Burgenland Railway (Austria)

Sopron – Kőszeg

The last remaining operational station is Deutschkreutz

Route number :

170 01

Course book route (ÖBB) :

512 (Wien Meidling - Deutschkreutz)
524 (Wien Meidling - Neckenmarkt-Horitschon)

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Power system :

Sopron – Deutschkreutz: 25 kV, 50 Hz ~

Maximum slope :

16 ‰

Minimum radius :

183 m

Top speed:

110 km / h

Legend

		Mattersburger Bahn from Wiener Neustadt
		Raaberbahn from Ebenfurth
	-0.205	Start of the route
	0.000	Sopron (Ödenburg)	198 m above sea level A.
		RÖEE to Győr
	4.811	Harka (Harkau) (formerly: Harka- Kópháza (Harkau-Kohlenhof))
		RÖEE to Szombathely
	6.602	State border between Austria and Hungary
	7.752	Feuerbach (6.0 m)
	9,352	Connection railway silo facility Deutschkreutz
	9.411	Deutschkreutz	182 m above sea level A.
	10.210	End of the ÖBB route
	10,540	B 62 (41 m)
	11,571	B 62 (2 × 16.5 + 1 × 26.0 m)
	12,168	Goldbach (5.0 m)
	12,168	Bridge (3.0 m)
	13,483	Unterpetersdorf	218 m above sea level A.
	16,432	Connection railway warehouse Horitschon
	16,252	Neckenmarkt - Horitschon	245 m above sea level A.
	18.025	Kuchelbach (15.0 m)
	18,959	Raiding - Lackendorf	270 m above sea level A.
	20,114	Unterfrauenhaid
	21.735	B 62 (2 × 18.0 + 1 × 23.5 m)
	22,362	Lackenbach	300 m above sea level A.
	22.389	Connecting line sawmill Esterházy
	22.666	Lackenbach (9.6 m)
	23,146	B 62 (2 × 12.0 + 1 × 17.0 m)
	23.872	Goberlingbach (9.5 m)
	27.512	Weppersdorf - Kobersdorf	300 m above sea level A.
	27.785	Bridge (5.7 m)
	27,942	Stooberbach (20.0 m)
	28.113	Bridge (3.7 m)
	28.475	Connecting railway
	28.729	Tessenbach (5.0 m)
	28.888	Saint Martin market	280 m above sea level A.
	30,483	B 50 (2 × 10.8 + 1 × 17.0 m)
	31.265	Neutral
	34,046	Stoob
	38,535	Municipal road (4.0 m)
	38.931	Oberpullendorf	260 m above sea level A.
	39.280	Municipal road (12.0 m)
	42.690	Connecting line Lagerei Handelsges. mbH
	42.833	Unterpullendorf	284 m above sea level A.
	46.745	Oberloisdorf	248 m above sea level A.
	46.860	End of track
	47,000	Rabnitz (removed)
		to Bük (removed)
	49.8	Mannersdorf ad Rabnitz (removed)	322 m above sea level A.
	52.4	Rattersdorf - Liebing (removed)	291 m above sea level A.
	53.101	State border between Austria and Hungary
	~ 55.7	Brewery (demolished)	322 m above sea level A.
	~ 60.0	End of track
	57.7	Kőszeg (Güns)
		Local railway Szombathely – Kőszeg to Szombathely (Steinamanger)

Area used by the Sonnenland Draisinentour

The Burgenland Railway is a branch line in Hungary and Austria . It belongs to the Austrian Federal Railways and crosses the Oberpullendorf district in Burgenland in a north-south direction. Only the northernmost section between Sopron and Deutschkreutz is still used for public train traffic.

At the time of its opening, it belonged entirely to the Kingdom of Hungary . Only when Burgenland was annexed to Austria on January 25, 1921, most of this area became part of Austria .

history

Former Lackenbach train station; today only the trolley tour drives here

Former Lackenbach station in the direction Oberloisdorf, here chained the feeder line to the sawmill Esterházy from

The former Markt St. Martin train station is a listed building

Former end of the line at Oberloisdorf station (kilometer 46.860)

The Ödenburg - Güns line was licensed by the Hungarian Ministry of Commerce on June 19, 1907 . The concessionaire was the " Sopron -Kőszeger Vicinalbahn AG". Commissioning took place on November 5, 1908. It established the connection to the Szombathely – Kőszeg local railway that opened on August 1, 1883 . The line was operated by the Royal Hungarian State Railways for the account of the owners until the end of 1921 . From January 1, 1922, operations were carried out on the owner's account by the Austrian State Railways (ÖStB), which from 1923 acted independently as the Austrian Federal Railways (BBÖ). With effect from July 1, 1929, the line (then also: Oberpullendorfer Bahn ) was declared Austrian property by the Arbitration Court of the League of Nations , for which 7 million schillings (508,710 euros) had to be paid to Hungary in 65 annual installments .

During the Second World War , the line was operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR). When the Iron Curtain became more and more impenetrable after the Second World War, passenger traffic from the Rattersdorf-Liebing border station in the direction of Hungary had to be stopped on October 6, 1951; freight traffic followed on September 1, 1960.

The corridor traffic from Lower Austria to Burgenland was allowed to use the railway line via Ödenburg in all the following decades due to the international treaties between Austria and Hungary. However, from April 28, 1969, the end points of passenger traffic in Oberpullendorf and goods traffic in Oberloisdorf were set. The subsequent section of the route between Oberloisdorf and Kőszeg / Güns has been dismantled from route kilometer 46.860. Only on Hungarian territory can the main line still be found in large areas, which is due to the fact that the ÖBB are still the landowners there.

With the timetable change on May 29, 1988, passenger traffic was initially limited to the Ödenburg – Deutschkreutz section. From May 1989 to May 2001 the line was used again to Lackenbach . With the electrification of the Ödenburg – Deutschkreutz section, passenger traffic between Lackenbach and Deutschkreutz was stopped again in December 2001.

The state of Burgenland and ÖBB signed a transport service contract for the next 15 years at the end of 2005 in order to expand the range of services on the Deutschkreutz – Neckenmarkt-Horitschon section, among other things .

In December 2007, passenger traffic in the Deutschkreutz - Neckenmarkt - Horitschon section was provisionally resumed to a limited extent. From 2008 to 2011 there was a regular schedule for the whole day, but this was discontinued on August 1, 2011, as a change in federal funding occurred and the average occupancy of the trains concerned was only 3-4 passengers and thus less than 5%. Most recently, in the 2012 timetable, only three trains ran to Neckenmarkt-Horitschon in the evening and three trains back early in the morning. Some of their sets were parked in the Neckenmarkt-Horitschon station. Efforts were made to expand and electrify the aforementioned section, which only allows low speeds, so that the trains hauled by electric traction vehicles can also run to Neckenmarkt-Horitschon. However, this did not happen because the passenger traffic between Deutschkreutz and Neckenmarkt-Horitschon was again suspended on July 1, 2013.

The electrification of the route from Ödenburg to Deutschkreutz, which took place in 2001, led to a previously unique feature in the ÖBB railway network. In order not to have to build long traction power lines - the closest substation is at Wiener Neustadt station - the short section to Deutschkreutz station was not equipped with the AC system of 15 kV and 16.7 Hz commonly used by ÖBB , but with the one at the Raaberbahn as well as the alternating current system of 25 kV and 50 Hz used in Hungary. Operationally, this is not a problem, as two-system vehicles have to be used anyway. The electrification in Austria was appropriately assigned to the Raaberbahn (RÖEE).

Unrealized plans

Even before 1925 there was a project (which was not supported by the federal administration in planning and finances) to build a local railway from Markt Sankt Martin (via Kobersdorf and Sieggraben ) to Mattersburg , which would connect this part of Burgenland , which was completely closed off from Austria , bypassing Hungarian territory with the Mattersburger Bahn and further connected with the Südbahn . On October 6, 1925, the governor promised the approval of preliminary technical work.

Route discontinuation from Deutschkreutz

On December 15, 2013, all traffic between Deutschkreutz and Oberloisdorf was suspended. In September 2013, the route was sold by ÖBB to sonnenland railtour gmbh. This has been operating the line as a connecting railway ever since. On the route between Neckenmarkt-Horitschon and Oberpullendorf are also 2,004 rides since June Handcars as Draisinentour offered. The company sonnenland draisinentour gmbh originally leased the route from the Austrian Federal Railways for this purpose. In the beginning, the freight trains ran every weekday morning and from 1 p.m. the bicycle trolleys. On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays you could use the draisines from 9 a.m. Since 2014, the trolleys have been running on weekdays from 10:00 a.m. and on weekends from 9:00 a.m. The draisines run alternately in both directions: on even days from Horitschon / Neckenmarkt to Oberpullendorf and on uneven calendar days in the other direction.