Getting from Vienna airport to Graz or Klagenfurtthe two main cities in the south of Austria, can be a long, long journey. And that's despite the fact that in 2020, the airline Austrian Airlines has entered into a partnership with ÖBB railways to transport passengers by train from Graz to the airport. Five trains a day provide a direct link between Austria's second city (population 300,000) and the country's main airport. But what a speed!
It's easy to understand whyAustrian continues to fly to Graz up to three times a day from Vienna. A 35-minute flight! About Klagenfurtthe carrier provides two daily flights.
Graz, capital of Styria, and Klagenfurt, capital of CarinthiaThese regions suffer from a lack of fast connections. The fault lies with a dilapidated rail network and rugged terrain. The line linking Vienna to the south of the country and, by extension, to the Slovenia and Italy cross two mountains.
The "tortillard" over the Semmering Pass
Admittedly, the route over the Semmering Pass is very demanding. one of the most beautiful in Europe. Built between 1848 and 1854 to cross 41 km of high mountains, it is the oldest Alpine line on the continent, a real feat of civil engineering with its 15 tunnels, 16 viaducts and 100 bridges. It was electrified at the end of the 1950s, however, convoys can hardly travel at more than 60 km/h.
While this speed allows you to admire sumptuous panoramas, it prevents you from offering fast journey times. So you need to more than three hours to cover the 145 km between Graz and Vienna airport. And between 4h30 and 5h for the 240 km from Klagenfurt to the airport…
But the era of change has arrived. Visit ÖBB are effectively modernising 200 kilometres of railway lines, plus 170 kilometres of new track. They will include 80 kilometres of new tunnels and 150 new bridges.
The tunnel will now cross two high-speed mountains: the Semmering and the Koralm. By 2030, travellers will be able to reach Klagenfurt in 2 hours 40 minutes and connect Vienna to Graz in less than two hours.. The same line will take you to Ljubljana in just over four hours, compared with the current seven.
What's more, the construction of the Koralmbahn between Graz and Klagenfurt will put the two regional capitals 45 minutes apart from each other. Work on this section is in its final stages. By the end of 2023, a large part of the line will already be in service. Until December, however, existing lines will be closed, with bus transfers between the two Länder capitals.
Integration into the European Baltic-Adria project
This gigantic rail infrastructure project is part of a European Union initiative.. Called Baltic-Adria, the project includes 4,200 km of track linking Gdansk and Szczecin to Venice and Ravenna via Katowice, Bratislava/Vienna, Ljubljana and Trieste.
On the Austrian side, the Semmering railway line is part of this European structuring project, as well as the extension of the Nordbahn to the Czech Republic. And also the reconfiguration of the Vienna-Bratislava and Vienna-Budapest routes via the airport.
All of these projects will consolidate the Austrian capital's position as a the most important rail hub in Central Europe. This ambition is already evident in Vienna's huge Central Station, which opened in 2015...
