About this journey

Braunau am Inn station sits on the Austrian bank of the River Inn, directly opposite the Bavarian town of Simbach am Inn. The route from here toward Salzburg follows a corridor that has long served connections between Munich, Vienna, Passau, and Salzburg, with Simbach am Inn's growth historically tied to its position on this railway axis.

As the journey progresses westward and then south, it approaches the city of Salzburg, which lies at the foot of the Alps on the Salzach River close to the German border. The 1,972-metre Untersberg peak sits less than 16 km from the city centre, and the alpine backdrop becomes more pronounced on the final approach. Salzburg Hauptbahnhof entered the international railway network in 1860 via the Bavarian Maximilian's Railway from Munich and the Empress Elisabeth Railway toward Vienna, and the Tauern Railway, completed in 1909, further established it as a major transit hub. The station has since been fully rebuilt under a programme costing 270 million Euros, replacing bay platforms with through platforms. The journey ends one stop beyond the Hauptbahnhof at Salzburg Taxham Europark station, a suburban halt on the western edge of the city — a quiet close to a route that began at a border river crossing and ends within reach of a city whose historic Altstadt was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.