Line S45 of the

Vienna S-Bahn The Vienna S-Bahn is a suburban commuter rail network in Vienna, Austria. As opposed to the city-run urban metro network, the Vienna U-Bahn, it extends beyond the borders of the city, is operated by the ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways), and cons ...

, also known as the Vorortelinie ''(lit. Suburban Line)'' or Wiener Vorortelinie ''(lit. Vienna Suburban Line)'', is an electrified commuter rail service operating in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria. The S45 is the only S-Bahn route to operate entirely within Viennese city limits, and it is the most frequently operated single S-Bahn service, with intervals of 10 minutes during weekdays and 15 minutes during weekends and holidays. The S45 opened on 31 May 1987. It follows the route of part of the original

Stadtbahn ' (; German for "city railway"; plural ') is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...

and still bears the architecture of the original Stadtbahn. Drivers based in

Wien Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof Wien Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof (translated as Vienna Franz Joseph Station, abbreviated as Wien FJB) is a train station in the Alsergrund district of Vienna, Austria. It serves as the southern terminus of the Emperor Franz Joseph Railway. History A f ...

and

Wien Westbahnhof Wien Westbahnhof (Vienna West station) is a major Austrian railway station, the original starting point of the West railway (''Westbahn'') and a former terminus of international rail services. In 2015, its role changed with the opening of Vie ...

operate trains on the route. Unlike the Pink line or the Stammstrecke (

trunk line In telecommunications, trunking is a technology for providing network access to multiple clients simultaneously by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies, instead of providing individual circuits or channels for each clie ...

), it is the only line servicing the route. It terminates at Handelskai (on the Stammstrecke) and also crosses the U6 there, the U3 at

Ottakring Ottakring () is the 16th District in the city of Vienna, Austria (german: 16. Bezirk, Ottakring). It is located west of the central districts, north of Penzing and south of Hernals. Ottakring has some heavily populated urban areas with many resid ...

and joins both ends of the U4 at Heiligenstadt and

Hütteldorf Hütteldorf (; Central Bavarian: ''Hittldorf'') is a part of Vienna's 14th district, Penzing. It is located in the west of Vienna, in the geographical center of the district, stretching roughly from ''Deutschordenstraße'' (which forms the border ...

. Due to the short platform lengths, only single 4024s (Talent EMUs) and 4020s can operate on the route. The 474X train sets were also tested on the route, but it was found that their extendable door step took too long for them to be able to maintain good time on the route. The maximum speed of the route is , between Hütteldorf and Penzing; however this speed is not always reached due to the way the route is signaled (i.e. due to the limitations of PZB90, which however don't apply to all 4020 EMUs as most of them use the outdated Indusi60).

History

The original route was opened on 11 May 1898 by the

Vienna Stadtbahn The Vienna Stadtbahn (german: Wiener Stadtbahn) was a rail-based public transportation system operated under this name from 1898 until 1989. Today, the Vienna U-Bahn lines U4 and U6 and the Vienna S-Bahn (commuter rail) run on its former lines. ...

. Steam powered trains operated between Wien Hütteldorf and Wien Heiligenstadt on a single track line. On 11 July 1932, passenger service was ended and only freight trains used the line. In 1975 freight service was discontinued and the line was abandoned. In 1979 the City of Vienna, along with

ÖBB The Austrian Federal Railways (german: Österreichische Bundesbahnen, formally (lit. "Austrian Federal Railways Holding Stock Company") and formerly the or ''BBÖ''), now commonly known as ÖBB, is the national railway company ...

brought up plans to reactivate the line. In the following years the line was renovated, expanded to two tracks and electrified with 15 kV 16,7 Hz. In 1984 a final plan of the new route was concluded. Service began on 31 May 1987, nearly 55 years after passenger service was discontinued, between Hütteldorf and Heiligenstadt. Passenger traffic greatly increased when service was extended past Heiligenstadt to Handelskai in 1996, offering a connection to the Vienna Trunk Line and increased even more when the U3 U-Bahn line was extended to

. In 2007 rush hour frequency was increased from 15 minutes to 10 minutes and in December 2012 frequency was increased to 10 minutes on weekdays. From 15 December 2019, it is one of the routes where frequency have been increased with expected arrival every 10 minutes until 9PM. The move is expected to increase the connectivity within the city.

Map

Stations

References

{{reflist Vienna S-Bahn Railway lines opened in 1987 1987 establishments in Austria