Vienna awaits you! A new high-speed rail route could slash journey times between the capitals of Germany, Czechia and Austria, according to plans announced last week. 

Germany, Czechia and Austria sign high-speed rail agreement

The three countries have agreed to work together to upgrade existing train routes, as well as developing new sections of high-speed lines, with the aim of creating faster connections between Berlin, Prague and Vienna. 

Following last week’s German Rail Summit, Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer unveiled plans to improve journey times between the three capital cities over the next 15 years. The route would take in the cities of Berlin, Dresden, Ústí nad Labem, Prague, Jihlava, Brno and Breclav before terminating in Vienna. 

Vienna to Berlin in four hours

The agreement, called the Via Vindobona Treaty, could see passengers travelling from Berlin to Vienna in as little as four hours on a new express service, while an additional service with a few extra stops would cut the journey time to four hours and 45 minutes. The fastest journey time between the two cities is currently around eight hours and 15 minutes, while back in 1970 it took nearly 12 hours. 

A key component of the scheme is the ambitious plan to create a 30-kilometre tunnel under the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) on the German-Czech border, part of a new high-performance track that would cut the distance between Dresden and Prague by 56 kilometres. This is expected to be completed in the mid-2030s.

The news comes as part of a multi-pronged expansion of long-distance train services in Germany, as the country looks to the railways as a viable, climate-friendly alternative to air travel. Last year, plans were unveiled to revive night train connections between a number of European cities by 2024, including Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Rome and Barcelona.