The Tauern Tunnel in Austria will reopen on 14 July after eight months of closure due to infrastructure upgrades. The line is significantly important for rail freight as it connects the Adriatic ports to the Bavaria region in Germany.
The tunnel was closed in November 2024. The main works included replacing the ballast with a slab-track; repairing the tunnel vault to prevent water leakages; replacing the overhead line with an overhead conductor rail and the installation of new signalling and safety technologies.
The project saw the involvement of about 500 workers, Austrian railway holding ÖBB said. In total, roughly 17,600 tonnes of brick lining were removed, over 85 kilometres of cables were dismantles and a 4.2-kilometres slab-track was installed. The infrastructure will undergo a second phase of works, but they will not concern rail freight. Between now and 2027, three passenger stations (Bad Gastein, Bad Hofgastein and Dorfgastein) will be modernised.
Four hours extra in transit time
Closing the tunnel for eight months meant that freight trains had to be re-routed via Selzthal or the Brenner line, making the journey remarkably longer. Freight convoys took on average four more hours to reach their destination throughout these eight months of closure of the Tauern Tunnel, according to Italian media Adriaports. The strongest impact of the closure was felt by the so-called ‘highways of the sea’, a multimodal route connecting Türkiye to central Europe via the ports in the Adriatic (mostly Trieste).
