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Elbe Valley railway closure: travelers between Dresden and Prague now affected!
Train traffic in Dresden is severely restricted due to railway renovations. Information about diversions and outages.
Elbe Valley railway closure: travelers between Dresden and Prague now affected!
On June 30, 2025, the situation in rail traffic between Dresden and Prague is anything but rosy. The renovation of the international railway line in the Elbe valley between Schöna and the Bad Schandau Ost freight station has resulted in serious restrictions. How MDR reports, Eurocity trains are completely canceled during the day. Travelers traveling between Dresden and Ústí nad Labem have to change to buses, which is a significant inconvenience. The European Sleeper between Brussels and Prague is also affected, where it is also necessary to change to buses between Dresden and Prague.
The restrictions are not just limited to long-distance transport. Commuters and day-trippers on local transport also have to expect considerable inconvenience. The national park railway U28, which runs from Sebnitz via Bad Schandau to Děčín, is canceled during the day. On the S-Bahn line S1, which runs from Meißen-Triebischtal to Schöna, passengers can only travel to Bad Schandau until mid-December. In some cases, travelers have no choice but to transfer to ferries via Bad Schandau, Krippen and Hřensko.
General renovations on other routes
But it's not just the routes in the Elbe Valley that are affected. Deutsche Bahn also has big plans for the future, like Tagesschau explained. From August 2025, comprehensive general renovations will begin on the most important main routes, including between Hamburg and Berlin. These measures are scheduled to last until April 2026 and aim to improve punctuality and the quality of train traffic. The costs amount to an impressive 87 billion euros for the renewal of 4,000 kilometers of track, up to 2,000 switches and 150 bridges. All of this should lead to a high-performance transport concept, which, however, also entails temporary restrictions for passengers.
The renovation is balanced through the use of modern traffic concepts. Loud German railway, the current infrastructure program also brings with it a digital revolution. The rollout of the European Train Control System (ETCS) will enable a capacity increase of up to 30% and ensure that bottlenecks on the rail network can be resolved. In addition, the modernization process will also affect the train stations, which are to be converted into “train stations of the future” in the future.
A look into the future
The general renovations are part of a comprehensive plan by Deutsche Bahn, which also includes maintenance measures on around 9,000 kilometers of rail network. Not only is the track being renewed, but also closer signaling and additional crossing points are being used to ensure that train traffic can run more smoothly even during upcoming construction work.
The current and planned restrictions are a challenge for all travelers and require flexibility and patience from passengers. Hopefully the effort will soon pay off and rail transport can enter a new, improved era.