Brenner Railway

Munich to Verona over the first railway across the main Alpine crest (1867), still topping the open pass at 1,371 m: no summit tunnel, just a border station.

Carl von Etzel’s 1867 line was the first railway over the main Alpine crest, and it still crosses in the open air: the border station at Brenner sits at 1,371 m with no great tunnel beneath it, at least until the Brenner Base Tunnel opens in the 2030s. The through trains run Munich to Verona in about five and a half hours — out across the Bavarian plain, over the Inn at Rosenheim and into Tyrol at Kufstein, then up the Sill valley beneath the Europabrücke, over the pass and down the Eisack gorge to the vineyards of Bolzano and the Adige orchards. Railjet sets replaced the last EuroCity coaches in 2026. It remains the busiest freight crossing of the Alps, so the window show includes an endless parade of trains.

Stations

1. 0 kmMunich Central Station
2. 10 kmMünchen Ost
3. 65 kmRosenheim
4. 99 kmKufstein
5. 112 kmWörgl Hauptbahnhof
6. 137 kmJenbach
7. 171 kmInnsbruck Hauptbahnhof
8. 207 kmBrenner - Brennero
9. 247 kmFranzensfeste - Fortezza
10. 257 kmBrixen - Bressanone
11. 295 kmBolzano - Bozen
12. 350 kmTrento
13. 374 kmRovereto
14. 441 kmVerona Porta Nuova

The stations OpenStreetMap lists for this service, in order, with the distance along the line as drawn here. A train may skip some of them.

Along the way

• Inn crossing at Rosenheim
• Kufstein fortress and the Tyrolean Inn valley
• Wipptal climb beneath the Europabrücke
• Brenner Pass station (1,371 m)
• Eisack gorge into Bolzano
• Adige valley to Verona

How this line was checked

• Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 3654988 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within 40 m of them
• Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 11 m from it
• Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits under 100 m from the shape of RJ 83
• Wikipedia has an article for this line
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the Brenner Railway?

The Brenner Railway runs 442 km from Munich to Verona. It runs through Germany, Austria and Italy.

How long does the Brenner Railway take?

The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 5 h 20 min for the 442 km. That is an average of 83 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 200 km/h.

Who runs the Brenner Railway?

ÖBB and DB, with ÖBB Railjet (EuroCity).

How old is the Brenner Railway?

The line has been in service since 1867. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.

How high does the Brenner Railway climb?

1,371 m above sea level at its highest point.

View on the world railway map →

Read more on Wikipedia ↗