Rail transport in Austria

Austria
View of Wien Hauptbahnhof
Operation
National railway	Österreichische Bundesbahnen
System length
Total	6,123 kilometres (3,805 mi)
Electrified	3,523 kilometres (2,189 mi)
Freight only	?
High-speed	233 km
Track gauge
Main	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Electrification
15 kV 16,7 Hz	Main network
Map Map of the main network in Austria as of 2020.

Rail transport in Austria is mainly owned by the national rail company ÖBB. The railway network consists of 6,123 km, its gauge is 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge and 3,523 km are electrified.

Austria is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Austria is 81.

History

The history of Austrian rail transport starts with the Reisszug, a private, horse-drawn funicular serving Hohensalzburg Fortress. Built at the end of the 15th century and first documented in 1515, it is the oldest known funicular in the world, and possibly the oldest existing railway line.^[2][3]

In the 19th century, after building of several horse tramways, the Nordbahn line Vienna–Břeclav opened in 1837. The Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways (Kaiserlich-königliche österreichische Staatsbahnen, kkStB), a company serving the Austrian side of Austria-Hungary, was created in 1884^[4] and in 1923, some years after the dissolution of the empire, the national company BBÖ (Bundesbahnen Österreich) was founded.

Following the Anschluss of Austria to National-socialist Germany in 1938, the BBÖ were taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. After the end of World War II, the Austrian federal railways were re-installed in 1945, soon under the name of Österreichische Bundesbahn (ÖBB).

In 1998 the market was liberalised and had one of the highest degrees of market openness in the EU according to the 2011 Rail Liberalisation Index, although the market share of ÖBB remains above 90% for passenger rail.^[5]

Network

The Austrian network, aside from the principal rail system, also enfolds some funiculars, rack railways and lot of heritage railways mainly derived from part of disused lines. Some secondary lines are set up in narrow gauge.

Operators

• ÖBB
• WESTbahn

Urban railways

• Vienna counts a system of S-Bahn, U-Bahn, and a large tramway network.
• Graz counts a regional S-Bahn, an extended tramway network and a funicular.
• Linz counts a regional S-Bahn and a tramway network including the Pöstlingbergbahn.
• Salzburg counts a regional S-Bahn and a funicular.^[6]
• Innsbruck counts a regional S-Bahn, a tramway network and a funicular.
• The little town of Gmunden counts a tramway line.
• The village of Serfaus, with the U-Bahn Serfaus,^[7] is sometimes considered as the smallest town with a subway in the world.^[8]

Narrow gauge railways

In Austria, many narrow gauge railways were constructed due to the difficult mountainous terrain. Many survive as a common carrier or a heritage railway.

See also

• Austrian Federal Railways (history)
• ÖBB Rolling Stock
• Transport in Austria
• Category:Railway stations in Austria
• Railjet, the national high speed train
• S-Bahn in Austria
• List of town tramway systems in Austria
• Rail transport in Liechtenstein
• High-speed rail in Austria

Notes and references

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rail transport in Austria.

• (in German) ÖBB official website
• Railway network map of Austria
• Austrian rail transport gallery
• Documents and clippings about Rail transport in Austria in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW