Germany and Poland will see their rail ties strengthened this winter as Deutsche Bahn (DB) and PKP Intercity launch their biggest cross-border expansion in years. From December, direct services between the two countries will rise by more than 50%, opening new routes and boosting frequencies to meet record passenger demand.
Starting with the timetable change on 14 December 2025, Germany’s DB and Poland’s PKP will operate 17 direct long-distance round trips each day, up from the current 11, meaning nearly a 55% increase. The expansion reflects the apparent surging demand for long-distance rail travel in the region; PKP Intercity alone is on track to carry more than 80 million passengers in 2025, around 65% more than before the pandemic.
Meanwhile, DB is positioning the move as a step towards deeper economic, cultural, and political links between the two neighbours. “International long-distance transport is booming,” said Michael Peterson from the board of DB’s long-distance subsidiary. “The new rail connections to the economically strong regions of southern Poland and to the border with Ukraine are of great economic and political importance.”
The new links mapped out. © DB
Berlin–Warsaw boost and a new daytime route
The backbone of the expansion is the Berlin–Warsaw corridor, where an additional seventh pair of direct trains will allow departures every two hours throughout the day. In addition, there will be a completely new daytime service connecting Leipzig with Wroclaw, Krakow, and Przemysl, running twice daily in each direction. One of the trains will continue to Przemysl, a key border town and logistics hub on the Polish–Ukrainian border.
The route promises to cut travel times for passengers from Munich, Nuremberg, and Frankfurt to Wroclaw by roughly two hours, thanks to coordinated transfers in Leipzig. Intermediate stops in northern Saxony will also create direct links from Chemnitz and Dresden to southern Poland for the first time.
A night train boost
DB and PKP are also investing in expanded night train services. A new Eurocity overnight train will link Berlin with Przemysl via Wroclaw and Krakow, and a second will run from Berlin to Chelm via Lodz and Warsaw. While PKP will operate the rolling stock and onboard services, DB will provide traction and staffing on the German side, making the new overnight Eurocity trains a joint venture rather than a return to DB-branded night operations, which were axed in 2016.
Meanwhile, the existing “Chopin” service between Munich and Warsaw will be upgraded with additional carriages running through to Krakow and Przemysl, extending the reach of overnight rail between southern Germany and southern Poland.
“As the largest long-distance rail passenger carrier in Poland, PKP Intercity is pleased to contribute to this,” said Janusz Malinowski, CEO of PKP Intercity. “We are seeing great interest in the direct connections to and from Berlin. We expect that the other destinations will also be similarly popular with our passengers… Rail transport is creating increasingly strong connections between European cities.”
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