The West railway between the capital

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

and

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

is being upgraded. Most new sections have a continuous maximum design speed of 250 km/h. German and Austrian

ICE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

trains operate at a maximum speed of 230 km/h, as do Austrian locomotive-hauled trains (called

railjet Railjet is a high-speed rail service in Europe operated by Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and Czech Railways (ČD). Branded as ''Railjet Express (RJX)'' for the fastest services and as ''Railjet (RJ)'' for services with additional stops, it wa ...

) which were launched in 2008. The section between Attnang-Puchheim and Salzburg has not been part of the massive investments during the past decades. Therefore a new high-speed rail line between Köstendorf and Salzburg is being planned by

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 ...

. Long distance and freight trains are planned to run through a 21,3 km long new track that is designed for a maximum speed of 250 km/h. This new infrastructure should enable to substantially increase the number of regional trains on the existing tracks and cut travel times for long distance connections by using the new tunnels. Construction works are expected to begin in 2025/2026. The

Brenner Base Tunnel The Brenner Base Tunnel (german: Brennerbasistunnel; it, Galleria di base del Brennero) is a railway tunnel under construction through the base of the Eastern Alps beneath the Brenner Pass. Upon completion, it will be the second or third longe ...

under construction will allow speeds of up to 250 km/h. The expected year of completion is 2032. The first part of the

New Lower Inn Valley Railway The New Lower Inn Valley railway (German: ''Neue Unterinntalbahn'') is a partially completed double-track high-speed main line of the Austrian railways. It connects the Brenner railway at Innsbruck and the Innsbruck bypass with the line to Kufs ...

was opened in December 2012 as part of an upgrade of the line connecting the future Brenner Base Tunnel and southern Germany, which is being upgraded from two tracks to four and to a maximum design speed of 250 km/h. The section is also part of the Berlin-Palermo railway axis. The ''

Koralmbahn The Koralm Railway (german: Koralmbahn) is an Austrian 127 km-long (79 mi)Johannes Fleckl-Ernst: ''Geodätische Herausforderungen beim Projekt „Koralmtunnel“''. In: ''Felsbau'', Heft 5/2010, S. 315–321, . Double track, double- ...

'', the first entirely new railway line in the Second Austrian Republic has been under construction since 2006. It includes a new 33 km tunnel (the '' Koralmtunnel'') connecting the cities of

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

and

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

. Primarily built for

intermodal freight transport Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing ...

, it will also be used by passenger trains travelling at up to 250 km/h. The travel time between Klagenfurt and Graz will be reduced from three hours to one hour. The Koralmbahn is expected to be operational by 2025. Another important project on the Southern Railway is the Semmering Base Tunnel. The new tunnel connects the states of

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

and

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

and allows massive travel time reductions compared to the existing Semmering railway. The new base tunnel will become operational in 2028.

Network

References

High-speed rail in Austria {{Austria-transport-stub

Network

See also

References