A Summary of major Construction Projects

The vast majority of the work to improve railway lines, which impacts on the frequency and journey times info as per the journey guides, is completed over one Sat/Sun period.
So if you can't find a usual route or a train departure online, it can be worth having a look at the links to the national construction work, which you will find below.
You may then have to translate what you'll find, but it can be worth the effort to discover what's occurring and to glean whether you'll need to take a bus for part of the journey, or whether trains are being diverted.
Alterations to the usual service are often not particularly obvious when looking up the journey on a ticket booking service.

The information included below is a guide to the the more extensive construction projects which are impacting on train services for a week or more.
Therefore these are the projects which are good to be aware of if you're planning a rail pass itinerary and want to avoid any hassle, or are wondering why a typical connection isn't available on multiple dates.

These are the upcoming rail construction projects which;

• last more than a weekend, so also impact on Monday to Friday travel
• affect long-distance express trains
• result in trains being diverted, with longer journey times (which impacts on connections)
• Or, are being substituted by buses for part of the journey.

The fast route between Wien / Vienna and St Polten has been damaged by a heavy storm, which caused some of the tunnels along the route to be flooded.
This is the railway typically taken by all of the express Railjet and Westbahn services, between the Austrian capital and other cities along the Wien ↔ St Polten - Linz - Salzburg - Innsbruck - Feldkirch - Bregenz route.

The fast route supplemented an older, slower route between Wien / Vienna and St Polten, which is now having to be taken by the more limited number of services between the capital and destinations to the west.
This temporary timetable will be in place until the pre-planned new timetable commences on December 15th.

The key features of the temporary timetable are:

(1)The hourly faster 'RJX' services on the Wien ↔ St Polten - Linz - Salzburg - Innsbruck route remain, but they have been retimed and are around 25 mins slower between Wien Hbf and St Polten Hbf.
There are still direct RJX services between Wien and destinations west of Innsbruck, including Bregenz and Zurich
Direct Wien ↔ München / Munich services are also still available

(2) There is also an hourly service between Wien Hbf and Linz Hbf, which comprises either:

• RJ or ICE services between Wien and Salzburg, calling at the stations skipped by faster RJX services, or
• ICE services on the Wien ↔ St Polten - Linz - Nuremberg - Berlin / Frankfurt route; Which have connections with RJ services travelling Linz ↔ Salzburg

(3) Wien Flughafen (Airport) station isn't being served by the Raijet trains.

(4) The Westbahn services are also operating to a revised timetable

The Tauern Railway

Looking ahead a key rail route in Austria, the Tauern Railway, is to be closed for more than six months, for construction work from November 18th to July 27th.
The Tauern Railway is the main railway route in south-west Austria, as it links Salzburg with Villach and Klagenfurt, but until March 2nd the plan is for express buses to replace trains between Bischofshofen and Spittal-Millstätter.
Though trains will be able to travel beyond Bischofshofen to provide a direct service between Salzburg and the other key destination along the route, which is Bad Gastein.

So from Dec 15th to June 27th there will be no trains operating between Bad Gastein and Spittal-Millstätter.
The long distance services which typically travel the length of the Tauern Railway are on these two routes.

1. Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt
2. Wien Hbf - St Polten - Linz - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt
   A key function of these trains to/from Wien Hbf is to provide a direct link between both Wien and Linz with Bad Gastein, but during the work these trains will be turned around in Salzburg.

There will be EC trains operating a Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein service, but from November 18thto June 27th there will be no direct trains between Salzburg and the resort towns on the Worthersee between Villach and Klagenfurt.
The trains taking the Wien - Leoben ↔ Klagenfurt - Villach route are unaffected and it looks as though more of them will have their journeys extended beyond Villach to/from Spittal-Millstätter.

What will be impacted by the work on the Tauern Railway are the daytime rail journeys which link Germany, Salzburg and other destinations in western Austria with Slovenia and Croatia.
The trains on the Frankfurt (Main) - Stuttgart - München Hbf - Salzburg ↔ Bischofshofen - Bad Gastein - Spittal-Millstätter - Villach - Klagenfurt route typically connect at Villach with trains taking a Villach ↔ Lesce-Beld - Ljubljana - Zidane Most - Zagreb - Vinkovici route.

1: Until the annual timetable change on Sunday December 8th, the faster Lyn services have been withdrawn on the Kobenhavn - Odense - Aarhus - Aalborg route.
This is due to the program of works to electrify the entire route between Kobenhavn and Aalborg.

(1) From November 9th to November 12th inclusive the high speed line between Paris and Avignon / Nimes will be closed due to signaling modernization work.

After 5 years of work without impact on passenger traffic, this very large-scale operation requires the complete closure of this line for 4 days. The circulation of High Speed ​​Trains will be modified, with these consequences:
• The reduction in the number of High Speed ​​Trains in circulation
• The trains which are running will take the classic line with a significant increase in travel time
• Certain stations on the Line High Speed ​​will not be served.

(2) Over these weekends, the TGV InOui services which typically depart from and arrive at the Gare de l'Est in Paris, will instead be diverted to Paris Gare Du Nord - with different timings to the norm:

• January 31 evening to February 3 morning,
• from February 6 evening to February 9 midday,
• February 15 and 16.
• February 22 and 23,
• March 1 and 2,
• March 8 and 9.

An overview of major construction projects can be found on the German language version of the DB website - so use Google Translate if need be.

1: Frankfurt (Main) Hbf / Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim

The Riedbahn railway which connects one of the main hubs of the German rail system, Mannheim, with destinations to the north, is to be closed for improvement until December 14th.
It is typically used by these regularly timetabled ICE trains, which on the usual timetable operate every two hours:

• Hamburg - Hannover - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Basel - Zurich - Chur
• Berlin - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Basel - Bern - Interlaken
• Berlin - Leipzig - Erfurt - Frankfurt (Main) - ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart - Augsburg - Munich/Munchen
• Berlin - Erfurt - Frankfurt (Main) - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart
• Dortmund - Dusseldorf - Cologne/Koln-Messe Deutz - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart - Augsburg - Munich/Munchen
• Hamburg - Bremen - Dortmund - Dusseldorf - Cologne/Koln hbf - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart - Augsburg - Munich/Munchen
• Hamburg - Bremen - Dortmund - Dusseldorf - Cologne/Koln hbf - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Basel

More information is available here.

Because many ICE services are having to be routed via Mainz, the IC trains which typically operate at least every other hour on a Stuttgart - Heidelberg - Mannheim - Mainz - Koblenz - Bonn ↔ Cologne - Dortmund - Bremen - Hamburg route won't be operating south of Koblenz until December 14th.

The daily EC trains which typically take a Hamburg - Bremen - Dortmund - Cologne - Bonn - Koblenz ↔ Mainz - Karlsruhe - Baden Baden - Basel - Interlaken or Zurich route, have been withdrawn until at least December 14th.

The daily Amsterdam - Utrecht - Armhem ↔ Koln Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Basel daytime service by ICE train has been permanently cancelled.

2: Between Erfurt and Eisenach:

Until December 14th bridge reconstruction work is being carried out west of Erfurt.
The railway will therefore have a reduced capacity which will result in the temporary withdrawal of the Berlin - Halle - Erfurt - Frankfurt service of the faster 'Sprinter' ICE trains.
The route will still be taken by ICE services on these routes

• Berlin - Leipzig - Erfurt - Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Basel - Zurich
• Dresden - Leipzig - Erfurt - Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Mainz - Weisbaden

3: Between Hamburg and Berlin:

The railway between the two cities is being upgraded until December 14th, as consequence:

• There will be a limit of 1 x express train (ICE / EC) train hour travelling between Berlin and Hamburg
• Most trains will be skipping their usual call in Buchen
• Ludwigslust and Wittenberge will be served by replacement bus services.

4: Between Erfurt and Nuremberg:

From:

• 26 October to 1 November 2024
• 23 to 29 November 2024
  Work related to the construction of the high-speed line between Bamberg and Nuremberg is closing the entire route between these two locations.
  The effects at a glance
• Hourly instead of half-hourly ICE connections Munich – Erfurt – Berlin
• Trains will be rerouted between Nuremberg and Erfurt
• Journey times will be extended by up to 100 minutes
• All long-distance stops in Erlangen, Bamberg and Coburg will be cancelled

From 21 Oct 2024 to 22 Nov 2024 on weekdays (Monday to Friday) the main Manchester ↔ Leeds via Huddersfield and Dewsbury route will be closed between Leeds and Dewsbury due to the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade

The key changes to TransPennine Express (TPE) train services are:

• Liverpool ↔ Newcastle services will be diverted to avoid Dewsbury and will be on an amended schedule which is around 15mins slower between Huddersfield and Leeds.
• Manchester Airport ↔ Saltburn services will also be avoiding Dewsbury with journey times extended by 15mins, but these trains will also be turned around at Manchester Victoria - so will not be departing from / arriving at Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.
• Manchester Piccadilly ↔ Hull services will only be operating Leeds ↔ Hull
• There will be additional all station stop trains operating Manchester Piccadilly ↔ Huddersfield

As a consequence the following temporary bus services on hourly schedules will be available during this time:

• Manchester Airport ↔ Huddersfield.
• Huddersfield ↔ Leeds calling at all intermediate rail stations
• Huddersfield ↔ Leeds, calling at Dewsbury only.

These are the major amendments to train services in Britain over the Christmas and New Year period, in addition to the usual shut down of the national rail network on December 25th and December 26th.

1: Between London and Bedford

From:

• Saturday 22 to Tuesday 24 December
• Friday 27 to Sunday 29 December
  No EMR trains will run between London St Pancras International and Bedford.

A replacement bus service will run between Bedford and Milton Keynes Central to connect with trains to and from London Euston station.
An amended service will operate between Bedford and Nottingham / Derby / Sheffield.
The affected EMR trains are typically taking these routes:

• London St Pancras International ↔ Leicester - Loughborough - Derby - Chesterfield - Sheffield
• London St Pancras International ↔ Bedford - Kettering - Leicester - Loughborough - Nottingham
• London St Pancras International ↔ Luton Airport - Bedford - Kettering - Corby

Thameslink trains will also not be available between London and Harpenden, so Luton Airport will not be served by rail between Saturday 22 December and Sunday 29 December inclusive.
As an alternative, bus replacement services will operate between Hitchin station and the airport. as Hitchin is also served by Thamesink trains to and from central London.

2: At Paddington station

Fom Friday 27 December to Sunday 29 December inclusive, major engineering work on a new HS2 station at Old Oak Common in west London is closing the route between London Paddington and Ealing Broadway.
This will result in:

• The cancellation of all Heathrow Express trains between Heathrow Airport and London Paddington
• Elizabeth Line trains will be cancelled between Ealing Broadway and Paddington

Great Western Railway will have the following amends:

• Some trains will be diverted to run to / from London Euston - these trains will not call at Reading
• Some trains will be turned around at Reading
• The usual London ↔ Cheltenham services will only be available between Cheltenham and Swindon
• There will be trains taking a Bristol Parkway - Swindon - Reading - Ealing Broadway route

3: At Cambridge

Due to work to update the signals the route through Cambridge will be closed from 27 Dec 2024 to 03 Jan 2025.
Replacements buses will link Cambridge station with stations to the north and south.

In summary from 27 Dec 2024 to 01 Jan 2025:

• Great Northern = buses will replace trains between Royston and Cambridge North, with calls at the main station in Cambridge
• Thameslink = trains will be turned around at Royston, with replacement buses between Royston and Cambridge
• Greater Anglia = trains will be turned around at Audley End, Bury St Edmunds or Ely with replacement buses these stations and Cambridge
• Cross Country = buses replace trains between Ely and Stanstead Airport, and these buses will also call at the main station in Cambridge

In summary from 02 Jan to 03 Jan 2025:

• Great Northern = buses will replace trains between Royston and Cambridge; Trains will run between Cambridge and Kings Lynn
• Thameslink = trains will be turned around at Royston, with replacement buses between Royston and Cambridge
• Greater Anglia = trains will be turned around at Audley End with replacement buses Audley End and Cambridge
• Cross Country = buses replace trains Cambridge and Stanstead Airport.

4: At London Liverpool Street

The mainline route in and out of Liverpool Street station in London will be closed from 27 Dec 2024 to 01 Jan 2025
During this time the Greater Anglia services will be turned around at Stratford where both the Elizabeth Line and Central Line will be available for connections to and from Liverpool Street - and beyond into central London,

1: Bologna to Prato

This is the route which in effect parallels the newer line used by the high speed trains which rush between Bologna and Firenze / Florence.
The older route, which includes the Apennine Base Tunnel is still typically used by:

• The up to three Intercity trains services per day which usually take a Milano - Parma - Bologna ↔ Prato - Firenze - Arezzo - Roma route - thereby providing a slower, but cheaper alternative to taking a high-speed 'Frecce' service between Milano and Roma.
• A daily Intercity train on a Milano - Parma - Bologna ↔ Prato - Firenze - Arezzo - Perugia route
• Regionale trains which operate - Bologna ↔ Prato - Which in summer, are typically the only option for rail pass users to avoid paying any reservation fees when travelling between Bologna and Firenze / Florence.

However, until the end of 2025, this route is being impacted by the need to expand its many tunnels to enable the passage of larger freight wagons.
Until Friday 15 November, on weekdays, a section of the route will be closed from 9.30am to 1.30pm.

As a consequence the Bologna ↔ Prato service of Regionale trains has seemingly been suspended

It also looks as though the InterCity trains won't be serving Prato until at least the timetable change on December 8th.
One of the daily InterCity trains which typically take a Milano ↔ Roma route via Prato is seemingly only operating Milano ↔ Bologna and the Milano ↔ Perugia train is operating Firenze ↔ Perugia.
The other Milano ↔ Roma Intercity service has been diverted to a Milano - Genova - Pisa ↔ Firenze - Arezzo - Roma route

2: Milano to Mantova / Mantua

Due to infrastructure upgrading works, the train service has been suspended between the Bozzolo and Mantua stations until December 31st 2026.
Trenord's RE trains on the Milan Central – Mantua connection are partially canceled and replaced with buses between the Bozzolo and Mantua stations.
As a consequence travelling solely by train between Milano and Mantova / Mantua is only possible by connecting in Verona.

1: To and from Valencia

The railway routes to and from Valencia have **inevitably been affected by the devastating floods.
These routes are suspended until at least November 14th:

• Madrid ↔ Valencia
• Valencia ↔ Alicante / Alacant
• Valencia ↔ Albacete
• Valencia ↔ Teruel

The Valencia ↔ Barcelona and Madrid ↔ Albacete - Alicante routes seem to be unaffected as tickets can be booked.

2: Barcelona ↔ Tarragona (the city centre station)

Until March 2nd the railway through the Roda de Berà tunnel will be closed for repair work and the trains which take this route link Barcelona with the central station in Tarragona.

Buses will be replacing trains between Sant Vicenc de Calde and Tarragona.
So a key service which will be impacted are the Regional Express trains which typically take the Barcelona - Tarragona - Reus route.

Unaffected by the works are

• trains travelling between Barcelona and Sitges
• the Euromed and Torre Orro services on the Barcelona - Camp De Tarragona - Castello - Valencia and beyond routes

Though the IC trains which typically take Barcelona - Sant Vicenc de Calde - Tarragona - Castello - Valencia and beyond routes have seemingly been withdrawn while the work takes place.

1: Until November 3rd buses replace trains on the Frasne ↔ Neuchatel route - Passengers travelling between Neuchatel and Paris can usually make connections in and out of TGV Lyria services at Frasne.

2: On August 12th a storm caused extensive damage to both the ZB railway route between Interlaken and Meiringen; And the BRB route between Brienz and Rothurn.
As a result both routes are closed until further notice as extensive repairs are required.
The ZB railway is the route of the Luzern<>Interlaken Express, which is having to be replaced by buses between Meiringen and Interlaken.
The BRB has had to suspend its operations for the remainder of its 2024 season.

At Delft

From October 22nd to November 3rd inclusive, work near Delft is closing the main rail route between Rotterdam and Den Haag, The Hague.
As a consequence, during this time

• the IC trains which typically take the Amsterdam - Haarlem - Leiden - Den Haag HS - Delft - Rotterdam - Dordrecht - Middleburg - Vlissingen route will be travelling Haarlem ↔ Delft and Rotterdam ↔ Vlissingen
• the IC trains which typically take the Lelystad - Almere - Amsterdam - Schiphol - Leiden - Den Haag HS - Delft - Rotterdam - Dordrecht will be travelling Lelystad ↔ Delft and Rotterdam ↔ Dordrecht
• the IC trains which typically take the Den Haag Centraal - Den Haag HS - Delft - Rotterdam - Breda - Tilburg - Eindhoven route will be cancelled

Note that trains taking the high speed Amsterdam ↔ Rotterdam via Schiphol route will be unaffected.

At Hoorn

From Tuesday 22 October 04:00 to Sunday 3 November 02:00, due to roadworks: buses are running between Hoorn and Enkhuizen.

Amsterdam ↔ Haarlem

From Saturday 26 October 01:00 to Monday 4 November 02:00 buses replace trains between Amsterdam Sloterdijk and Haarlem

These are the upcoming major works on the railway lines, that will be impacting on international railway routes over sustained periods of time.

Due to construction work Tauern Valley route in southern Austria, the night trains on these routes are to be suspended from November 17, 2024 to July 13, 2025.

• Stuttgart - München - Salzburg ↔ Udine - Venice
• München ↔ Verona - Milano Rogoredo - Genova - La Spezia
• München ↔ Firenze - Roma

Due to the ongoing reconstruction of the France to Luxembourg route within Luxembourg, the Paris ↔ Luxembourg TGV trains will be turned around in Thionville over the following weekends:

• November 30 and December 1, December 7 and 8, then December 14 and 15:
• January 11 and 12, January 25 and 26
• February 1st and 2nd, February 8th and 9th, February 15th and 16th
• March 15 and 16, March 22 and 23, March 29 and 30

Until December 9th:
(1) Some TGVs on the Paris ↔ Frankfurt route will be turning around in Mannheim or Heidelberg.
(2) The Marseille ↔ Frankfurt services will also be turned around in Mannheim.

Due to construction work north of Dijon, there will be fewer TGV services from Zurich and Lausanne to Paris and vice versa on Monday to Fridays until December 14th 2024.
There may be diversions via Strasbourg on the Zurich–Paris route.

Due to reconstruction work at Amsterdam Centraal station, which will temporarily close down its Eurostar check-in area, there will be no direct services from Amsterdam to London until at least mid-December.

The fast route between Wien / Vienna and St Polten has been damaged by a heavy storm, which caused some of the tunnels along the route to be flooded.
This is the railway typically taken by the ICE trains which link the Austrian capital with destinations in Germany via Linz.

The fast route supplemented an older, slower railway between Wien / Vienna and St Polten, which is now having to be taken by the 2 x daily ICE services on the Wien ↔ St Polten - Linz - Nuremberg - Berlin route.
However, the usual ICE services on the Wien ↔ Frankfurt and beyond route; and the Wien ↔ Hamburg route are having to be turned around in Linz, with connections to and from Wien Hbf.
This temporary timetable will be in place until the pre-planned new timetable commences on December 15th.