg - Villach - Klagenfurt - Graz route
• The EC train on the Vienna - Graz ↔ Maribor - Ljubljana - Trieste route will be travelling between Vienna and Ljubljana, which will remove the availability of direct trains between Ljubljana and Trieste; Though in effect it has been replaced by a new Railjet service on a Vienna - Graz - Klagenfurt - Villach ↔ Trieste route.
• The Railjet train on the Frankfurt (Main) - Heidelberg - Stuttgart - Ulm - Friedrichshafen - Lindau ↔ Bregenz - Innsbruck - Salzburg - Linz - Vienna route
• The Railjet train on the Bolzano - Bressanone - Innsbruck - Salzburg - Linz - Vienna route is to discontinued from June 13th.
• The overnight IC train on the Rostock - Berlin - Halle - Erfurt - Nuremberg - Regensburg - Passau ↔ Wels - Linz - Vienna route; the Nightjet train on the Berlin - Dresden - Prague ↔ Vienna route will still be available.