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European Railway Timetable 2020

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superalbs

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Thought it would be fit to create a thread to discuss the many upcoming changes in the European Railway Timetable 2020, starting on the 15th of December 2019.

One such development I noticed is what appears to be a direct service between Praha hl.n. and Minsk-Pass, that's Czechia to Belarus! It's not showing up on planners yet as a direct train, but yet both of the first two legs are indicated as now carrying a sleeper car, and the last leg into Belarus is denoted with the operator České Dráhy, so it seems pretty convincing. All in all it's a 18h45m journey, running daily via Ostrava, Bohumín, Katowice, Warszawa, Terespol, and Brest. There is also a return journey running over the same route, with departures from Minsk at around midnight. Here's a screenshot of an itinerary:
upload_2019-11-9_21-52-13.png

There is also a new train from Graz (Austria) to Przemyśl (Poland), which is a short journey away from the Ukrainian border. This journey is about 12.5hr long.

On top of the trains I found above, long-distance trains will now be diverted, and avoid Auschwitz, instead choosing to travel via Katowice.

An expansion of OeBB Nightjet to Brussels is also set to take place, with the train running via Duesseldorf and Aachen.

Does anyone have any more information on the sleeper to Minsk? Or of course, any more interesting changes from this timetable to share?
 

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30907

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The Minsk sleeper is the existing Moscow sleeper retimed and apparently increased to daily, but presumably with far fewer vehicles. Russian cars.
The Brussels service runs twice weekly except July/August, replacing the Duesseldorf train on those days; the timings and stops through Germany are not on the DB site, but are now on the OeBB one.
 

Jamesrob637

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Any high-speed lines scheduled to open this December or has it gone quiet after some big openings earlier this decade?
 
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The Vandellós - Camp Tarragona line in Spain is due to open in December.

https://www.railjournal.com/infrastructure/testing-completed-on-vandellos-tarragona-line/
Testing completed on Vandellós – Tarragona line
Oct 15, 2019
Last week, Adif AV carried out 386 test trips between L’Hospitalet de l’Infant and the Camp de Tarragona high-speed station, crossing the La Boella gauge changing facilities, and between L’Hospitalet de l’Infant and the 1668mm gauge station at Tarragona. The company says the initial results from the tests, carried out with an S-121 series EMU equipped for operation using 3kV dc and 25kV ac electrification, were positive.

The latest tests also included operation with Adif’s test train and a conventional train to test the reliability and stability of the track, electrification, signalling and ERTMS Level 1 on both the 1668mm gauge and standard gauge sections.

The final phase of testing before the line is commissioned will include training national operator Renfe’s staff on the route, which will begin once the final report on the infrastructure testing has been completed. Certification for the route is also underway, and Adif says it could be opened by the end of the year if there are no unforeseen circumstances.

The nearly €700m section, which is suitable for both high-speed and mixed traffic, will connect the Mediterranean Corridor from Vandellós with the Madrid – Barcelona – French border high-speed line and with the Tarragona – Reus 1668mm gauge line, reducing Barcelona – Valencia travel times by around 30 minutes.

The new line will also eliminate the current single-track route through the coastal area of southern Tarragona, improving safety for the towns along the route. The section includes the 1.9km Rojales tunnel and 9.1km of viaducts, including the 3485m Francolí viaduct and the 746m Cambrils viaduct.

The project was co-financed by Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) grants totalling €21.3m in the 2007-2013 period. The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) provided €40.3m to co-finance the track, electrification and facilities during the 2014-2020 period.

There will be considerable revision to the Barcelona - Valencia corridor timetable , with 'Euromed' services avoiding Tarragona completely, and the slower 'Talgo' services avoiding Salou but still serving Tarrogona and running over the classic main line via Sitges to Barcelona. It is not clear, what, if any, service will be provided via Salou - there has been talk of complete closure. I have yet to see any formal announcement of opening, however.
 

duesselmartin

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Does the Bruxelles NJ really run via Düsseldorf? It would mean turning west and south via Mönchengladbach.
I assumed it would be 2x week Cologne to Aachen / Bruxelles and 5x to Düsseldorf.
What will happen with the Innsbruck section?
 

30907

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...2x week Cologne to Aachen / Bruxelles and 5x to Düsseldorf.
What will happen with the Innsbruck section?
That's correct (see post #2). The Innsbruck part included (but not the car transporters). Runs via Bonn-Beuel to avoid reversing at Köln.
 

JonathanP

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This is what caught my eye, from my 'biased' perspective in Berlin, in order of significance:
  • DB Fernvekehr will introduce a brand new route Dresden - Rostock, initially using classic Intercity stock, to be replaced later by double-deck Stadler units purchased second hand from Westbahn. Although both halves of the route already have some service this will see a significant increase in frequency, IMHO desperately needed on the Berlin - Dresden section.
  • As much discussed in other threads, use of the ferry on Hamburg - Copenhagen services will cease
  • The early morning out/late evening back "Porto Bohemica" Leipzig - Praha service will cease, as compensation in May a RailJet will reach Berlin for the first time as a daily Berlin - Graz service starts. Unfortunately this means the earliest arrrival time possible in Praha from Germany will slip from 9:30 to 11:30 until May, then 10:30. Not great.
  • Bizarre working of the year: part of the purchase agreement is that the Westbahn units will continue to be maintained in Austria, and DB apparently plan to run the necessary trips to the workshop as passenger service, so Berlin will gain a second overnight, seated only connection to Vienna, presumably via Passau. Berlin will thus have 4 daily services to Wien, having dropped to zero only a few years years ago!
  • The usual summer-only weekend cross-border services from Cranzahl(DE) to Chomutov(CZ) do not appear on the timetable. Hopefully they will be added at a later date
  • The overnight ICE from Berlin - Köln which uses the same path once used by the "Jan Kiepura" Euronight Amsterdam - Warsaw/Moscow will run from Berlin Hbf low level like all other Berlin -Köln services instead of using the Stadtbahn from Berlin Ostbahnhof
  • When the Westbahn units come in it will possibly see the end of the unusual practice of using a Polish Eurocity set including Restaurant car for a Berlin - Dresden train pair.
  • ICE4 will replace ICE1 sets on journeys through Switzerland to Zurich and Chur, later their usage to Interlaken will cease too. This is part of a strategy which involves replacing ICE1 sets with (slower, but faster accelerating) ICE4 sets on main trunk routes, and shortening the ICE1 sets.
 

duesselmartin

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The Dresden to Wroclaw REservice apparantly will seize to operate (again).
While the Kulturzug Berlin-Wroclaw will be re-timed and receive the stock of the former. The 628 class is really becoming an endagered species.
 

JonasB

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If it's the one that I'm thinking of it won't actually see anything High speed until 2023 at least though?
Sam

I'm not sure about when it will be upgraded, but yes at the moment the speed is limited to 180 km/h due to lack of ETCS.
 

dutchflyer

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back to the beginning: again, these are not really thru-trains, but just (1, perhaps more) sleeper cars added and shunted to normal other trains.
Also to reopen, only summertime and perhaps weekend-only is the link from PL to SK from Krynica/PL toward Presov (and linking to Poprad/Tatra).
LUX is to offer FREE local train (and bus+tram) travel from 1/3/20. Still unclear how this will be applied (if at all) to INternational journeys.
Other sources say, that HU/MAV is again to close several of the reopened after 1st time closure sidelines, like to Komlo (above Pecs), east of Mateszalka, even the applied lower fares did not attract enough of pax.
 

eastwestdivide

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Does the Bruxelles NJ really run via Düsseldorf? It would mean turning west and south via Mönchengladbach.
I assumed it would be 2x week Cologne to Aachen / Bruxelles and 5x to Düsseldorf.
What will happen with the Innsbruck section?

More publicity on the Nightjet to Brussels - first run etc, found via seat61's twitter feed:
A map on a Tweet suggesting it runs via Cologne, not Düsseldorf:
https://twitter.com/TrainTracksEU/status/1218979630570405890

A blog (in German) saying it runs via Bonn-Beuel to avoid reversal at Cologne, and that there's a loco change at Aachen:
https://traintracks.eu/nachtzug-bruessel/

A video clip on Twitter of the first arrival at Brussels, behind an Belgian 18xx loco:
https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1219197589763035137
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Not seen any comment elsewhere, but the new through route from Genève Cornavin via Genève Eaux Vives is now operational, and gives a completely new set of local/regional services in the area, marketed as Léman Express by both SBB and SNCF.
https://www.lemanexpress.ch/en/

It's difficult to extract a quote as the description is all in diagrams and bullet points.
Here's the top-level map of the network:

csm_LEX-PLAN_DE_RESEAU-EDITION_191215-A1_BD_60d35abd34.jpg
 
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The Vandellos cut-off in Spain opened on Jan. 13 speeding up Euromed Barcelona - Valencia services by 30-40 minutes. Talgo services use part of the route, but still continue to serve Tarragona. The old-line through Cambrils and Salou has been abandoned - a local poster on 'Skyscrapercity' reports that dismantling is already under way.

https://www.railwaygazette.com/infrastructure/barcelona-valencia-trains-accelerated-as-vandellòs-cut-off-opens/55549.article

Barcelona – Valencia trains accelerated as Vandellòs cut-off opens
16 January 2020

  • 29489_esvandelloscutoffaerialministry_645456.jpg

SPAIN: Commercial services began using a 46·5 km cut-off between Camp de Tarragona and Vandellòs on January 13, when ADIF completed a further section of upgrading on the Barcelona – Valencia Mediterranean Corridor.

Intended to bypass the last remaining section of single track on the corridor west of Tarragona, the line was authorised as long ago as 1998, and work started in 2000, but the project was subsequently delayed by a variety of problems.

29490_esvandelloscutofftunnelministry_950002.jpg


Diverging from the existing corridor at Vandellòs, a 35·3 km line runs northwards through the 1 911 m Les Rojales tunnel and continues around 2 km inland behind the resorts of Salou, Cambrils, Mont-Roig del Camp and L’Hospitalet de l’Infant, where the former 1 668 mm gauge alignment which passes through the towns at grade is to be dismantled. A triangular junction at Vila-Seca connects with the Tarragona to Reus main line, to enable freights to access the Tarragona industrial district. This line then joins the coast line to the northeast of Port Aventura station.

North of the triangle, the new line reaches a gauge-changing station at La Boella, close to Reus airport, from which an 11·5 km section of 1 435 mm gauge leads to a triangular junction with the Madrid – Barcelona high speed line just west of Camp de Tarragona station. This section is electrified at 25 kV 50 Hz, while the broad gauge sections are wired at 3 kV DC. Including the triangular chords and the connection into Tarragona, the project totals 62·5 km of new construction.
 

StephenHunter

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More publicity on the Nightjet to Brussels - first run etc, found via seat61's twitter feed:
A map on a Tweet suggesting it runs via Cologne, not Düsseldorf:
https://twitter.com/TrainTracksEU/status/1218979630570405890

A blog (in German) saying it runs via Bonn-Beuel to avoid reversal at Cologne, and that there's a loco change at Aachen:
https://traintracks.eu/nachtzug-bruessel/

A video clip on Twitter of the first arrival at Brussels, behind an Belgian 18xx loco:
https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1219197589763035137

The service is actually Brussels to Vienna and Innsbruck, with the train in two portions. They run to Aachen behind a SNCB 18xx as EN 325, then swap to an Austrian 1116 to Nuremberg as NJ 425. There the Vienna portion is detached and moved to the Hamburg-Vienna car sleeper, NJ 491, which transfers its Hamburg-Innsbruck portion over to NJ 425. NJ 425 runs on to Innsbruck with a DB 101 and NJ 491 has a 1116 taking it a Vienna.

A similar process occurs in the opposite direction. So don't go to sleep in the wrong carriage.
 

coupwotcoup

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Initially I was pleased to see the Paris - Barcelona train departure had gone from 10.06 to 10.14,
which gives added leeway to a cross city RER dash but then discovered that the first E* now gets
into GdN ten minutes later...any reasons as to why?

All return times from Barça have been moved too....the 10.06 now leaving Girona 45 minutes later
than the previous timing.

Will now go for the 09.01 - which suits me better really - and change at Lyon but the connection at
Lille is tight for the first E* with just eight minutes spare, in theory.

From memory, there was a similar tight timeline for previous trains arriving at Lille - is this doable from
anyone's personal experience?

Obviously one is reliant on said trains being on time.
 
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