Italy’s high-speed trains started running on German and Austrian track on Sept. 2, the last certification step before direct Frecciarossa service between Milan and Munich and between Rome and Munich. FS Italiane, Trenitalia’s parent company, is targeting summer 2027.
The test runs are part of international homologation and cover Berlin–Munich–Kufstein in Germany, and Kufstein–Brenner and Salzburg–Vienna in Austria.
Milan–Munich is scheduled at about six and a half hours, calling at Brescia, Verona, Rovereto, Trento, Bolzano and Innsbruck.
Rome–Munich runs about eight and a half hours on the same Alpine route, adding Florence and Bologna.
Trenitalia will operate both alongside Deutsche Bahn and Austria’s ÖBB. By December 2028, FS plans 10 daily Italy–Germany connections, with the network extended to Naples and Berlin.
Test runs are underway now. Nothing is bookable, no fares have been published, and FS states plainly that the summer 2027 start depends on certification of the trains being completed first.
Munich and Italy are already connected, so the change worth planning around is the removal of a change of train, not the speed.
ÖBB and DB railjet services already run Munich–Innsbruck–Verona every two hours in about five hours, from €27.99 in second class, with two trains a day each extending to Bologna and Venice, and a Nightjet already runs Munich to Rome overnight.
What summer 2027 adds is a single seat from Milan or Rome through to Munich. That matters most to anyone shifting a base between northern Italy and southern Germany with three months of luggage, or linking an Italian winter to a German summer without going near an airport.
One correction to the coverage circulating this week. Several outlets have reported that the Brenner Base Tunnel opens in December 2028 and will cut an hour from these journeys. December 2028 is FS’s timetable expansion date. The tunnel is a separate project.
Its main bores broke through in July 2026 and it is now expected to open in early 2032, already delayed from 2030. Anyone planning around a faster Alpine crossing should work from 2032, not 2028.
Still unknown: whether the four connections cited at launch means four in total or four on each route. FS’s release does not say, and coverage splits both ways.
No fares, no on-sale date and no timetable have been published.
Sources:
FS Italiane, “FS: al via le corse prova in Germania e Austria per i Frecciarossa di Trenitalia”, Sept. 2, 2026.
ANSA, “Al via le corse prova Frecciarossa in Germania e Austria”, Sept. 2, 2026 — Tier 2. .
Euronews Travel, “Frecciarossa starting tests for new Rome and Milan high-speed rail links to Munich”, Sept. 2, 2026.
Railway Gazette, “Brenner Base Tunnel main bores broken through”, July 29, 2026.
Railway Gazette, “Brenner Base Tunnel opening postponed”, May 27, 2021.
Seat61, “Munich to Verona & Venice by train”, accessed Sept. 3, 2026.
ÖBB Nightjet, Rome destination page, accessed Sept. 3, 2026.
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