In the context of the “G4” meeting, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director-General, had the opportunity to attend a technical visit to the new Vienna Main Station, organised on 20 October by Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB).

The Vienna Main Station overall project with a size of 109 hectares is currently the most important infrastructure project for Vienna. Far more than just a railway station, a new district is being created. The new area comprises a total of 5,000 apartments for around 13,000 residents, together with a school and recreation areas. 55,000 square metres of office space are being constructed including the new ÖBB headquarters and a shopping centre.

The new main station is being constructed as a through station, thus overcoming the old “Rideau de fer” – “Iron curtain”. The train infrastructure portion of the overall project, the platforms and the station, extends over an area of around 50 hectares and for a length of six kilometres. About 100 kilometres of new rails, 300 of the most modern switches and crossings will be implemented. The eye-catching visual feature of the new station is the folded, diamond-shaped roof of around 25,000 square metres which extends over the platforms.

For passengers, this means faster train connections and increased comfort when changing trains. Salzburg-Budapest for example will be directly available in five hours instead of the current travel time of six hours.

The new Vienna Main Station is a central hub and crossing-point of three trans-European network corridors, thus strengthening Vienna’s position in the middle of Europe as a business location.

TEN 17 (Paris-Strasbourg-Stuttgart-Vienna-Bratislava)
TEN 23 (Gdansk, Warsaw-Brno-Vienna (Trieste/Venice-Bologna)
TEN 22 (Athens-Sofia/Constantia-Budapest-Vienna-Prague-Nuremberg/Dresden)