Faster travel between Zürich and Munich

That will turn that trip from a difficult one to a quick and easy one - rah!!!

There has been a bit of work on the rail line from Munich to Lindau and the Austrian border, including electrification. And in December the current diesel trains on the route will be replaced by electric trains and the journey time reduced from 4:45 to 4 hours. Next year the journey time will be reduced even more to 3:30.

Well, that's the optimistic version of the story, and it depends on several parameters. First, SBB, which will operate the trains, has placed erverything under the proviso that there will no new problems raised by the corona crisis; it could well be that those Astoro trains have to remain at their present place in southern Switzerland for the forseeable future. Secondly, it is not yet clear whether the trains will be fitted out on time with the required version of the ETCS system, as Alstom already has announced delays of delivery. In any case, a further upgrade will be necessary at a later date to enable the so called "dynamic transition", and in the meantime, trains must be paused in St. Margreten to make the necessary system change and to wait for the next available time slot. Thirdly, the upgrade of the line through Vorarlberg, which is another precondition for the reduction of the travel time to 3:30, is not yet completed. So, let's hope the best but be prepared for the worst.

If everything goes wrong, we will continue throughout 2021 with the old traines and a change of locomotives in Lindau. Personally, I like those old fashioned trains with their comfortable swiss 1th class cars and their traditional dining car, esp. if they run, as presently, along the southern pre-alpine route via Kempten and not on flat an boring nothern one via Memmingen.

BTW, for anybody who plans a stopover in Lindau, the new trains have few advantages, since they no longer stop in Lindau Hbf on the island, but far outside in Reutin, where you have to transfer to the Vorarlberg S-Bahn to get to the island, and that will eat up much of the shorter travel time.

other than all those negatives it is wonderful though, yes?

Of course. Well, almost. If somebody is prone to seasickness, for him/her the trip will turn from an easy one to a difficult one. ;)

"BTW, do you know if the panoramic carriage goes all the way from München as indicated on vagonweb or only between St. Margrethen and Zürich as indicated by the footnotes of the train on bahn.de?"

@luftmensch: yes, all three ECs carry a panoramic car all the way (so from the evening one you have a much better look at the polar star :)). The DB website and the DB navigator are some times a bit more pedantic than desirable. E.g., the navigator is claiming that the trains carry three different dining cars, one from Munich to Lindau, another one from Lindau to St Margrethen and a third one from there to Zurich. I.e., it splits up one and the same car according to countries passed through. Apperently something similiar has happened to the panoramic car. Programmer's logic?

Vielen Dank sla019! I just saw that The Man in Seat 61 mentioned it and thought I'd should share it since it is a trip that many ask about.