Taking a Train from Innsbruck to Brixen in South Tyrol (ÖBB EuroCity)

On a train from Innsbruck to Brixen / Bressanone experienced one of the most beautiful sceneries. Train Travel will be one of my travel priorities this year, one of the many side effects are the stunning views I will gather through the train window. I arrived at Innsbruck HB (Hauptbahnhof = central station) with plenty of time to change trains once more, before arriving at my final destination in South Tyrol. 

The Eurocity Train, officially operated by Deutsche Bahn but using Austrian ÖBB carriages, has been a rather older train the day of my travel. On this Train from Innsbruck to Brixen you have no power sockets and no wifi – but an onboard restaurant. At least! The lack of conveniences (power, internet) is clearly something to keep in mind, as the train circles in between Munich and Bologna, which is a 7-hour journey one-way for the full trip. My section of the route, from Innsbruck to Bressanone in Brixen only takes roughly 1 1/2 hours. Once the Brenner Base tunnel celebrates its opening in 2026, the travel time will be cut in almost half – so looking forward to this! But, as the majority of the travel time will then be spent in a tunnel, I’d recommend to soak up the beautiful alpine views as long as possible.

On my day of travel, unfortunately, a lot went a bit different than expected. It started with the train arriving a bit delayed. Just a few minutes, everything seemed fine. If the EuroCity Train towards Bologna is on time, it will come around 6 minutes before departure, giving passengers plenty time to find a seat or their reserved seat, and the other guests, of course, to pack everything up and leave the train.
Just after leaving Innsbruck train station, the adventure began. In a tunnel, we suddenly felt an abrupt loss of drive and stopped immediately. In the middle of a pitch-black dark tube, with no phone reception. Fantastic. I guess I wasn’t the only passenger imagining another passenger (or even worse freight) train just crashing into us unstopped. It took a good 15 minutes until we drove on until we stopped again, rolled, came to another immediate halt and finally made our way across Brenner and ultimately to Bressanone / Brixen, my final destination. All of this, of course, was a unique event and probably won’t happen again on this same route. However, it did cost me more than 1 hour and some unfavourable fantasies. 

Example Train Schedule – Innsbruck to Brixen / Bressanone via Brenner and Franzensfeste