photo: Uwe Schwarzbach / Flickr/ICE Inter City Express train of Deutsche Bahn in Kufstein, Tyrol, Austria
Berlin’s long-awaited Dresdner Bahn has reopened, cutting travel times to the airport and triggering the biggest regional rail timetable overhaul in years across Berlin and Brandenburg.
Germany’s Dresdner Bahn, a key rail link between Berlin-Südkreuz and Blankenfelde, has reopened on schedule. It's one of the most significant changes to rail services in the Berlin-Brandenburg region in more than a decade. From the December 2025 timetable change, regional, long-distance, and S-Bahn services are being reorganised, bringing shorter journey times, denser timetables, and new direct connections, while also reshaping freight corridors toward southern and south-eastern Europe.
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Faster Airport Access and New Capacity
According to Deutsche Bahn, the reopening enables trains to run again over the modernised 16-kilometre section of the Dresdner Bahn, where two new electrified long-distance tracks have been built. Trains can operate at speeds of up to 160 km/h in Berlin and 200 km/h beyond the city boundary, significantly increasing capacity in the southern part of the capital’s rail network.
One of the most visible effects for passengers is the improved connection to Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER). As bahnblogstelle.com reports, the Airport Express (FEX) now runs directly via the Dresdner Bahn, reducing travel time from Berlin Hauptbahnhof from 39 minutes to around 23 minutes, almost halving the journey.
New Regional and S-Bahn Connections
The opening of the Dresdner Bahn also marks the second operational stage of the Elbe-Spree regional rail concession, increasing the total volume of regional services ordered by Berlin and Brandenburg by around half a million train-kilometres per year, despite growing financial pressure on local public transport budgets.
According to Verkehrswende-News, a new regional line, RE20, has been introduced, running hourly between Berlin Hauptbahnhof, BER, and Lübbenau, with selected services continuing to Cottbus. Once the Lübbenau–Cottbus line is fully double-tracked, the service is expected to be extended permanently.
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Other regional services have been rerouted via the airport. The RB24 and RB32 now run directly through BER and continue to Blankenfelde and Ludwigsfelde, improving access from eastern and north-eastern Berlin districts, including Lichtenberg, Ostkreuz, and Schöneweide. These services replace the former 30-minute FEX shuttle from Ostkreuz.
A new S-Bahn connection (S85) links Frohnau on weekdays and Pankow at weekends with BER via Ostkreuz, extending airport access late into the evening and strengthening links from northern and eastern parts of the city.
Regional Impacts Across Brandenburg
Beyond Berlin, the timetable change brings a wide range of regional adjustments across Brandenburg, reflecting both infrastructure upgrades and ongoing construction works.
In the north-east, a new RE30 service between Angermünde and Stralsund introduces, for the first time, an hourly regional train service between Berlin and the Baltic coast when combined with the RE3. The existing RB62 between Angermünde and Prenzlau will be discontinued as part of this restructuring.
In the south and south-east, journey times to Berlin are being reduced by around ten minutes on routes including Elsterwerda and Doberlug-Kirchhain. Additional peak-hour services on the RE8 compensate for the end of ticket acceptance on IC services and maintain commuter accessibility.
Some lightly used late-evening and off-peak services on regional lines such as RB27, RB36, and RB49 are being withdrawn, while other services are retimed to improve connections and reliability.
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Long-Distance and Freight Corridors Strengthened
The modernised line also benefits long-distance passengers, with journey times to Dresden and Prague cut by around ten minutes. At the same time, the Dresdner Bahn strengthens a key European freight corridor, forming part of TEN-T Corridor 7, linking North and Baltic Sea ports with south-eastern Europe, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
German Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder said the project demonstrated that complex infrastructure schemes could be delivered successfully, while DB InfraGO chief Philipp Nagl highlighted the stabilising effect of additional tracks on the congested Berlin rail hub.
€1.1bn Investment and Parallel Upgrades
The project represents a joint investment of around €1.1 billion by the federal government, the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, and Saxony, and Deutsche Bahn. All nine level crossings on the route have been replaced by bridges, and the entire line has been equipped with electronic interlockings.
In parallel, DB InfraGO has completed a major overhaul of the Anhalter Bahn between Berlin-Südkreuz and Bitterfeld, renewing almost 100 kilometres of track and modernising more than 90 points. From December 14, 2025, trains between Berlin and Leipzig/Halle are again running without restrictions.
A Long-Delayed Link Returns
Construction preparation began in 2017, with main works starting in 2019, reviving a route that has existed since 1875 but had long been interrupted. With the reopening of the Dresdner Bahn, a major gap in Germany’s rail network has now been closed, reshaping daily commuting, airport access, and international rail traffic across the capital region.