A Greener Hauptbahnhof Unveiled
On 9 Dec., the ÖBB’s Hauptbahnhof partially opens for regional train services, including the regional express trains to/from Bratislava. Five tracks and four platforms will be available as of now, and by 2015, the €1 billion infrastructure project will be completed and open for international train journeys, which are currently departing from Wien Meidling and Wien Westbahnhof. Meanwhile, ÖBB announced that this […]
Bahnorama Hauptbahnhof: A First Glimpse
It is dark and damp like a cave. Piles of rubble line the corridor, and our Wellington boots crunch over broken glass, picking our way among empty soda cans and chunks of plaster that are scattered across the unpaved ground. It is hard to imagine that, in two months’ time, this corridor will lead to […]
All Change at Westbahnhof: The History of a Crossroads
On 14 Dec. 2009, the fabled Orient Express pulled into Vienna’s Westbahnhof for the last time, a victim of high-speed trains and cut-price airlines. In the months that followed, the station at the top of Mariahilferstraße was dramatically overhauled. Now as much a shopping centre as a railway station, it contains reminders of a past […]
Revisiting and Reviving the ‘Austrian Riviera’
On 28 Mar, 1894 at 19:00, Emperor Franz Josef boarded the Abbazia-bound Hofjagdzug at Vienna’s Südbahnhof to meet the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. The following morning at 9:00 sharp, the Kaiser pulled into the small station of Matulji with “beautiful sunshine, clear sky, blue sea and warm, kräftig air.” Coats of arms and laurel decorated the station with Austrian and […]
From Südbahnhof To Hauptbahnhof
It was a cold winter day as I stepped through the partial ruins of what was one of the oldest Viennese train stations, the Südbahnhof/Ostbahnhof. What existed in front of me were only men operating clawed machine monsters, ripping apart the concrete and paving the way for something new: the Vienna Hauptbahnhof. I was with […]
South Station Bids Farewell
A swarm of rail enthusiasts in Vienna’s Südbahnhof crowded around tables strewn with second-hand clothing, outdated timetable books, and paper placards indicating train lines like “Wien Westbahnhof – Linz – Salzburg.” A row of familiar blue signs, which once adorned stations in unfamiliar places like Aspang and Hartberg, lined a nearby wall like snowboards waiting […]
