About this journey

Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof sits at the junction of five major lines, among them the Brenner Railway south to Italy and the Arlberg Railway west toward Bregenz. The station first opened in 1853 after Emperor Franz Joseph I approved the route from Innsbruck to Wörgl across the Inn Valley; the building that stands today dates from a postwar reconstruction after Allied bombing destroyed the original entirely.

Heading east, the line passes through the Lower Inn Valley, one of Austria's most heavily used rail corridors, carrying up to 430 trains a day between Baumkirchen and Wörgl. At Wörgl the route forks: this service takes the northern branch via Kufstein, passing briefly through German territory — the so-called German Corner — before crossing back into Austria toward Salzburg. That corridor arrangement allows ÖBB to link Tyrol with Salzburg without a lengthy detour.

Salzburg Hauptbahnhof was first connected to the wider European network in 1860 via the Bavarian Maximilian's Railway from Munich and the Empress Elisabeth Railway toward Vienna, and it grew further in importance when the Tauern Railway to Villach and Trieste was completed in 1909. The station was fully rebuilt at a cost of 270 million Euros, replacing bay platforms with through platforms and opening a large concourse beneath the tracks — a fitting endpoint for a journey that moves from Tyrolean mountain approaches to one of Austria's principal rail junctions.