Just in time for the New Year, Deutsche Bahn and airports are updating their train and flight schedules - with significant improvements for Nuremberg. New long-distance bus routes, an expanded winter flight timetable, and additional ICE connections offer more destinations, increased frequency, and shorter travel times. For travelers from Franconia, this opens up numerous new opportunities both within Germany and across Europe.
With the new timetable of Deutsche Bahn, effective from the 14th of December 2025, Nuremberg will benefit from improved connections. A total of 21 cities in the ICE network will receive half-hourly services - twice as many as before - and the railway company is expanding its express train offerings, according to a press release from Deutsche Bahn. On the important north-south route between Munich and Berlin via Nuremberg, 16 fast ICE trains will run daily - three times more than previously.
Faster across Germany and Europe: the DB timetable 2026
A new express train will also depart from Stuttgart in the morning, reach Nuremberg non-stop by 8:57 a.m., and continue directly to Berlin without further stops. This will cover the Nuremberg–Stuttgart route in a record time of under two hours. Service frequencies from Nuremberg will also improve in some cases: The half-hourly schedule to Würzburg remains unchanged, while the connection to Erfurt will be offered twice hourly and will continue to take around 75 minutes.
However, the express connections between Düsseldorf, Nuremberg, and Munich will be discontinued in 2026 due to construction work.
The direct connection to Munich, which runs several times an hour and reaches its destination in just over an hour, will remain in place. From there, international destinations are also more accessible. The new Deutsche Bahn timetable includes new direct routes to Klagenfurt and Graz, as well as a new Eurocity to Ljubljana and Zagreb. The ICE to Amsterdam will now depart two hours earlier, arriving by evening. Additionally, a new night train to Przemyśl on the Ukrainian border has been introduced.
At the same time, the railway is focusing on greater network stability: on the hourly Munich-Nuremberg-Würzburg-Hanover-Hamburg route, standardized 12-car ICE 4 trains with 830 seats will be used from now on. This is expected to eliminate complex train splitting operations in Hanover, according to the railway company. Furthermore, on the hourly ICE line Munich-Nuremberg-Aschaffenburg-Frankfurt-Cologne-Essen, the once-daily coupling and uncoupling of a train section in Würzburg will be discontinued.
New destinations in the winter flight schedule
Significant expansions are also evident at Albrecht-Dürer Airport. The winter flight schedule, in effect for a few weeks now, includes over 40 nonstop routes, with destinations in Egypt particularly prominent. Airlines such as Marabu, Corendon Airlines, Eurowings, and Air Cairo regularly serve Hurghada - with 20 weekly departures - Marsa Alam, and since the 4th of November also Sharm El-Sheikh. Classic holiday destinations like the Canary Islands, Italy, and Turkey remain firmly on offer. According to information from Albrecht-Dürer Airport, starting the 27th of June 2026, another direct connection will also begin from Nuremberg Airport to Bodrum on the Turkish Aegean coast.
Those seeking milder temperatures can also fly to Mallorca or Madeira, while various airlines offer city trips to Alicante, Malaga, Valencia, Palermo, or Faro. Since mid-October, Wizz Air has expanded the portfolio with new direct flights to Temeswar (Timișoara) and Kronstadt (Brașov) in Romania. For travelers wanting a quick trip to London, the direct Ryanair flight remains available, linking Nuremberg to the British capital in just under two hours.
Sustainable travel by long-distance bus
For those seeking a more sustainable connection to London, new options have also emerged. A new international route has been offering travelers direct service from Nuremberg to the global metropolis for several weeks now. The bus departs daily at 12:05 a.m. from the central bus station (ZOB), passing through Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Brussels before reaching Lille. From there, it crosses the Channel via ferry between Calais and Dover. Arrival is at London’s Victoria Station, just a stone’s throw from Westminster Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. The journey takes approximately 20 hours.
In addition, Flixbus offers numerous other international direct routes from Nuremberg: Depending on the connection, the journey to Paris and Amsterdam takes between nine and eleven hours, while Budapest is reached in about 13 hours. Rome can be reached in approximately 14 hours and 40 minutes, Florence in just over eleven hours. The bus trip to Copenhagen takes around 14 hours and 15 minutes, whereas Barcelona, at about 21.5 hours, is considerably farther away.