Line S45 of the
Vienna S-Bahn, also known as the Vorortelinie ''(lit. Suburban Line)'' or Wiener Vorortelinie ''(lit. Vienna Suburban Line)'', is an electrified commuter rail service operating in
Vienna, 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 and still bears the architecture of the original Stadtbahn. Drivers based in
Wien Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof and
Wien Westbahnhof 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.
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PZB90, which however don't apply to all 4020 EMUs as most of them use the outdated Indusi60).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. 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 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
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 ...
.
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