About this journey

The journey departs from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof, a station that became Austria's gateway to the international rail network in 1860 when the Bavarian Maximilian's Railway from Munich and the Empress Elisabeth Railway to Vienna first connected here. The station today is the product of a comprehensive rebuild under the ÖBB-Bahnhofsoffensive, which replaced the original bay platforms with through platforms at a total budget of 270 million Euros, creating a modern terminus that bears little resemblance to the structure that was partially destroyed during bombing raids in 1944 and 1945.

From Salzburg, the route heads toward the River Inn and the Austrian–German frontier, where the line connects with the Mühldorf–Simbach am Inn railway — a 39 km, single-tracked and unelectrified main line running through Bavaria. That corridor was once considered the shortest rail link between Munich and Vienna, though it has since lost traffic to the busier Munich–Salzburg–Linz route; through services to Austria were revived in December 2008. At the border, the German and Austrian networks meet directly above the Inn, with Braunau am Inn on the Austrian bank facing the Bavarian town of Simbach am Inn on the opposite side of the river — a cross-border pairing that marks the journey's end.