Munich to Vienna in 3.5 hours

Travel faster and greener than ever. To bring travel time down to 3 hours and 30 minutes and help meet Europe’s decarbonisation goals, Deutsche Bahn (DB) is transforming the rail network of Southeastern Bavaria. Building on a rich railway history, the region will once again be at the heart of a connected Europe in the Rhine-Danube corridor.

Modern Infrastructure

At its core, the project “Munich–Mühldorf–Freilassing” will upgrade the existing 145 km of infrastructure between Munich, Mühldorf and the Austrian border near Salzburg to a fully electrified, double-track line. With speeds of up to 200 km/h and a shorter overall distance than the current congested route via Rosenheim, the upgraded line will be the backbone of long-distance connections between Southern Germany and Austria.

New Connections

For Southeastern Bavaria, the upgrades will not only reconnect the region to international rail services more than a hundred years after the famous “Orient Express” last passed through Mühldorf. The project is also designed to add much-needed capacity for regional and suburban lines and establish new connections, such as a direct route from Salzburg to Munich’s international airport.

Green Economy

Home to one of the most important clusters of chemical industry, the project will finally integrate Southeastern Bavaria into Europe’s modern freight rail network. That is why DB is also electrifying the branch line to the industrial hub of Burghausen. The project is key for the modal shift from road to rail and from diesel to electrification just as the EU’s economy is transitioning to carbon-neutrality.

Today, lines from 8 different directions converge in Mühldorf, making it one of the largest railway hubs without any electrification. Building on the success of incremental improvements from previous years, DB is now planning to fully upgrade the infrastructure to modern standards with:

With construction starting in 2027, local residents can expect a new quality of life with reduced noise and air pollution by the mid-2030s. Currently, DB is concluding the planning and moving into the approval stage to bring this transformative project to realisation.