About this journey

Salzburg Hauptbahnhof, where this journey begins, entered the European rail network in 1860 via the Bavarian Maximilian's Railway from Munich and the Empress Elisabeth Railway to Vienna. A complete rebuild costing 270 million Euros, which commenced on 7 November 2008, replaced the old bay platforms with through platforms and added an underground shopping mall, giving the station its present form.

The route south follows the Tauern Railway, completed in 1909 to connect Salzburg with Villach and on to Trieste. At Schwarzach-St. Veit the Tauern Railway branches away from the Salzburg–Tyrol line, which runs via Bischofshofen and Zell am See, and continues into the mountains toward Carinthia. The 1909 completion made Salzburg Hauptbahnhof a significantly more important transport hub, and the line remains a principal Alpine artery for international traffic today.

The journey ends at Villach Hauptbahnhof, the main station for Villach — the second largest city in the Austrian state of Carinthia. The station is a major junction connecting the Tauern Railway arriving from Salzburg with the Southern Railway toward Vienna, and its twelve tracks, four of them sidings, accommodate a motorail terminal alongside EuroCity and EuroNight services to destinations including Munich, Ljubljana, Zagreb, and Venice via Tarvisio. The contrast between Salzburg's rebuilt, commercially oriented terminus and Villach's multi-directional junction reflects the different roles each station plays in Austria's rail network.