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WESTbahn Management GmbH (a subsidiary of ''RAIL Holding AG'') is an
open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
railway company A railway company is a company within the rail industry. It can be a manufacturing firm or an rail transport operations, operator. Some railway companies operate both the trains and the track, while, particularly in the European Union, operation ...
operating express train services on
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
's Western Railway (also known as Westbahn) since 11 December 2011. The French railway company
SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...
has a 17.4 percent stake in WESTbahn. The associated company ''WESTbus'' became a part of the Flixbus network.


Services

On 11 December 2011, WESTbahn formally commenced operations on the
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
-
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 ...
route, becoming the first open-access operator to enter Austria's domestic long-distance railway market. It is operated in direct competition with the government-owned
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 ...
, which promptly started offering heavily-discount fares on the same route. In response, WESTbahn also introduced its own discounts on weekend fares; while a healthy level of ridership was reported by July 2012, revenue levels were stated to be below the levels that had been anticipated. WESTbahn initially operated a single service between Vienna and Salzburg over a distance of 308km. Typically ran in one-hour intervals, this service called at
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 ...
, Wien-Hütteldorf, St. Pölten Hbf, Amstetten,
Linz Hbf Linz Hauptbahnhof or Linz Central Station is a railway station in Linz, the third largest city in Austria, and capital city of the federal state of Upper Austria. Opened in 1858, the station is the centrepiece of the Linz transport hub. It forms ...
, Wels Hbf,
Attnang-Puchheim Attnang-Puchheim is a town in Austria, located in the Vöcklabruck district, lying between the cities Vöcklabruck and Schwanenstadt. Its partner city is the city of Puchheim in Bavaria, Germany. Geography Attnang-Puchheim is centered in the ' ...
and Salzburg Hbf. From its start of operation until September 2013, the service had also continued to Salzburg Taxham Europark and
Freilassing Freilassing (), until 1923 Salzburghofen is a town of some 16,000 inhabitants in the southeastern corner of Bavaria, Germany. It belongs to the "Regierungsbezirk" Oberbayern and the "Landkreis" (County) of Berchtesgadener Land. Located very close ...
due to the rebuilding of Salzburg Hbf. During the 2010s, WESTbahn often spoke out on legislative bias towards state-owned operators and the need for reform to favour the travelling public and competitive forces. In November 2012, the
European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...
(ECJ) found that the Austrian infrastructure manager
ÖBB Infrastructure 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 ...
had acted unlawfully in preventing Westbahn's access of real-time data on train movements of other operators, hindering its operations. During November 2019, Austria's Federal Administrative Court ruled in favour of a complaint made by WESTbahn as to how track access charges were being calculated and approved by the Austrian rail regular Schienen-Control; as a consequence, the charges for track access between 2011 and 2017 were recalculated to lower values. That same year, the ECJ also ruled in favour of WESTbahn against the inclusion of station access charges in the area access packages that the company was purchasing. In August 2019, it was announced that WESTbahn would take on the open-access operations on the Vienna -
Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
-
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
route from incumbent operator RegioJet on 15 December of that year. During November 2020, it was announced that the Austrian government had temporarily reintroduced subsidies on the Vienna - Salzberg route for multiple operators, including WESTbahn; this measures was taken largely in response to the economic consequences of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. WESTbahn observed that this measure prevented further redundancies from becoming necessary amid the short term downturn in passenger travel during to multiple national lockdowns. For this period, tickets were mutually accepted by both ÖBB and WESTbahn. During February 2021, the company publicly appealed for subsidies to continue, stating that it would otherwise be compelled to half the frequency of its services; a two month extension of the subsidies for both WESTbahn and was agreed shortly thereafter. On 8 April 2022, WESTbahn expanded its service westwards into neighbouring Germany, initially operating four daily trains that served Munich East station and München Hauptbahnhof beyond Salzburg. This expansion had originally been announced in November 2018. Starting in December 2022, WESTbahn will expand three of its services from Salzburg to
Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
, which would also serve both
Kufstein Kufstein (; Central Bavarian: ''Kufstoa'') is a town in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the administrative seat of Kufstein District. With a population of about 19,600 it is the second largest Tyrolean town after the state capital Innsbruck. The great ...
and
Wörgl Wörgl () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol, in the Kufstein district. It is from the international border with Bavaria, Germany. Population Transport Wörgl is an important railway junction between the line from Innsbruck to Munich, and ...
.


Trains

By 2013, the company's fleet consists of seven Stadler KISS bilevel trains, each with six
coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...
, a total length of 150 metres, a top-speed of 200 km/h, acceleration of 0.85 m/s² and a capacity of 501 leather seats.''KISS electrical double-deck railcar – for Westbahn Management GmbH, Austria''
data sheet (PDF) from Stadler Altenrhein AG
The passengers are able to use
WLAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office buildin ...
for free on the trains. Every coach is serviced by an attendant, while 85 percent of WESTbahn's 200 employees are on-board staff. Each train is provisioned with a
dining car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It is distinct from other railroad food service cars that ...
outfitted with eight seats and vending machines that dispense both cold and warm
beverage A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothies a ...
s. Snacks are available for purchase as well. One of the coaches is permanently reserved for premium passengers and is branded ''WESTbahn Plus''. On 11 May 2015, WESTbahn announced it had plans to place a €180m order for ten additional Stadler KISS double-deck electric multiple-units, comprising nine four-car sets and a single six-car set. Competition for this order included the Chinese rolling stock manufacturer CRRC Zhuzhou. During October 2019, the company placed an €300m order with Stadler for 15 six-car KISS EMUs that would replace its existing fleet of 17 double-deck KISS sets, which Westbahn sold to
Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...
. These new EMUs are configured with a new class - Comfort Class 2+ - as well as being lighter and more efficient than most contemporary rolling stock, it is also equipped with ETCS Level 2 Baseline 3. During September 2021, the first of these new-built KISS sets entered service on the Vienna - Salzburg route; all examples were in service by the end of the year. Their arrival facilitated the launch of new services. In June 2021, WESTbahn confirmed that it was working with CRRC Zhuzhou to develop additional rolling stock that it planned to lease to supplement its KISS fleet. The CRRC EMUs will constitute six-car units, comprising two motor and four trailer cars, possess a maximum speed of 200km/h, and be capable of operating under both 15kV and 25kV AC overhead electrification. Each six-car unit will have 571 seats grouped into two classes, and be equipped with vending machines, wheelchair and bicycle storage areas, and onboard
WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...
. Many subsystems and components are drawn from European supplies as to ease operator logistics. The EMUs have been designed so that they can be used in multiple countries. In July 2022, the first of WESTbahn's CRRC-built EMUs arrived at the
Velim railway test circuit The Velim test center ( cs, Zkušební centrum Velim) is a railway rolling stock testing facility at Cerhenice, close to the town of Kolín in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Perhaps its most notable feature is the Velim railwa ...
in the Czech Republic to undergo vehicle acceptance training; while the train was designed and manufactured in China, it is required to fully conform with
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
standards, including the relevant
Technical Specifications for Interoperability A technical specification for interoperability (abbreviated as TSI) is a text provided for in European Directive 2016/797 adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the interoperability of the European rail system ...
.


RAIL Holding AG

On 5 June 2012, CEO Stefan Wehinger, a former
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 ...
director, resigned on diverging views about the company's strategy and sold his stake in WESTbahn. Erich Forster, the company's former sales manager, took on the role of CEO thereafter. The board of directors includes
Benedikt Weibel Benedikt may refer to: *Benedikt, a spelling of the name Benedict *Benedikt, Benedikt Benedikt () is the central settlement in the Municipality of Benedikt in northeastern Slovenia. Before 1998, it was part of the Municipality of Lenart. It lies ...
(Chairman),
Hans Peter Haselsteiner Hans Peter Haselsteiner (born 1 February 1944, in Wörgl) is an Austrian industrialist and former politician. Education After his Matura, Hans Peter Haselsteiner studied business economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, f ...
, Erhard F. Grossnigg and Frank Bernard. In November 2018, the ownership of WESTbahn was divided between the Haselsteiner Family-Private Foundation (49.9%), Augusta Holding (
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
) (32.7%) (Augusta is held by Haselsteiner, Wehinger and company Oldro AG), and
SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...
(
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
) (17.4%). In November 2019, SNCF announced that it was increasing its stake in the company from 17.4 percent to 25.3 percent, pending regulatory approval.


References


External links

*
Interactive 360° Tour of a Westbahn train
{{DEFAULTSORT:WESTbahn Railway companies of Austria