Brenner Railway (Italian side)

The route

The Brenner Railway links Verona with Innsbruck over the Brenner Pass, and it is one of the main rail routes between Italy and the north. The lower part, Verona to Bolzano, opened in 1859 under the Austrian Empire. The 127 km mountain section from Bolzano over the pass to Innsbruck took three years to build and opened in August 1867, designed by the engineer Karl von Etzel, who died in 1865 before it was finished.

The whole of South Tyrol was then Austrian, so the summit was simply a stop on the line. When the region passed to Italy after the First World War, the border was drawn at the pass, and Brennero station ended up just south of it. The Italian side was first electrified with three-phase current; in 1965 it was converted to 3,000 V direct current, while Austria uses 15 kV alternating current, a difference that still shapes how trains cross.

The old line has limited capacity, and long new tunnels were added in the 1990s, among them the 13,159 m Sciliar Tunnel and the 7,267 m Pflersch Tunnel. The larger answer is the Brenner Base Tunnel, about 55 km long between Fortezza and Innsbruck, part of a new route from Verona to Munich. Until it opens, freight trains, EuroCity services and regional trains all share the old line up the valley.

What to watch for

1. Säben above Chiusa

   As the train approaches Chiusa, watch the rock above the town for the buildings of Säben. Klausen was first recorded in 1027 as the narrows below this rock, and the bishops of the region had their seat up here before moving down the valley to Bressanone in 992.

2. Fortezza and the reservoir

   Before Fortezza the valley holds a long reservoir, built in 1939–1940 for the Bressanone power plant and to help power the railway; the village of Unterau was flooded to make it. Just beyond, the fortress of Franzensfeste, built in 1833–1838, stands close to the tracks.

3. Brenner Base Tunnel works

   Around Fortezza the video passes construction areas for the Brenner Base Tunnel, whose southern end is here. When it opens, trains will be able to run about 55 km underground from here to Innsbruck, avoiding the climb over the pass that the rest of this film follows.

4. Arrival at the border yard

   Brennero station has twelve through tracks, but only five have platforms; the others are used for overtaking and changing locomotives. Watch for the long tracks and waiting engines, a sign of the change between 3,000 V direct current in Italy and 15 kV alternating current in Austria.

What you will see

The film was shot in April 2023 from the cab of an Alstom ETR 526 Jazz regional train, heading north. From Bolzano the line runs up the narrow Isarco valley, with steep wooded slopes close on both sides. At Chiusa look up for the monastery of Säben on its rock above the town; the bishops of the region had their seat there until 992.

Bressanone comes next, where the valley widens at the meeting of two rivers. Beyond it the train reaches Fortezza, with the reservoir built in 1939–1940 for hydroelectric power and the nineteenth-century fortress close to the line. Around the station the video passes the building sites of the Brenner Base Tunnel, the work that will one day take through trains under the mountains instead of over them.

After Vipiteno the line makes its final climb. It passes Colle Isarco, at the mouth of the Pflersch valley, and the 7,267 m Pflersch Tunnel on its way to the pass. The film ends at Brennero, a large border yard with many through tracks, where locomotives are changed and the Austrian network begins a few hundred metres to the north.

Station by station

1. BolzanoCapital of South Tyrol and the busiest station in the region. It opened in 1859 with the line from Trento; the present building, by Angiolo Mazzoni, dates from 1927–1929.
2. ChiusaSmall town called Klausen in German, first recorded in 1027 as the narrows below Säben. The monastery on the rock above the town is a landmark to watch for from the cab.
3. BressanoneBrixen in German, an old cathedral town where the Rienza joins the Isarco. The bishops moved here from Säben in 992, and the town later ruled a church principality until 1803.
4. FortezzaFranzensfeste in German, named after the fortress built here in 1833–1838. The station, the start of the Puster Valley line, is being rebuilt for the southern end of the Brenner Base Tunnel.
5. VipitenoSterzing in German, the last town before the final climb to the pass. Since 2014 the station has been called Vipiteno–Val di Vizze, adding the name of the Pfitsch side valley.
6. BrenneroBorder station at the summit, 1,371 m up and about 300 m south of the Austrian frontier. Italy and Austria use different electric systems, so single-system locomotives are changed here.

Riding it for real

Regional trains run by Trenitalia and SAD serve the stations up the valley, and EuroCity trains run by Trenitalia, ÖBB and DB cross the pass into Austria and Germany. Südtirol Bahn trains between Bolzano and Innsbruck use multi-system locomotives, so they do not need to change engines at the border. Check the operators for current timetables and fares.

The video is embedded from YouTube and remains on its owner’s channel. Views count toward the original video.