EU wants to support direct train from Leipzig to Stockholm

Europe wants to make rail travel more attractive. To this end, more, faster and transfer-free connections are to be established. The EU Commission has Pilot projects for test connections published. Travelers in Saxony could benefit from two of these connections – if the new trains actually come. So far, the railway companies have only given a few details on details.

According to the information, the pilot project includes a direct connection by the private-sector provider Flixtrain from Leipzig via Berlin and Copenhagen to Stockholm. The company welcomes the initiative “to promote more competition on the rails in the interests of travelers throughout Europe,” said a spokesman when asked by MDR SACHSEN. “In the coming weeks we will be working closely together coordinate the next steps and timetables with representatives of the European Commission“You have to “analyze, examine and further improve the market conditions and technical conditions in the European railway sector”. Financial support is not part of the agreement, the spokesman said when asked.

Incidentally, a couchette train from Stockholm to Berlin was extended to Dresden on a few days last year. On at least one day there were no passengers on the train on the last section, so that the engine driver could simply drive through on the way to the depot in Dresden-Reick at the main station.

The Czech State Railways České dráhy are planning another non-stop connection in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn and the Danish State Railways from Prague via Dresden and Berlin to Copenhagen, according to the EU. When asked, the Czech railways announced that the trinational railway project Prague – Berlin – Hamburg – Copenhagen via Dresden should start in December 2025. “This is a day train connection with coaches. The aim of the entire project is the direct and comfortable connection of important European settlements and metropolises and the use of synergies resulting from the (planned) Deutschlandtakt project.”

Travel times would be “significantly reduced”. New Czech “Comfortjet trains” are to run. We are still in the preparatory phase. It is important that Deutsche Bahn can provide the route capacity in the Elbe valley and between Berlin and Hamburg without restrictions and without construction sites until the introduction.

are new train connections without changing trains in day and night traffic not. In the 1990s, the “Csárdás” express train between Budapest and Malmö in Sweden via Dresden with the ferry across the Baltic Sea or a night express train from Prague to Paris via Dresden and Leipzig were part of everyday life in the summer. There were already some of these connections – mostly involving West Berlin with through coaches – for travelers from so-called non-socialist countries bringing foreign currency. GDR citizens could travel to Hungary, Romania or Bulgaria on night trains – all year round and every day. After reunification and with the introduction of the Intercity line between Dresden and Saarbrücken via Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main, up to three pairs of Eurocity trains ran daily between Saxony and Paris. They had names like “Goethe”, “Heinrich Heine” or “Gustave Eiffel”. Also well known was the Eurocity “Mimara”, which drove non-stop every day from Berlin via Leipzig and Munich to Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Zagreb (Croatia).

International passenger trains were on the move day and night, with Saxony being left behind by more and more direct connections. At the end of 2016, Deutsche Bahn had completely given up its night travel for economic reasons, the Austrian Federal Railways continued connections as Nightjets and are currently expanding the network with partners.

Most recently, the Euronight “Canopus” between Prague and Zurich via Dresden and Leipzig, which was only reintroduced in December after a six-year break, made headlines. The arrival of the first train from Zurich in Dresden was staged in a media-effective manner. Shortly thereafter, however, it quickly became quiet around the train. Because all the couchette cars are broken, the “Canopus” is only on the road for a short time until March.

The private European Sleeper night train, which is partly set on the tracks through crowdfunding, only gets going between Brussels and Berlin via Amsterdam with a delay. It’s supposed to start this spring, although the extension via Dresden to Prague has been postponed until next year due to construction work in the Elbe valley. For the same reason, the Railjet Graz – Vienna – Dresden – Berlin “Vindobona” ​​can only travel between Austria and the Czech Republic this year.