Due to surprise construction work in Germany, various day and night train services to and from Switzerland will be cancelled, rerouted and disrupted this April. Here’s what travellers need to know:

Germany conducts "short notice" rail maintenance work

Thanks to what is described by rail company NightJet as “short notice” construction work, various public transport services between Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and Czechia will be disrupted from April 13 to 28, 2025. The cause is ongoing work on the Rhine Valley Railway (Rheintalbahn) between Basel and Karlsruhe. 

The rail line is one of the most important in Germany, serving 300 local, long-distance and freight trains every day. It is therefore being expanded so that more trains can run on the line at faster speeds - construction is expected to conclude in 2041.

International rail services to and from Switzerland disrupted

However, this April, the project and surrounding maintenance works will lead to major disruptions to both day and night services which use the line. For day trains, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) confirmed that there will be “diversions, train cancellations, and replacement bus services” on a number of services which use the line. For Swiss travellers, the following trains will be most affected:

• ICE trains between Interlaken, Basel, Frankfurt and Berlin
• ICE trains between Chur, Zurich, Basel, Frankfurt and Hamburg / Kiel
• ICE trains between Basel, Cologne and Hamburg

Night train services cancelled or rerouted this April

The biggest disruption to services, at least for Swiss travellers, will be on night train services. All night trains from Zurich to Amsterdam will be cancelled between April 14 and April 27, while the return leg back to Switzerland will be impossible from April 15 to 28.

The work will also force the full cancellation of the night train between Zurich and Prague via Leipzig and Dresden. All night services to Czechia will be cancelled from April 14 to April 27, while the return trains to Switzerland will not be available between April 13 and 26.

During the construction work, night trains between Zurich and Berlin will not run to the German capital and will instead be diverted to Hamburg. Those who wish to travel to Berlin on the night train must change to a day service in Hanover. Both the amended service and the existing night train between Zurich and Hamburg will be diverted to run via Schaffhausen, meaning they will not stop in Basel, Freiburg, Offenburg, Baden-Baden or Karlsruhe.

Finally, on the original Zurich-Hamburg connection, the train will also not stop in Bremen or Verden an der Aller on April 14, 15, 27 and 28. Those affected by the disruption can claim a refund for their night train or can use their tickets to reach their destination on daytime services. For more information, check out the SBB website.