# AUSTRIA | High Speed Rail



## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Video of modern railways in Austria
http://www.bahntv-online.de/btvo/site/index.php?s=3400&ids=141746

including antimations of railjet and Austrias second high speed train ICE-T 
jump to minute 16:45 to see the interesting parts.


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## ZZ-II (May 10, 2006)

very nice train, looks fantastic


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

another rendering of the new central station. you can clearly see that it's not going to be a terminus.


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## foxmulder (Dec 1, 2007)

locomotive is really looking nice. Nice project.


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Plans of the new train can be found on the railjet website: http://www.railjet.at/de/Downloads/index.jsp


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

The city development project around the Hauptbahnhof is on hold due to legal disputes, which are clearly the ÖBB's fault. It seems the entire master plan will be scraped and a new competition will have to take place. A pitty as I really liked that current master plan with the central park and the concept in general. I fear the new one will be just a chaotic punch of planning failure as the Donau City where no structure or intent is visible in the city scape and everything looks so random. 

Anyway, that is not the issue of this thread. The construction of the Hauptbahnhof itself is not concerned and construction works there are on plan. 

Regarding the railjet, a multiple unit railcar is not necessary as the "highspeed" won't be that high anyway. 200km/h is what I expect it to go on the new parts of the Westbahn track. The ÖBB has just downscaled some of the currently constructed parts from 250km/h to 200 km/h. I dont know why and think its a terrible fault, but what shall I do? Hopefully, it could be at least upgraded to 250 km/h in the future without too high investments. 

I know they are speaking about 230 km/h. But maybe someone can tell me where? Is there already a part of the Westbahn commissioned for that speed and if it is, where and how long is it?

Principally I am looking forward for the railjet however. It will be tremendous improvement to the status quo in connecting Munich-Vienna-Budapest. The Hauptbahnhof will do its share to make that train journey far more attractive.


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

The rail tracks (_Oberbau_) are all built for 250 km/h, however the overhead line equipement will only be set up for speeds of 230km/h and in some places 200 km/h.

200km/h to 250km/h is not only a difference in speed, but also a tremendous difference in energy consumption. For the time being it is simply doesn't make sense to go that fast, given the small distances we have between the stops and various other factors.


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

rheintram said:


> The rail tracks (_Oberbau_) are all built for 250 km/h, however the overhead line equipement will only be set up for speeds of 230km/h and in some places 200 km/h.
> 
> 200km/h to 250km/h is not only a difference in speed, but also a tremendous difference in energy consumption. For the time being it is simply doesn't make sense to go that fast, given the small distances we have between the stops and various other factors.


That is correct. But when the upgrade of the Westbahn should ever near completion, that argument might become leaky. If it costs than a fortune to redo all the Oberbau, it was maybe not so clever. If they predict to upgrade it in the way of a needed renovation at that time and therefore won't cost all too much, its a different thing. I hope however that it won't take so long until one can speak of a somewhat coherent new Westbahn.

Now that you say that the basic track can possibly support 250 km/h anyway this all sounds considerably less drastic.


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## elfabyanos (Jun 18, 2006)

^^ Sounds to me like they're building a 250km/h line, which physically would cost about the same as a 200km/h route (for the track, bridges tunnels etc), but only providing the power for 200km/h running, as extra juice and the equipment to provide it definately is more expensive.


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

elfabyanos said:


> ^^ Sounds to me like they're building a 250km/h line, which physically would cost about the same as a 200km/h route (for the track, bridges tunnels etc), but only providing the power for 200km/h running, as extra juice and the equipment to provide it definately is more expensive.


yes you are right. Even after the new highspeed tracks are completed there are a few bottlenecks left, especially inside the old stations, e.g. in St. Pölten. The new tracks go roughly parallel to the old ones but join the old ones in some parts to reach existing trainstations. So 250 km/h is not economically justified until these bottle necks are replaced.

Btw. New Video about railjet: http://www.bahntv-online.de/btvo/site/index.php?s=3400&ids=141918


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## OettingerCroat (May 24, 2005)

great new train, looks beautiful and i think its a cool idea!


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Similar to the ICE trainsets, which are called Velaro series by SIEMENS, the railjet trains are called VIAGGO Comfort by SIEMENS, since railjet is an ÖBB trademark (just as ICE is a DB trademark). Here is a SIEMENS folder about it: http://www.bahnindustrie.at/upload/dokumente/177/Viaggio_Comfort.pdf


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

rheintram said:


> yes you are right. Even after the new highspeed tracks are completed there are a few bottlenecks left, especially inside the old stations, e.g. in St. Pölten. The new tracks go roughly parallel to the old ones but join the old ones in some parts to reach existing trainstations. So 250 km/h is not economically justified until these bottle necks are replaced.
> 
> Btw. New Video about railjet: http://www.bahntv-online.de/btvo/site/index.php?s=3400&ids=141918


The bottleneck around St. Pölten is already worked on. Not 2 but 3 tracks will lead to the railwaystation.

Additionally when the ÖBB gets its stuff together again, they might be able to finally build a freight train track from one terrible expensive crossing free junction shortly before St. Pölten with the one shortly after St. Pölten. 

The first paragraph is already being realized, the latter would be more than extremely stupid to be not finished within the near future as the most expensive parts of that freight track have already been realized. 

Both things together hardly will leave back any bottle neck in St. Pölten.


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

The first real pictures!!

Today a first railjet unit (consisting of 4 segements) was on its way for first testdrives!!


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Just in case you wonder, it's not a 100% completed unit (i'm not referring to the fact that it's a shorter one for the tests). On the outside it still lacks the coverings of the electrical parts. They were already partly installed, but taken down for the tests - no idea why. The insides are not completely finished either. As far as I know this first unit is used for breaking tests etc.

In May the second test unit will be ready. I'm sure we'll see some nice pictures of the first one in the meantime.


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

Cool


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## Anekdote (Apr 11, 2005)

the colour of the new trains look unusual.. maybe it's just me, because i dont really like the colour.


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## Steve87 (Mar 13, 2008)

Great news! Will the railjet service directly compete with Deutsche Bahn's ICE-T services in Austria?


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## X38 (Jan 23, 2008)

Nice.


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Steve87 said:


> Great news! Will the railjet service directly compete with Deutsche Bahn's ICE-T services in Austria?


ICE-T service in Austria is a joint-venture between Deutsche Bahn and ÖBB. ÖBB bought three ICE-T units which operate in a pool together with DB. Hence it will not compete - at least not for now.


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## Steve87 (Mar 13, 2008)

So do they terminate the joint venture?

I am pretty sure they operate ICE-T trains on the Munich-Vienna route.


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Steve87, no they will not. The route for the ICE-T is Vienna-Frankfurt. I don't think there are direct ICE connections between Vienna and Munich atm. ICE routes 22, 24, 26 all go to Dortmund, which means you need to change once along the way to reach Munich.

No matter what, ÖBB and DB, in the near future will not compete. The state-owned railway companies in Europe try to not hurt each other too much for the time being and mainly compete with the privately owned railway companies.

edit:
More pictures: http://www.bahnnews-austria.at/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7942


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## Steve87 (Mar 13, 2008)

This one goes straight from Munich to Vienna:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/tr...=8000261&station_type=dep&currentReferrer=tp&

Fahrtinformationen 
ICE 117 (Zuglauf vom: 23.04.08) 
Halt Ankunft Abfahrt Gleis Aktuelles 
München Hbf 17:23 12 
Salzburg Hbf 18:58 19:04 3a 
Linz Hbf 20:08 20:10 6ad 
St.Pölten Hbf 21:00 21:02 
Wien Westbahnhof 21:42 2


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## Steve87 (Mar 13, 2008)

Here a map from wikipedia with ICE 116 and ICE 117 directly linking Munich and Vienna:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ICE_Network_Austria.svg#file


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## AR1182 (Jan 10, 2006)

There are two EC, one EN and one ICE daily services between Munich and Vienna. This particular ICE service uses ICE-1 trains.

ICE-T trains belonging to the DB/ÖBB-pool are used for the six daily Vienna-Frankfurt(-Dortmund) and one daily Vienna-Bregenz services. 

The first 23 Railjets would run between Budapest and Munich (via Vienna) and between Vienna and Bregenz (with some services continuing to Zurich).


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Actually there is one ICE-T service Vienna - Bregenz and one the other way around per day.


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## AR1182 (Jan 10, 2006)

^^ That's what I meant.

1 daily Vienna-Bregenz/Bregenz-Vienna
6 daily Vienna-Frankfurt(-Dortmund)/(Dortmund-)Frankfurt-Vienna


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

AR1182: yup, sorry, my bad


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## AR1182 (Jan 10, 2006)

rheintram said:


> AR1182: yup, sorry, my bad


No problem. Do you happen to know what frequency they intend to offer on the first Railjet line? Maybe one train every two hours like between Vienna and Frankfurt?


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Unfortunately I don't know that. I checked all the information ressources I know and I couldn't find anything about it. However it looks like RJ will replace EC on those lines, so in the near future we will probably see a RJ every two hours. However I doubt there will be enough units ready till december 2008 and the initial frequency will be much lower.


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## 395003 (Jul 11, 2007)

The new Railjet train is brilliant


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

A few more pictures of the Railjet test train:


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

note the second loco in this one:

































hopefully we get to see a complete railjet soon!


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## Anekdote (Apr 11, 2005)

Any pictures from inside of the train?


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Anekdote said:


> Any pictures from inside of the train?


So far I've only seen concept art and some photos from the factory, where the interior wasn't finished yet.










I'll try to get hold of more photos!


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

New Austrian high-speed record with a railjet train: 275km/h! Compared with some other European countries it doesn't seem too much, but bear in mind that so far the fastest Austrian trains only manage 200km/h and that only on some new highspeed tracks:



> 14.07.2008 11:58
> *Railjet stellt Geschwindigkeitsrekord auf*
> 
> Wien - Der ÖBB-Zug "railjet" hat einen Geschwindigkeitsrekord aufgestellt. Eine vierteilige Garnitur war am Samstag zwischen St. Valentin und Amstetten mit 275 Stundenkilometern unterwegs, berichteten die Bundesbahnen am Montag in einer Aussendung. Der Hochgeschwindigkeitszug wird seit mehr als zwei Monaten getestet und soll ab Dezember diesen Jahres Wien mit München und Budapest verbinden.
> ...


some more pictures from various tests that are currently held all over Austria, Switzerland and Germany:


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## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Yesterday (Monday, 15th of September) the *official roll* out of the first complete train was celebrated in Vienna.

Here are some pictures from the interior 
(c) http://www.zelpage.cz/zpravy/6528

*FIRST CLASS:*









*BUSINESS CLASS*









*ECONOMY CLASS*









the train features lifts for handicapped travelers:









as soon as I found more photos I will post them!


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## webeagle12 (Oct 1, 2007)

anybody have any prices?


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## MarcVD (Dec 1, 2008)

*Interrail passes allowed on railjet ???*



webeagle12 said:


> anybody have any prices?


You can get prices by asking the german web site, www.bahn.de .
I tried and got the following results, for a Munich-Vienna journey :

Regular fare (exchangeable/refundable ticket) 79,40 €. With the normal
TCV price at 71,90 €, that's only 7.5 € more expensive, which looks ok.

Special fare (not exchangeable nor refundable ticket) normally available
@ 29 € but that tariff was already sold out for saturday, march 28, i.e.
almost 3 months away, so the allocation for this tariff must be quite tiny.

Special fare in first class, same conditions as above, @ 49 €.

What I don't know, and would like to know, is whether Interrail passes
can be used on those trains.


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

^^ Does anyone know if the delivery schedule of Railjet locos and cars is on time?


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