The Europe-wide timetable change in rail transport on December 10, 2023 will also bring some innovations to the Austrian Federal Railways. For example, additional night train connections are being set up.

From December 10, 2023, the new Nightjet sets will initially be in use on the routes from Vienna and Innsbruck to Hamburg. The new generation Railjets are currently being completed and will offer passengers more comfort on the Brenner route (Munich - Innsbruck - Bolzano - Verona) from spring 2024. In 2025, 27 new vehicles will be put on rails for intra-Alpine transport.

According to ÖBB, there are the following innovations in the area of ​​night trains:

• Two new Nightjet routes from Berlin to Paris and from Berlin to Brussels, initially 3x weekly and daily from October 2024
  NJ 40424: Berlin Hbf from 20:18 p.m. – Paris Est at 10:24 a.m. (Mon, Wed, Fri)
  NJ 40469: Paris Est from 19:12 p.m. – Berlin Hbf at 08:26 a.m. (Tue, Thu, Sat)
  NJ 424: Berlin Hbf from 20:18 p.m. – Bruxelles Midi at 09:56 a.m. (Mon, Wed, Fri)
  NJ 425: Bruxelles Midi from 19:03 p.m. – Berlin Hbf at 08:26 a.m. (Tue, Thu, Sat)
• Nightjet from Vienna to Paris (NJ 468/469) and Vienna to Brussels (NJ 40468/40425) will be available daily from October 2024
• EuroNight 406/407 will run on a new route (Munich – Salzburg – Linz – Vienna – Kraków – Warszawa) and will in future travel from Salzburg and Linz directly to the capital of Poland
• NJ 456/457 Graz – Vienna – Berlin now runs via Břeclav, Prague and Dresden; This results in shorter travel times and more attractive departure and arrival times

Vienna Airport should also be better connected. In the future, there will be a new connection to Graz at 21:33 p.m. and to Linz at 0:02 a.m. In the future, all Railjet connections to/from Vienna Airport can be booked via the Austrian Airlines Airrail offer.

Traveling internationally: an overview of new long-distance transport connections

• New ICE connections (ICE 94/95) Vienna – Berlin, giving a total of 5 direct connections per day and direction
• ICE 1218/1211 Innsbruck – Munich – Stuttgart – Frankfurt/Main – Berlin will now run daily instead of twice a week
• New pair of trains between Salzburg and Munich (RJ 268/1295) closes, among other things, the 18:00 p.m. gap from Salzburg
• EC 102/103 as new additional direct connections between Vienna and Kraków, including a through carriage on the Vienna – Wrocław route
• Expansion of the service Graz – Field Street – Maribor: the 3 existing pairs of trains Graz – Field will be extended to Maribor (and partly to Ljubljana)
• 6 new direct trains between Villach and Ljubljana with optimal connections to/from Vienna and Salzburg
• New seasonal Saturday connection (EC 1214/1215) for the Villach – Munich route to relieve traffic during high frequency times
• As of the timetable change, two new ICE 4 trains will bring new comfort on the Munich – Salzburg – Klagenfurt Tauern route
• New daily RJX 764 in the evening from Vienna to Salzburg
• New direct pair of trains (D 502/601) between Graz and Linz
• More long-distance connections between Innsbruck and Bregenz (RJ 668 & RJX 663)
• Expansion of services on the Vienna – Villach – Lienz route with additional direct trains Vienna – Villach (IC 737/736), optimizations at the end of the day and individual additional trains on the weekend
• Improved weekend connections for the route Vienna – Salzburg – Zell am See – Kitzbühel – Wörgl

It was recently announced that ÖBB has initially ordered 14 Stadler Kiss III double-decker trains. The competitor Westbahn has been using this successfully for a long time. The ÖBB is expected to put its first example into regular service in 2026. The existing – single-story – Railjet carriages are to be gradually modernized. The corresponding program will start next year.

In the south of Austria, the Carinthian section of the Koralmbahn, including the access route Wolfsberg - St. Paul im Lavanttal, goes into operation and brings some improvements for commuters, such as faster travel times, an hourly service also on weekends for the Wolfsberg - Klagenfurt S-Bahn or additional REX connections at rush hour. For more flexible mobility away from timetables, a new Postbus shuttle service will be rolled out in Bleiburg in Carinthia from December 11, 2023.