Additional connections, larger tariff areas and a new ticket: The timetable change on December 10th also entails changes for rail travelers in Bavaria. The Bavarian Railway Company (BEG) – which organizes regional rail transport for the Free State – is holding out the prospect of “extensive improvements”, especially for the north. However, these could arrive with a delay in some places, as construction work and closures have been announced for the coming weeks. An overview of the most important timetable changes:
For Upper Franconia According to BEG, the timetable change will bring new regional express connections. From now on, trains will run every hour on the Upper Franconia axis from Bayreuth and Hof to Bamberg and Coburg. There are also additional regional trains on the branch lines. In some cases new trains are used.
In Middle Franconia The Nuremberg S-Bahn starts the “second operating stage”. This means: The S 1, S 2 and S 3 run on new routes. In the future, the S 1 will connect Bamberg – Nuremberg – Neumarkt. The S 2 commutes on the Roth – Nuremberg – Hartmannshof route. And the S 3 runs between Nuremberg – Altdorf. S-Bahn lines 4, 5 and 6 remain unchanged. At the turn of the year, the area of the greater Nuremberg transport association (VGN) is expected to grow: from 2024, the association offers will also apply outside of Middle Franconia in the districts of Coburg, Hof, Kronach, Kulmbach, Wunsiedel and Tirschenreuth as well as in the cities of Coburg and Hof.
In the Upper Palatinate The RE 2 from Hof and the RE 25 from Prague are rolling according to a new plan. So far they have met every two hours in Schwandorf and traveled together to Munich. However, problems regularly arose, including delays from one line to the other. In the future, the trains will therefore run separately to Regensburg and Munich, alternating every hour. This also creates an hourly direct connection between Schwandorf and Munich. In return, the RE 50 express line will be shortened: instead of running to Munich, it will only run in the Nuremberg – Regensburg section. The departure times of the lines also change significantly.
In Lower Bavaria the airport express stops more often. The train, which commutes between Regensburg and Munich Airport, now stops every hour in Ergoldsbach and Neufahrn – instead of alternating every two hours as before. From Passau there is a new late connection to Landshut and Munich with the RE 3 at 11:13 p.m.
For Swabia The timetable for the Donau-Iller regional S-Bahn provides for a more frequent frequency in the morning and afternoon. In addition, the departure times for RS 71 and RS 7 are changing. New times also apply to the RB 69 between Augsburg and Kaufering, so that reaching connections will hopefully work better. On Lake Constance, Lindau-Reutin is served more frequently by the cross-border S 7. This creates more connections to Bregenz and Romanshorn.
In Upper Bavaria The Munich transport and tariff association is expanding its borders to the southern district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, the districts of Miesbach and Rosenheim and the city of Rosenheim. Timetable changes are pending on the congested routes between Munich and Austria; individual trains are also omitted. In Salzburg, the RE 5 to Munich continues to start ten minutes earlier. The BEG in Freilassing wants to create a “time buffer of around a quarter of an hour” so that the federal police can carry out their border checks on the train. This is also why there have been repeated delays on the route recently.
The Free State is also introducing a new ticket with the timetable change. The Bavarian SPNV ticket bike, “BaSTi (R)” for short, is intended to make it possible to take bikes on the train for one euro per trip. However, only with many exceptions: The Radl ticket is not valid for important routes such as the Munich-Nuremberg Express – and not on weekends and public holidays throughout the summer. The ADFC cycling association has therefore criticized the new ticket as inadequate: the actual goal of making it easier and more reliable to transport your bike has not been achieved. In many places you will have to resort to the “previous, significantly more expensive cycling day tickets” instead.