Berlin – Summer, sun, beach – but also many cycle paths and good gastronomy that not only offers red sausages: the Danish island of Bornholm is a popular travel destination. However, if you want to reach it without a car, it will be difficult. But this could change in the new year, as the Berliner Zeitung has now learned from the Ministry of Infrastructure in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. If everything goes well, in the summer and autumn seasons 2022, after a long break, passenger trains will run again to the ferry port in the Sassnitz district of Mukran – with a connection to the ship to the island’s capital Rønne. Not only Berliners and Brandenburgers would benefit from the new connection. The journey from Hamburg to Bornholm would also be more convenient.
At the passenger terminal of the Mukran Port, as the port on the Baltic island of Rügen is officially called, no trains have stopped to get on and off for a long time. Since 2019, when the Berlin-Night-Express Berlin-Malmö rolled onto the now no longer operating train ferry to Trelleborg, there has been no regular passenger train service at all in the Sassnitz harbor.
But at the beginning of the season, the train station in front of the terminal could be reintegrated into local rail passenger transport, or SPNV for short. Gunnar Bauer announced this to the Berliner Zeitung on request. He is the spokesman for Reinhard Meyer (SPD), the new Minister for Economy, Infrastructure, Tourism and Labor for the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Two trips in each direction on Saturdays
Bauer put it this way: “The state is currently examining, in coordination with the railway infrastructure operators, the possibility of routing local rail transport services on the Mukran – Bergen line to connect and link the ferry connections from / to Bornholm ordered by the Danish state.” but not provided. It is about a maximum of two trips per direction on Saturdays in the summer and autumn seasons of 2022, the spokesman said. But these days are decisive: Saturday is also the day of the week on Bornholm on which most holidaymakers traditionally arrive or depart.
“The best possible connections to long-distance trains from and towards Berlin and Hamburg should be established – depending on the available routes and the ferry arrival and departure times,” said Bauer. The prerequisite is that the train schedule can be aligned with the travel times of the “Bornholmslinjen”. The journey across the Baltic Sea from Mukran to Rønne takes just under three and a half hours, according to the plan.
The travel times are still being worked on
According to reports, detailed work is still required so that precise, stable connections can be created between Berlin, Hamburg and Bornholm. It is quite possible that the previously planned ferry times will have to be postponed a little so that the connections fit.
As things stand now, an Intercity Express (ICE) will leave Berlin Central Station at 7.46 a.m. to arrive in Bergen on Rügen a few minutes after 11 a.m. Shortly before that, an ICE arrives there, which left at 7.41 a.m. from Hamburg Central Station. The planned new regional train will connect Bergen to the Bornholm ferry on Saturdays, which leaves Mukran Port at noon. If you want to take your bike with you on your trip from Berlin, you have to choose an earlier train connection. But it would also be possible for cycle tourists to make the outward journey on the same day.
It would take the same route back to Germany: in the morning by ship from Rønne to Mukran Port, from there on with the regional train to Bergen on Rügen. There ICE trains run directly to Berlin and Hamburg at noon.
“If it is possible to create a good connection by rail and ship, there would finally be an attractive alternative to other modes of transport on this route,” said Deutsche Bahn. It also competes with aircraft. Last summer, the Danish airline DAT flew twice a week from BER to the island airport near Rønne.
The bus is already going to the port
The ferry port can already be reached by bus. “We have been offering continuous connections to all ferries in Mukran harbor for a long time. We will continue this next year, ”said Michael Lang from the Vorpommern-Rügen transport company (VVR) on Wednesday. “It is not difficult to change from the train to the continuous bus to Mukran in Bergen auf Rügen or Binz Bahnhof. Numerous passengers have made it so far. “
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