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F e opens
OLLOWING an official inauguration ceremony attended by government and Austrian Federal Railway (ÖBB) officials on November 23, the new Vienna - St Pölten high-speed line opened for commercial service on December 9. The ƒ2.8bn, project, É40m of which has been funded by the European Union, is part of the scheme to four- track 20.8km of the West Line from Vienna to Linz and Wels. In total ÖBB has added 56.3km of new track and 36.9km of tunnel to its network, while trains are now operating at a maximum speed of 230km/h, the fastest in Austria. However, the new line has been designed to allow 250km/h operation in the future.
Divided into two sections, a contract for development of the new line was first issued by the Ministry of Transport in 1990, and following nearly a decade of negotiations, work on the first section, the Lainzer tunnel, began in 1999. Trains are now operating at a maximum speed of 160km/h in the 12.3km-long single-bore tunnel which starts at Vienna Meidling and is supplemented by an additional freight access link from Inzersdorf before reaching Hadersdorf junction, which was completed in December 2008. This is a four-track underground junction which connects the existing Vienna - St Pölten line with the new line from Meidling to St Pölten via Tullnerfeld. It is possible to switch between the old line and the new in both directions but capacity is limited at the single level junction. On the surface there is another double-track line from Vienna Hütteldorf to Unterpurkersdorf which is used by stopping trains and has no connection with the new high-speed line.
Construction began in 2003 on the second section, the 44km-long stretch between Hadersdorf and St Pölten via Tullnerfeld. The first part of the line is the 13km-long Wienerwald tunnel which starts at Hadersdorf, and apart from the initial 2.2km stretch from the junction, is twin bored.
The line continues in the open to
Tullnerfeld station, a junction with the existing single track Tulln - Herzogenburg - St Pölten line. The station has five platforms for stopping passenger trains as well as two through
ÖBB test train with three class 1116 locomotives, test coaches and a Railjet set during trials on the Vienna - St Pölten
high-speed line in July 2012. Photo: Erwin Reidinger
IRJ January 2013 25
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