by The planning of main railway lines through the Alps was shaped by national ambitions and rivalries. The opening of the Austrian Semmers railway in 1854, the Mont Cenis Route (also known as Fréjus) between France and Italy in 1871 and the Gotthard tunnel of Switzerland in 1882 defined the broad contours of the Alps Railway Geography in the late 19th century. But Habsburg planner wanted to ensure better connections to Adriatic ports. In 1901 they sketched a bold plan for the new Alpine railways (new Alpine railways), from which the Austrian Tauern Railway was most important. It opened in 1909. When it was closed for the reconstruction in November 2024, it remembered sharply how much passengers and freight rely on a handful of important alpine rail tracks. If you lose an important alpine connection and the effects of this closure can be felt throughout Europe.
The past few years have been difficult for Alpine rail operators. Handling, flooding and derailment played chaos in the lines. So three cheers on the newer good news. The important route of Mont Cenis was reopened this spring after it was closed after a landslide in August 2023 (although there was a wobble last week when another landslide was briefly interrupted). This closure required the cancellation of all high -speed trains between France and Italy. These links have now been restored so that travelers were accelerated from Paris to Turin or from Lyon to Milan in less than five hours in just 5 hours this summer.
New services on classic railways
Other important Alpine routes welcomed new long -distance trains this summer. On the Brenner -Route from Austria to Italy, a new seasonal Railjet service now runs from Munich to the Adriatic port of Ancona. Since the end of June, the famous Semmering Railway has had new direct trains from Warsaw to Rijeka, which are driven by the Austrian Alps from night – 20 hours from the Polish capital to the Croatian coast. Last month, the famous Gotthard route, which organized a new day train from Zurich to Pisa, also organized an eight-hour journey that not only leads the Alps, but also some glorious Ligurian coastal landscapes on the way.
But the best is still coming. The Tauern Railway will be reopened on July 14th. The return of this large rail axis through the Austrian Alps has transformatively affected European rail time plans, since many important transalpine train services are restored. Overnight services from Stuttgart and Salzburg to Venice, exposed to the Tauern closure since last year, return from July 14th. So also the night piece from Munich to Rome.
It is noteworthy how the loss of a key track link can redesign European geography. During the Tauern closure, trips from Switzerland and southern Germany were slower to Slovenia. In Austria, Salzburg and Carinthia are happily connected to the reopening of the railway. The trains will again slide from Salzburg to the beautiful Carinthian City of Villach in just 2 hours 32 minutes, from where there are good connections to Slovenia and Italy.
The Tauern Railway is a main street in an old style with a mixture of freight and passenger services. It was never laid out for high speed and the landscape is too good to hurry up. The fact that even the fastest trains are a blessing under an average of less than 50 km / h.
Salzburg to Villach
The passenger train towards the south through the restored Tauern tunnel is an Intercity that is due to leave Salzburg on July 14th at 6.12 a.m. And we hope for a good (but not too hot) weather this Monday, as the Tauern Railway is best on a sunny summer morning. The railroad cuts out the Salzach valley from Salzburg, whereby the landscape initially reveals little of the drama that lies ahead of us. It is only beyond Schwarzach that the hills nearby and the railroad are pressing south, with the large wall of the Tauern Alps in front of them. The last stop in front of the Tauern tunnel is a bad guest, a remarkable Spa Town with Belle Epoque Charm. It is a great place to break the journey and enjoy the mountain air or the radon-rich spa tradition of the city.
The railroad will plunge beyond the bad guest in the Tauern tunnel. This is one of the shortest of the large Alpine shelf tunnels, and there is only seven minutes of darkness before the train appears in Karinthian sunshine, with the landscape now indicating more southern behavior. I love this route when the railway falls towards the Möll Valley and follows the latter towards the Drau River, which is crossed shortly after the stop at Spittal. After closing the Drau has been closed on the right to get a great view of the river, while the railway corresponds to it down to Villach.
Here the drau is only in its infancy; But below it becomes a drava and flows east to join the Danube on the border between Croatia and Serbia. It is a river that shaped European history, as the Tauern Railway has shaped travel patterns through the Alps.
Björn Bender, CEO of Rail Europe, captures the enormous feeling of relief in the entire European rail industry when he says: “The tuner tunnel reopening is so important because it is a key route for trains from Bavaria from Bavaria to Slovenia. The start of further good things.
Tickets from Salzburg to Villach via the Tauern Railway costs from £ 9 one Way (increasingly to £ 13.50 or £ 18, as soon as £ 9 tickets are sold out) by Rail Europe. This is a reduced Safe ticketwhat needs to be booked in advance.
Nicky Gardner is a co -author of Europe with the rail: the final guide ((18. Output, Hidden EuropePresent £ 20.99) Available in the Guardian Bookshop
