with a tough market
A Westbahn service for Salzburg and Freilassing passes Eichgraben between Vienna and St Pölten. These trains will be diverted away from this section in December when the new 44km Vienna - Tullnerfeld - St Pölten high-speed line opens. Photo: Erwin Reidinger
met. This was one of the reasons behind his sudden resignation from the company in June. Wehinger subsequently sold his shares in Rail Holding, Westbahn’s parent company, to the other shareholders. Co-founder Mr Hans-Peter Haselsteiner (CEO of construction company Strabag), and SNCF Voyages each hold 35%, while Swiss investment company Augusta Holding owns 30%. With no ticketing facilities at stations,
all Westbahn tickets are sold either onboard the train or via the internet. Some discount tickets are also available at tobacco shops. Westbahn says it sells 80% of its tickets on board, which is challenging for stewards, even with four to six on each train. Tickets can also be purchased at machines situated in the vestibules of each coach.
New fleet
Westbahn operates a fleet of 13 purpose-built Kiss double-deck emus supplied by Stadler. The 200km/h six- car trains were approved just a few
IRJ October 2012
days before the start of services, but nevertheless have operated extremely reliably from the outset with very few failures. They are being maintained by Stadler at a new depot situated on the site of the Voestalpine steelworks in Linz. Stadler employs staff from Voestalpine’s open-access railfreight subsidiary Logserv, which also operates a depot nearby. Maintenance is usually carried out during layover at night as all seven sets are required to cover the intensive timetable. If a set requires daytime maintenance, a slightly reduced timetable can be operated which requires just six trains in service. Westbahn employs its own
traincrews, although some drivers are provided by other operators. Westbahn is reducing its requirement for hired-in drivers by training its own. At present Westbahn trains stop at
Vienna Hütteldorf, St Pölten, Linz, Wels, and Attnang-Puchheim with a journey time of 2h 59min for the 308km trip between Vienna and Salzburg. This compares favourably with 3h 4min for ÖBB Inter-City trains and 2h 45min for
the fastest ÖBB Railjet services, which have fewer stops. With the opening of the new Vienna - St Pölten high-speed line in December, both ÖBB and Westbahn will benefit from a 25-minute reduction in journey time, a development that will doubtless help to make rail a more attractive option for long-distance journeys. There will be further changes in December 2014 when the new main station in Vienna becomes fully operational. By this date ÖBB will divert all of its Railjet services to the new station together with most, if not all of its Inter-City trains. However Westbahn services will continue to operate out of Vienna West. Through the challenges of its early months, Westbahn has proved that it was able to start its new service on schedule and is now one of the few European open-access operators to offer frequent long-distance services. Although revenue is somewhat behind expectations, Westbahn is confident it can achieve positive results during 2013. IRJ
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