Pressburger Bahn

Vienna – Pressburg
Route number :	191 01
Course book route (ÖBB) :	907, 917 (CAT)
Route length:	70.076 km of which: - City route Vienna: 12.553 km - Overland route in Austria: 48.255 km - Overland route in Slovakia: 2.477 km - City route Bratislava: 4.389 km - Together with the Bratislava tram: 1.639 km - Connection route in Petržalka: 0.763  km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	30  ‰
Top speed:	140 km / h
Dual track :	Schwechat Airport Vienna
Legend 0.000 Start of the route 0.035 Vienna wholesale market hall Tram through Marxergasse Danube Canal Line, today U4 0.656 Radetzky Bridge Tram through Radetzkystraße 0.900 End of the double track Tram through Radetzkystraße Connecting track 1,400 Krieglergasse Tram through Rasumofskygasse 2.100 Rotunda Bridge 3,400 Stadium bridge Tram through Schlachthausgasse 4,700 Gas walkway 159.7  m above sea level A. Laaer Ostbahn 5,850 Simmering power station 160.36  m above sea level A. 7.100 Tar factory 159.99  m above sea level A. 8,400 Holzmarkt (from March 10, 1923) 9.724 Artillery barracks 157.06  m above sea level A. 10.314 Zinnergasse Tram through Kaiser-Ebersdorfer Strasse 11,382 Dreherstrasse 158.99  m above sea level A. 11.967 Klein Schwechat Paul-Schiff-Gasse (until June 11, 1924) Donauländebahn from Klein Schwechat 12,553 Schwechat 14.730 Mannswörth 15,063 Awanst Borealis 17,700 Schwechat Ost (until April 30, 1939) 18,575 Schwechat Airport Vienna (until May 18, 1977) 18.718 Station tunnel (816 m) 19,300 Vienna Airport (since May 19, 1977) 20.096 Slope tunnel (733 m) 21,033 Fischamend Reichsstrasse 176.27  m above sea level A. to Mannersdorf 22,500 Fischamend village (until May 30, 1965) 157.98  m above sea level A. 23.379 Fischamend 156.65  m above sea level A. 29,421 Maria Ellend on the Danube 172  m above sea level A. 31.016 Haslau on the Danube 191.43  m above sea level A. 36,305 Regelsbrunn 37.985 Wildungsmauer from Bruck ad Leitha 43.218 Petronell-Carnuntum 186  m above sea level A. 46.747 Awanst Ledex 47.851 Bad Deutsch-Altenburg 171  m above sea level A. 50.185 Hainburg ad Donau culture factory 50.870 Hainburg ad Donau passenger station 51,305 Awanst Austria Tobacco 51,574 Hainburg ad Donau Ungartor 56.182 Wolfsthal 150  m above sea level A. 56.530 End of the route 60.684 Berg (Niederdonau) 137.4  m above sea level A. 60.775 Property boundary LWP / POHÉ.V. 60,808 6,866 Austria / Slovakia 4,885 Kopčany dopravná výhybňa 4,389 0.000 Kopčany 136.3  m above sea level A. by Hegyeshalom 0.763 Bratislava-Petržalka to Bratislava 3,671 Petržalka továrenská kolónia 3.151 Petržalka horná zastávka 2.614 Petržalka Viedenská hradská 2.065 Petržalka 1.645 Petržalka Veslársky club 1.142 Petržalka výhybňa 0.690 Petržalka Aréna 0.630 Beginning of the double track Old bridge over Danube and port railway 0.000 1.639 Property boundary POHÉ.V. / PVVV, end of loop travel 1.425 Bratislava Veliteľstvo armádneho zboru 0.120 Bratislava Veliteľstvo armádneho zboru 0.520 Bratislava Námestie Korunovačného pahorku 0.790 Bratislava Hotel Savoy 1.144 Bratislava Červený vôl

The Pressburger Bahn , called Bécsi villamos in Hungarian or Viedenská električka in Slovak for Wiener Elektro , was a direct railway connection from Vienna via Schwechat and Wolfsthal to Pressburg , originally in the Kingdom of Hungary , now known as the Bratislava capital of Slovakia . The once 70.076 kilometers long, continuously electrified and standard-gauge local railway along the Danube was opened in 1914, with 12.553 kilometers on the urban route in Vienna, 50.732 kilometers on the overland route , 4.389 kilometers on the urban route in Pressburg, 1.639 kilometers on the joint route with the Bratislava tram used section and 0.763 kilometers on the connecting line to the Bratislava – Hegyeshalom railway line .

Route description

Vienna city route

In Vienna, a new line was built for the Pressburger Bahn, which ran between the center of Vienna and Schwechat far away from all the important tram lines, such as those on Landstraßer Hauptstrasse, Rennweg and Simmeringer Hauptstrasse. The advantages of this route lay in the fact that the 15 kV / 16 Übertragungs Hz transmission line from the municipal steam power station Vienna Simmering , where the converter sets for generating the traction current for the overland route to Schwechat, could also use the catenary masts of the city route. In addition, in contrast to the Wiener Lokalbahnen , the Pressburger Bahn did not have to pay any paging fees for shared use of urban tram tracks.

Although the Pressburger Bahn crossed the urban tram at the Kleiner Marxerbrücke , Radetzkybrücke , Rotundenbrücke and at the intersection of Zinnergasse / Kaiser-Ebersdorfer Straße, it had no track connection with it anywhere.

The route within Vienna was at street level. It began at the confluence of Gigergasse with Landstraßer Hauptstrasse , the final station Großmarkthalle was in front of the reception building of the former station at Vienna Main Customs Office . There was a connection to the Vienna steam light rail and from 1925 to the Vienna electric light rail . This was followed by a parallel route to the Vorderen Zollamtsstraße, with the trains in the direction of Pressburg using Henslerstraße, while those coming from there drove through Stelzhamergasse. Ultimately, only the long-distance trains to Pressburg left the actual terminus, while the local trains to and from Schwechat used the parallel route as a block loop in a clockwise direction and had their own departure point on Henslerstrasse. The changeover from left-hand to right-hand traffic with the " connection " to the German Reich in 1938 ultimately led to a reversal of the direction of travel there.

Following the parallel route, the Pressburger Bahn ran a short distance on the Vorderen Zollamtsstrasse, along the Vienna downstream, and at the confluence of the Vienna into the Danube Canal above the ramp from the Radetzky Bridge to the Hermannpark. Shortly thereafter, the route ran at the level of the Danube Canal Quay, and on this it crossed under the Franzensbrücke (with tram), the connecting railway bridge (railway) and the Kaiser-Josef-Brücke (since 1920 slaughterhouse bridge , today stadium bridge; with tram).

The rest of the way ran along the right bank of the Danube Canal and the Dampfschiffstraße , the Weißgerberlände , the Erdberger Lände , the (then longer) Schnirchgasse , the former stone storage area of ​​the municipality of Vienna (at Gassteg) and the Simmeringer Lände (today partially expanded to the A4 motorway) . There it led past the Simmering power station and turned 2.2 kilometers (similar to today's A 4) into Simmeringer Haide , at that time an agricultural area on the outskirts of the city. From there, the route finally reached Kaiserebersdorfer Strasse and, in the course of Dreherstrasse, first crossed the Donauländebahn and then passed the city limits. Immediately afterwards, the route ended at the Pressburger Bahnplatz , which was already in the area of ​​Schwechat, in a ramp where the Donauländebahn from the direction of Kledering, today's access to the overland route of the Pressburger Bahn.

With the exception of the short section from the terminus to the confluence of the Wien River in the Danube Canal and the seven diversions, the entire Viennese city route was single-track, with a separate track on Vignol rails from the confluence in Löwengasse . A signal system with electrical light signals was used to secure the countercurrent; the overhead line voltage was 600 volts direct current. The locomotives used on the Vienna city line were also equipped with batteries for shunting operations on the alternating current tracks at the Schwechat system changeover station, the center of operations on the Austrian side . These were dimensioned so that they did not have to be recharged throughout the day. In addition, their pantographs had a fuse that prevented accidental connection to the AC overhead line. The use of busbars in the Groß Schwechat station, however, was ruled out because of the dense operation there.

Overland route

The overland route largely followed the old Roman military road along the Danube. It was the heart of the Pressburger Bahn and was operated as a full line according to the regulations of the kk state railways. From Schwechat it ran in an easterly direction via the Mannswörth and Heidfeld stops , later replaced by the Vienna Airport station, to the Fischamend Reichsstraße branch station . In this section, the Pressburger Bahn was able to use the Klein Schwechat – Mannersdorf local railway, which had existed since 1884 , but had to carry out the electrification.

From Fischamend Reichsstraße it continued via the Dorf Fischamend stop , the Markt Fischamend train station, the Haslau-Maria Ellend train station and the Haslau-Maria Ellend train station to the Regelsbrunn train station . This was followed by the Wildungsmauer stop and the Petronell-Carnuntum and Bad Deutsch-Altenburg stations before Hainburg an der Donau was reached. There were two train stations and one stop, namely freight station , passenger station and Ungartor . The section of the Petronell – Hainburg ad Donau freight station was an electrified section of the Imperial and Royal State Railways, which was also used by the Pressburger Bahn and had a connection to the Ostbahn in Bruck an der Leitha .

The Wolfsthal and Berg stations followed east of the city of Hainburg , until the route changed to Hungarian territory at km 60.808 and shortly afterwards reached the Kopčany system transfer station . This was not identical to the station of the same name on the Parndorf – Bratislava Petržalka railway line . Rather, it was located southwest of today's Bratislava Petržalka train station at approximately right angles to its track system. The Kopčany station was connected to the Bratislava-Petržalka station by a 763 meter long connecting line, which was also designed as a full-line railway.

In contrast to the two urban routes, the overland route was equipped with the then new single-phase AC technology 16⅔  Hz , 15,000 volts , which is still used today. After the Mittenwaldbahn in Tyrol, it was the second line with this electricity system in Cisleithanien . A mixed direct current / alternating current system for town and country was already used on the local railway Vienna – Baden , but with the same voltage. The maximum permissible speed on the overland route was 60 km / h.

In Kopčany, two tracks were laid out for changing the electricity system. There, the AC locomotive coming from Austria moved to the other end of the train with the help of a conductor rail - which bridged a 50 meter long section without overhead lines - while the Hungarian DC locomotive took over the cars. In order to avoid operating errors, the contact wire was suspended at a height of 6.3 meters and the pantographs of the AC locomotives had a stop that prevented their contact strips from reaching this height. The Kopčany station was also the center of operations of the POHÉ.V., for example a five-person locomotive shed was located there .

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  Mannswörth stop

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  Fischamend train station

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  Maria Ellend ad Donau station

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  Haslau ad Donau stop

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  Regelsbrunn station

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  Wildungsmauer stop

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  Bad Deutsch-Altenburg train station

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  Petronell-Carnuntum train station

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  Hainburg ad Donau Kulturfabrik station

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  Stop Hainburg ad Donau Passenger Station

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  Hainburg ad Donau Ungartor stop

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  Wolfsthal train station

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  Locomotive change in Kopčany: AC in the front, DC in the back

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  Locomotive shed of the POHÉ.V. in Kopčany, 1914

Bratislava city route

In Pressburg and its suburb Petržalka , the route led from Kopčany train station to a stop in front of Petržalka train station , then in a north-westerly direction bypassing the old village center of Petržalka in the direction of the Vienna – Pressburger Bundesstrasse. This she then followed through the Park Sad Janka Kráľa parallel to the Danube to the steel Starý Most .

In Pressburg, the tracks of the local tram were also used in the city center. Since this was meter gauge , three -rail tracks had to be created, with the right rail being shared. The route followed a short stretch of what was then Gábor Baross Street (today Štúrova ulica ), shortly afterwards turned onto the waterfront (then Justi Ufer , now Vajanského nábrežie ) and reached the terminus on Coronation Hill Square , now Námestie Ľudovíta Štúra . On the return journey to Vienna, the trains continued north from Coronation Hill Square via Bruckgasse (now Mostová ulica ) to Kossuth Square (previously called Radetzkyplatz , Promenade or Theaterplatz , now Hviezdoslavovo námestie ). Past the National Theater, the route continued through Rosengasse (now Jesenského ulica ) and Gábor-Baross-Strasse across König-Andreas-Platz (now Šafárikovo námestie ), where the loop ride ended.

The Bratislava city line was operated with 550 volts direct current, analogous to the local tram, whose power station also took over the power supply. The maximum permissible speed was 25 km / h on the section which the POHÉ.V. heard and 18 km / h on the inner city loop operated jointly with the tram. However, only 6 km / h were allowed in curves, when passing switches and at St. John's Church in Petržalka. In addition, a minimum distance of 50 meters had to be kept to the trains of the local tram. At the confluence with the Hotel Savoy and the Jesenského / Štúrova junction, the POHÉ.V. however, priority over local trams. The stops in the city area were served jointly.

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  Former stop on the Bratislava city line, 2014

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  The POHÉ.V. railcar has just left the bridge over the Danube and is at the beginning of the inner city loop

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  Today's Námestie Ľudovíta Štúra was the city-side terminus of the Bratislava Railway

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  A train on its way back to Vienna at the Hotel Savoy

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  A POHÉ.V. railcar at the theater

history

prehistory

Vienna and Pressburg were already directly connected to one another by the Marchegger Ostbahn from 1848 . In 1886, the Petronell-Carnuntum - Hainburg ad Donau Freight Station, which was originally part of the Eastern Railway , went into operation, before the Ödenburg-Preßburger Lokalbahn AG closed the gap between Parndorf and Kittsee in 1899, establishing a direct railway connection between the two south of the Danube Large cities existed.

Independently of this, the privately-initiated Central Railway Network project for the Vienna area was developed in the years before 1870 , which consisted of ten sections and the tenth project was a Vienna – Pressburg line . In 1869, a prominent consortium applied to the Ministry of Commerce for approval for preliminary work - knowing that the project would be a long time coming .

After the stormy economic development in the greater Vienna area up to the beginning of the 20th century, there was an unbelievable increase in the volume of traffic, which is why the transport routes, especially by rail, were considerably expanded. Only the transport offer east of Schwechat remained poor, and there was a lack of efficient means of transport.

First plan by Josef Tauber (1898)

Engineer Josef Tauber, the spiritual father of the Pressburger Bahn

In order to further optimize the connection between Vienna and Pressburg, the Viennese engineer Josef Tauber worked out a plan for an interurban tram between the two cities as early as 1898 . On November 17, 1899, he submitted his proposals for routing, demolishing existing structures and initiating negotiations to the commission for transport facilities in Vienna, which was convened for a special session .

But Tauber's project provoked great resistance from the First Danube Steamship Company , which feared competition for its slower but cheaper liner shipping with the new railway , as well as from the Bratislava merchants who wanted to prevent their customers from migrating to Vienna. In addition, there was concern in Hungary that the former coronation city of the Hungarian kings could come under strong influence from Vienna and its suburbs. These circumstances resulted in very difficult negotiations and a long time to implementation. Tauber's plans from 1898 were thus shelved for the time being.

Another advance at the instigation of the military (1904)

The project received new impetus in 1904 from Austro-Hungarian military circles . In the event of mobilization or even armed forces , so the war ministry argued , an efficient rail link between Vienna and Pressburg would not only provide valuable support in handling troop and material transports, but also served to supply the population. In addition, thanks to the electrical operation, no additional staff would be required in the event of a disturbance. In the course of the detailed planning, however, for reasons of capacity and speed, those responsible decided not to design the middle section between Schwechat and Kopčany - as planned by Tauber at the time - as a slower interurban tram with multiple units, but as a faster railway with locomotive operation, that is, the decision was made for a link between trams and trains .

This time the plans went through, so that on November 12, 1904 the private stock corporation Lokalbahn-Wien Pressburg (LWP) was founded. In the end, it traded as the Electric Local Railway Vienna-State Border next to Hainburg , but kept the abbreviation originally intended.

Difficulties on the Hungarian side

Although a line of the Hungarian State Railways ran across the Danube bridge since 1891, the Pressburger Bahn was not allowed to use it

However, the Hungarian government viewed the construction of the new railway with displeasure. She was not interested in the closer connection of Pressburg to Vienna because this ran counter to her policy of Magyarization and took her time with the approval for the Hungarian section of the route. Franz Joseph I finally only granted the building and operating permit for the Hungarian section with his signature on May 7, 1909, the concession by the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Commerce followed on June 5, 1909.

Since the operation of a railway on Hungarian territory by an Austrian company was legally and politically impossible, the Hungarian side founded the Pozsony Országhatárszéli Helyiérdekű Villamos Vasút , or POHÉ.V for short, on December 23, 1909 .

The terminal on the Pressburg Coronation Hill Square caused additional discussions. According to the original plan, a reception building with a waiting room and side tracks for moving the locomotives should be built there . However, the city worried about the attractiveness of the popular walking and recreation area for its citizens and, as an alternative, proposed the - ultimately realized - construction of the city-block loop including the shared use of the tram tracks, which meant that shunting operations in downtown Bratislava could be omitted.

However, the shared use of the existing tram infrastructure requested by the City of Pressburg caused new problems and lengthy negotiations with the local tram company Pozsonyi Város Villamos Vasút , or PVVV for short. POHÉ.V. Negotiating an operating contract that could not be concluded until 1913. In order to supply the new route, the city of Pressburg also had to expand its municipal power station. For this purpose, also in the course of 1913, a new 270-kilowatt diesel engine with a 130-kilowatt dynamo from the manufacturer Ganz and extended battery support was used. The steam engines originally used from then on only served as a reserve.

Furthermore, the originally planned joint use of the Bratislava – Hegyeshalom railway in the Bratislava city area failed on the Hungarian side, with the Pressburger Bahn having to pay route fees for the journey over the Franz Joseph Bridge due to the resistance of the Hungarian state railway Magyar Államvasutak . Alternatively, the new railway had to use the bridge's tramway, for which purpose grooved rails were laid there. For safety reasons, this section was built on two tracks. It was initially assumed that the bridge, which was only inaugurated in 1890, could easily bear the additional weight of the rails. However, the load capacity regulations had changed in the meantime, which is why the load-bearing capacity of the bridge first had to be improved. The maximum axle pressure was then set at 6.5 tons and the maximum permissible vehicle weight at 26 tons. The minimum permitted wheelbase was 2.5 meters and the smallest permitted pivot spacing was 6.5 meters. The Budapest company Ganz calculated on November 30, 1910 that a train on the Danube Bridge could consist of a maximum of one locomotive, two passenger cars and one mail car. In addition, there was a ban on encounters, which means that only one train was allowed to be on the bridge.

start of building

On June 4, 1911, the official groundbreaking ceremony took place in Hainburg after the AEG entrusted with the contract had already started construction the day before. The rights and obligations of the workers were laid down in the “work order for the construction of the route”, including the right to freedom of religion. For example, they were to be given "the necessary time on public holidays to meet the obligations of their denomination to attend the morning service".

The operation on both sides of the border was transferred to the Niederösterreichische Landesbahnen (NÖLB). The concession document for the Austrian part of the route was not issued until June 24, 1912.

Grand opening in 1914

Anti-Semitic caricature of Kikeriki on the occasion of the press trip on January 22, 1914

Opening poster

At the beginning of October 1913, the construction work had progressed so far that the first test drives were foreseeable at the end of the month and December 1 of the year was set as the opening day. But even before the public began to travel, criticism was expressed about the timetable and the rail operations. In October 1913, while a road map was announced, among other things, an outgoing in Vienna at 23:30 and arriving in Bratislava by about 1:45 Theater Train envisaged.

After the test drives between Groß Schwechat and Fischamend Reichsstraße on December 12th and 13th, 1913 and a press conference on January 22nd, 1914, the railway should finally go into operation on January 25th, 1914. However, due to unspecified difficulties on the Hungarian side, the opening date was postponed again. Finally, it was officially inaugurated on February 1, 1914 at 9:00 a.m. at the Vienna Wholesale Market Hall, which was also decorated with red-white-green Hungarian flags .

Railway Minister Baron Zdenko von Forster , Prince Archbishop Friedrich Gustav Piffl and other dignitaries took part in the opening trip . After the consecration , carried out according to the Catholic rite, the two opening trains set off at 10:25 a.m. Although there was 30 centimeters of snow in Vienna at the time, the journey went smoothly. At the Berg border station , State Secretary Lers gave the order to continue the journey in Hungarian with the pathetic words “There are no two countries in the world that complement each other as happily as Austria and Hungary”. In Pressburg, where the first train arrived at 1:09 p.m., Mayor Tivadar Brolly asked the then Mayor of Vienna Richard Weiskirchner and 142 other guests of honor to have a feast at the Hotel Carlton before the party started their return journey to Vienna that evening.

Start of regular operation

Second class ticket for the entire route from April 26, 1914

Regular passenger traffic on the Pressburger Bahn began on February 5, 1914, initially with eleven pairs of trains ; additional local traffic between Vienna's Großmarkthalle and Groß Schwechat began on April 13, 1914. Local traffic between Pressburg and Engerau, however, did not begin until November 15, 1914, because the delivery of the vehicles was delayed. Total operated on the Bratislava train first 35 pairs of trains, and in local traffic, a 20-minute clock was offered. From 1916, individual local trains continued to run on the Hungarian side to Kittsee.

The simple travel time over the entire route was between two hours and eleven minutes and two hours and 16 minutes, depending on the direction of travel and the number of intermediate stops; according to another source, it was one hour and 54 minutes for the express trains and up to three hours for the passenger trains . Passenger trains did not stop everywhere on the sections covered by local traffic. Although all technical precautions had been taken to compete with the state railway, the Pressburger Bahn was a much slower connection than that. The fare over the entire route was initially 220 Heller in the third and 340 in the second class . The former had elegant wooden seats and the latter had dark green suede seats, and 16 electric lamps each provided lighting for the cars. Very popular with the educated middle class , the evening proved Theater Train . But the rest of the public also frequented the new connection. The people of Pressburg, for example, traveled to Vienna to buy coffee or to watch a football game, while others visited the swimming pool in Hainburg. The Viennese, in turn, went to Pressburg to go to the theater or to watch a film that was forbidden to them.

On March 1, 1914, Archduke Karl Stephan of Austria tried the new connection with his wife Maria Theresa of Austria-Tuscany . From their residence they drove to the Groß Schwechat train station in a car and got into a second class car. The princely couple, who were enthusiastically welcomed in Bratislava, then returned to their homeland - again by car.

Over three million tickets were sold in the first year of operation. As a result, the fleet had to be expanded by 70 percent soon after the opening. The sets were lengthened from two to four to five cars. Due to the limited load-bearing capacity of the Danube bridge, only the first two were able to run continuously from Vienna to Pressburg as through cars , while the others waited in Hainburg for the train to return. In freight traffic, which only took place between Groß Schwechat and Kopčany, the railway, for example, transported vegetables from the Schüttinsel to Austria and in the opposite direction milk to Hungary. Passenger and freight transport was partly carried out jointly using mixed trains .

The balance sheet for 1915, the first full financial year, showed a profit of 335,000 kroner. There were losses only on the short Hungarian section. As a result, for reasons of savings, even the director of the operating company and his son and daughter had to be temporarily deployed as train drivers . The Pressburger Bahn played an important role with regard to the eating habits of the Viennese, until the outbreak of the First World War, the lower prices for inns in Pressburg attracted them in droves to day trips to the neighboring city.

First World War and consequences

The general food shortage that began in 1915, whereby the supply situation in the Austrian part of the monarchy was worse than in the Hungarian, led to a dramatic increase in hamster journeys on the Pressburger Bahn. At that time, bread, flour, sugar, fat and coffee were only available with food stamps ; beet and corn were used to produce substitute products. Because the capital's population alternatively stocked up on vegetables and potatoes from the farmers in the countryside, the trains were manned right down to the running boards. The export of food from Hungary to Austria was prohibited. At that time, Princess Stephanie of Belgium also got into trouble when she tried to transfer two kilograms of poppy seeds to Austria after a trip to the neighboring country .

With the end of the First World War there were changes at the Pressburger Bahn. After troops of the newly formed Czechoslovakia , the December 31, 1918 at Bratislava Danube bridge had occupied and ripped the tracks, the location in the city could land station be used in the early afternoon of January 1 for the last time. Those who fled from Pressburg in the direction of Vienna covered the six-kilometer way to continue their journey from the regional train station in Kittsee on foot. As a result, the trains only ran as far as the Kittsee system changing station, and on the night of August 14th to 15th, 1919, the bridge was completely barricaded.

General train operations at this time were severely throttled and very irregular. Due to the civil war-like conditions in Hungary, traffic from April 27 to October 2, 1919 was only maintained on the Austrian side and carried to Berg. In Austria, the effects of the First World War, such as inflation and a lack of energy, also had an impact , which is why the railway was repeatedly shut down for short and long-term periods in 1919 and 1920.

After the situation in Czechoslovakia had stabilized, from October 2, 1919, local railway trains were again permitted between what was now Bratislava and Kopčany, and on the Austrian side the approval for the resumption of cross-border operations followed on December 18, 1919. From May 21 In 1920, long-distance trains ran again from Vienna to Kopčany, where passport and customs controls took place. From then on, travelers to Pressburg had to change to local trains to get to their destination, which they reached after 24 minutes. Since then, rail operations have been divided into two sections. From the POHÉ.V. 1920 was also the Lokálnej Elektrickej Železnice Bratislava-Zemská Hranica , short BZH

1920-1935

Until the summer of 1920, the procedure was that trains from Vienna went to the Berg-Landesborder, moved the locomotives there and pushed the mostly two through cars to Pressburg to Kopčany station. There these were taken over by BZH locomotives. This procedure, which was at the expense of the Czechoslovak part of the company, was discontinued in the summer and the route from Kopčany to the Berg border was switched from 15,000 volts AC to 550 volts DC. The route that was converted in this way could be put into operation on November 1, 1920.

Now operations were handled in such a way that the two through cars to Pressburg were pushed by the locomotive coming from Vienna in the Berg-Landes Grenz stop, which has meanwhile been converted into a train station, across the state border to Czechoslovakia, where there was a short section of no current, and there by one available BZH locomotive were taken over. In the opposite direction, the BZH locomotive was already moving at Kopčany station and pushed the through cars to Vienna as far as the Berg border station, where they were again taken over by the Austrian locomotive. The system that was used for a short time in the Kopčany railway station had thus shifted to Berg.

On May 1, 1921, the Bratislava City Transport Company took over the management of the entire Czechoslovak section of the Bratislava Railway on behalf of the BZH. From June 1, 1922, separate passport controls took place, on the Austrian side in Berg and on the Czechoslovak side in Kopčany. The resumption of direct traffic on the state railway Preßburg – Vienna was announced for December 20, 1923. On the Austrian side, on January 1, 1921, the Austrian Federal Railways took over operations from the NÖLB, which was dissolved in 1922.

Partial re-gauging in 1935

As the standard-gauge track represented a foreign body to the limit in the meter-gauge tram network in Bratislava, she was suspended on October 5, 1935, and a line under the letter K replacement bus service with buses equipped. During this time, the line and vehicles were converted to meter gauge and reopened as tram line E on January 5, 1936. Petržalka crossed this via a double-track new line on a slightly shorter route and drove to Kittsee every 20 minutes, while the terminus at the border was only served in connection with the trains to and from Vienna. From then on, travelers had to get off at Berg in order to cross the border on foot to the other means of transport. The passport and customs formalities had to be done in a common clearance hall.

1938-1945

Remains of the sleepers on the Slovak side near the Berg border crossing

In September 1938, as a result of the Sudeten crisis on October 1, 1938, directly after the Munich Agreement , the Sudetenland was occupied and immediately incorporated into the German Reich . Petržalka, now called Engerau again, also belonged to the Sudetenland. The Bratislava city line was closed on October 7, 1938 and operations to Engerau station were maintained from October 10, 1938 to April 11, 1941 with German buses.

Since the armaments factories in Engerau had to record an enormous increase in work due to Germany's war preparations, the demand for transport routes in the area grew considerably. So from the end of 1939 there were plans to extend the route of the Pressburger Bahn from Berg to Engerau again. The plans were finalized in 1940 and on January 10, 1941, the line extended to Engerau station could be opened, which was now continuously operated with alternating current. A continuation to downtown Bratislava was no longer part of the planning.

From November 1, 1943, due to the high volume of traffic, at that time mainly front vacationers frequented the route, trips from the Vienna Aspang train station via Simmering , the Vienna Central Cemetery and on to Schwechat were taken up. Because of bomb hits on the railway systems - especially in the city location in Vienna due to house collapses and in the area of ​​the Groß Schwechat train station - it had to temporarily stop its operations from 1944 onwards, partially or completely. Because of the fighting in its area, it was cleared of all vehicles in the spring of 1945 and operations were suspended on April 3, 1945.

After 1945

Today's route ends in Wolfsthal

After the end of the war - the Red Army had conquered Vienna in mid-April 1945 - traffic on the Pressburg Railway was gradually resumed from July 26, 1945 on several sections with steam locomotives , with refugees in particular causing chaotically overcrowded trains. Only the Vienna city line was so permanently destroyed during the Battle of Vienna when the Danube Canal bridges were blown up that it was no longer repaired after 1945. In March 1946 electrical operation was also resumed. After the last still destroyed bridges of the viaduct in Hainburg had been repaired, it was possible to drive back to Wolfsthal from July 1, 1946. Due to the low level of use, however, the section from Wolfsthal to the temporary terminus between Berg and the state border was no longer served. Nevertheless, for some time after the end of the war, freight trains with steam locomotives drove here, transporting dismantled goods from the former armaments factories in the Engerau / Berg area to the Soviet Union. After that, the track was interrupted immediately before the state border and removed on the Austrian side by 1959. On the Slovak side, where a concrete wall was later built over the orphaned track remnants in the border strip, it was still there until the 1980s.

Since the city route in Vienna had been affected by bombs and the fighting in Vienna in the area of ​​the Danube Canal , operations were not resumed; Viennese access to the overland route was only possible via the Aspang Railway . Most of the track material was dismantled by 1948 and used to repair the damage to the overland route.

Re-routing at the airport and integration into the express train

The Vienna Airport underground station opened in 1977

A Bombardier talent at Wolfsthal terminus

The construction of the second runway at Vienna Airport, which opened in 1977, necessitated the re-routing of the Pressburger Bahn. It has also been crossing under the site since 1977 by means of two tunnels, the station tunnel and the slope tunnel . Since that year, the distance also between Schwechat and Wolfsthal in the net of the Vienna S-Bahn , then still train called integrated and of the line operated S7. It is primarily used to connect the airport to the Vienna Praterstern and Wien Mitte train stations , with many trains coming from Floridsdorf or more distant S-Bahn stations. The extension via Kopčany to Bratislava was discussed in the 1990s, but could not be realized because the railway site between Wolfsthal and Berg had been sold by the ÖBB.

With the help of the Götzendorfer Spange (a planned branch from the Pressburger Bahn to the Ostbahn), a continuous connection between Vienna, Vienna Airport and Bratislava Petržalka could be realized; The austerity policy of ÖBB due to the crisis is unlikely to allow construction in the next few years. The fast railway connection Vienna – Pressburg runs on the Marchegger branch north of the Danube to the Bratislava main station and on the eastern railway in the direction of Budapest, south of the Danube, branching off in Parndorf via Kopčany to Petržalka. After the southern station was closed on December 12, 2009, both lines had their starting point in the provisional Vienna South Station (east side) and have been running from the new Vienna Central Station (platforms 9-12) since December 9, 2012 .

Considerations published in December 2007 by Wiener Lokalbahnen to revive the Pressburger Bahn from 2013 with tram-like multiple units from the city center of Vienna to Pressburg have not been pursued any further.

Two-track expansion

In the 1990s, the line between Schwechat and Vienna Airport was double-tracked and expanded according to high-performance criteria, i.e. larger track spacing, no level crossings with streets etc. - which amounted to a new line construction. The doubling of the number of trains to the airport promised at the time from half an hour to a quarter of an hour was achieved by the City Airport Train (CAT), which also runs every half hour but is not part of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR) , which has been running since 2003. The residents were not satisfied with this decision, as the CAT drives non-stop to the airport and Schwechat and Mannswörth are still only served every half hour.

The original plan was to build a tunnel between Kaiserebersdorf and Mannswörth as part of the expansion in order to accelerate the slow passage through Schwechat. Due to problems with the groundwater, this plan was rejected and the existing route expanded. This allowed the speed to be increased from 40–70 km / h to 60–100 km / h. The groundbreaking ceremony with Governor Erwin Pröll and Minister of Transport Viktor Klima took place on May 29, 1994, and in 2000 the double-track expansion was completed.

Renamed operations

The following operating points of the Pressburger Bahn changed their names over the years:

today's / last name	earlier names
Vienna wholesale market hall	Vienna Großmarkthalle Landesbahn
Rotunda Bridge	Sofienbrücke (until May 31, 1922)
Stadium bridge	Kaiser-Josef-Brücke (until November 6, 1919), Schlachthausbrücke (until August 27, 1937)
Artillery barracks	Kaiserebersdorf loading point (until March 10, 1923), Kaiserebersdorf local railway, Neusimmering
Zinnergasse	Kaiserebersdorf Zinnergasse
Dreherstrasse	Dreherstrasse line office
Schwechat	Groß Schwechat
Schwechat Airport Vienna	Schwechat Ost (until May 1, 1941), Heidfeld (until June 2, 1957)
Vienna Airport	Airport Wien-Schwechat
Fischamend	Fischamend market
Maria Ellend on the Danube	Croatian Haslau (until 1923), Haslau-Maria Ellend
Petronell-Carnuntum	Petronell
Bad Deutsch-Altenburg	German Altenburg
Hainburg ad Donau culture factory	Hainburg ad Danube freight station
Hainburg ad Donau passenger station	Hainburg ad Danube city
Berg ( Niederdonau )	Berg in N.Ö. Landesbahn (until May 1, 1939)
Kopčany dopravná výhybňa	Köpcsény Forgálami kiterő
Kopčany	Köpcsény, Kittsee
Bratislava-Petržalka	Ligetfalu, Engerau
Petržalka továrenská kolónia	Ligetfalu gyártelep
Petržalka horná zastávka	Ligetfalu Felsö megállóhely
Petržalka Viedenská hradská	Ligetfalu Bécsi országút
Petržalka	Ligetfalu
Petržalka Veslársky club	Ligetfalu Hajós egylet
Petržalka výhybňa	Ligetfalu Liget
Bratislava Veliteľstvo armádneho zboru	Pozsony Hadtest parancsnokság
Bratislava Námestie Korunovačného pahorku	Pozsony Koronázási dombtér
Bratislava Hotel Savoy	Pozsony Savoy szálloda
Bratislava Červený vôl	Pozsony Vörös Ökör

vehicles

Original stock

	owner	genus	Numbers	number	description	axes	comment
	LWP / POHÉ.V.	Ewp	1-8	08th	AC electric passenger locomotive	4th	later BBÖ 1005 , DR E 72, ÖBB 1072 , machine number 6 as the only one owned by POHÉ.V.
	LWP	Ewl	1-3	03	AC electric truck locomotive	4th	later BBÖ 1060 , DR E 60
	LWP	Eg	1-4	04th	Electric DC locomotive	2	for the Vienna city line, later BBÖ 1085 , DR E 171, ÖBB 1985
	LWP	BCah BCDah BCDFah Cah CDah	1200-1211 1300-1303 1400-1402 1500-1504 1700-1703	28	Second and third class passenger car Second and third class passenger car with luggage compartment Second and third class passenger car with luggage and mail compartment Third class passenger car with luggage compartment	4th	for the entire route, first delivery from 1913 with open platforms, reorder from 1916 with closed platforms
	POHÉ.V.	Eg	5-6	02	Electric DC locomotive	4th	for the Bratislava city route
	LWP	Eg	7-8	02	Electric DC locomotive	4th	for the Vienna city line, later BBÖ 1478 , DR E 172
	LWP	Cmg	1600-1609	10	Third class motor vehicle for direct current operation	2	for the Vienna city line, later BBÖ ET 24 , DR ET 187, ÖBB 4924
	LWP	Ch	1525-1533	09	Third class sidecar	2	for the Vienna city line, identical in construction to the railcars 1600–1609
	POHÉ.V.	Cmg	1610-1613	04th	Third class motor vehicle for direct current operation	2	for the Bratislava city route
	POHÉ.V.	Ch	1534-1536	03	Third class sidecar	2	for the Bratislava city line, identical to the railcars 1610–1613
	POHÉ.V.	Gk	201-203	03	covered freight car	2
	LWP	Gol	428-442	15th	covered freight car	2
	LWP	Gk	700-702	03	covered freight car	2
	LWP	Gk	751-762	12	covered freight car	2
	POHÉ.V.	Jk	101-102	02	open freight car	2
	LWP	Jkg	800-853	04th	open freight car	2
	LWP	Jk	900-901	02	open freight car	2
	LWP	Jk	950-953	04th	open freight car	2

Some of the LWP's driving equipment was designed by the architect Otto Wagner . As a special feature, all locomotives of both companies, like all freight cars , had two different coupling systems . They had both the regular pulling and pushing devices of a mainline railway, i.e. buffers and screw couplings , as well as a - somewhat deeper - central buffer coupling in the form of a funnel coupling . In contrast to this, the motor coaches and sidecars for the two city routes, as well as the four-axle passenger coaches for the entire route, originally only had funnel couplings. The reason for this was the narrow radii on the city routes, so the long passenger cars could not be equipped with standard buffers because of the risk of overbuffering .

The locomotives for the city routes only made around 200 hp, corresponding to the low speed, while 800 hp machines drove the trains on the long-distance routes. In Pressburg, instead of a locomotive, one of the railcars sometimes pulled a four-axle passenger coach.

Non-original vehicles that were used on the Pressburger Bahn

• ÖBB 1046
• ÖBB 1072
• ÖBB 1073
• ÖBB 1080
• ÖBB 1979
• ÖBB 4020
• ÖBB 4030
• ÖBB 4024
• ÖBB 4060
• ÖBB 4061
• ÖBB 4746
• Viennese light rail car

literature

• PressburgerBahn, history of the city line in Bratislava . Bratislava, 2014 (iPad version), iTUNES .
• Electric train Vienna Pozsony (Pressburg) . Union Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft, Vienna 1914, OBV .
• Pressburg and Hainburg. (Zone 13 Col. XVI), Kuk Military Geographical Institute, Vienna, partially corrected by 7 January 1914
• Railway and shipping map of the Republic of Austria. published by the Cartographic Institute, formerly the Military Geographic Institute in Vienna in 1928
• Traffic and travel map of Austria and Southern Bavaria. published by the Cartographic, formerly Military Geographic Institute in Vienna, no year.
• Alfred Horn: "60 Years" - The Pressburg Railway. With… plans, situation and type sketches as well as 33 tables and tabular overviews. Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-7002-0420-6 , OBV .
• Alfred Horn: Pressburgerbahn - 75 years in pictures. A documentation . Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-7002-0698-4 .
• Wolfdieter Hufnagl: The Lower Austrian State Railways . 1st edition. transpress-Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-71214-8 , pp. 132-145.
• Felix Jeschke: Dracula on Rails: The Pressburgerbahn Between Imperial Space and National Body, 1867-1935 . In: Central Europe, Volume X, No. 1, May 2012, pp. 1–17, ingentaconnect.com .
• Karl Kraus : The Vienna-Pressburg electric railway has opened. In: The torch . XV. Jahr, No. 393/394, Vienna, March 7, 1914, OBV , p. 32.

Web links

Commons : Lokalbahn Wien-Pressburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Železničná trať: History of the Bratislava Railway and photo page about Wolfsthal station (Slovak)
• tramways.at: Received rail vehicles
• Story with old photos (Slovak)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} História bratislavského úseku Viedenskej električky on imhd.sk, accessed on December 28, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} Jaroslav Filo: Po stopách zrušených, nepoužívaných či nedostavaných železničných tratí 2: Viedenská elektrická železnica I. (doplnené) , article from October 8, 2009 on veterany.eu, accessed on April 10, 2020
3. ↑ The Pressburger Bahn on strassenbahnjournal.at, accessed on December 25, 2019.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p} Dietmar Grieser: For a goose meal in Pressburg . In: The uncle from Preßburg: On Austrian tracks through Slovakia. Amalthea Signum Verlag, Vienna, 2017.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} A Bécsi villamos (POHÉ.V.) története. Documentation on pressburgerkipferl.sk, accessed on January 11, 2020.
6. ^ Ministries (...) Ministry of Commerce . In: Lehmann's general apartment indicator. Part II: Evidence. Authorities, public institutes and buildings, (...). Eighth year. Hölder, Vienna 1870, p. 37 f. ( online ).
7. ↑ The Economist. (...) Railway news. (…) The project of a “Central Railway Network” for Vienna has recently emerged (…). In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 1624/1869, March 7, 1869, p. 9, center left. (Online at ANNO ). .
8. ^ ^{A b c} Peter Martinko, Vlado Schwarz: Pressburgerbahn - History of the city line in Bratislava. E-book published by the Association of Friends of Urban and Local Public Transport.
9. ↑ História bratislavskej MHD v rokoch 1909 až 1926 on imhd.sk, accessed on April 12, 2020
10. ↑ Economic Chronicle. Railways and Industry. (…) The Vienna – Pressburg electric train. In:  Political Chronicle of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy , year 1911, issue 6, p. 674, center right. (Online at ANNO ). and the
    groundbreaking ceremony for the Vienna – Pressburg electric railway. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Afternoon Gazette, No. 16805/1911, June 6, 1911, p. 11, center left. (Online at ANNO ). .
11. ↑ RGBl. 1912/125. In:  Reichsgesetzblatt for the kingdoms and states represented in the Reichsrathe , year 1912, pp. 401–406. (Online at ANNO ). .
12. ^ The electric railway Vienna – Pressburg. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 17645/1913, October 7, 1913, p. 10, center left. (Online at ANNO ). .
13. ^ Electric railway Vienna – Pressburg. In:  Wiener Zeitung , No. 26/1914, February 1, 1914, p. 6 middle. (Online at ANNO ). .
14. ^ The electric railway Vienna – Pressburg. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 17645/1913, October 7, 1913, p. 10, center left. (Online at ANNO ). .
15. ↑ Little Chronicle. (…) Electric Railway Vienna – Pressburg .. In:  Wiener Zeitung , No. 25/1914, January 31, 1914, p. 3, center right. (Online at ANNO ). ,
    Opening of the electric railway Vienna – Preßburg. In:  Economic Chronicle of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy , year 1914, p. 87. (Online at ANNO ). .
16. ^ Emil Honigmann:  The electrical engineering industry in 1913. (…) IV. Electric railways. In:  Electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Journal of the Electrotechnical Association in Vienna. Organ of the Association of Austrian and Hungarian Electricity Companies / Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Journal of the Electrotechnical Association in Vienna (and organ of the branch association Brno) / E. u. M. (E and M) electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Journal of the Electrotechnical Association in Vienna / E and M electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Journal of the Electrotechnical Association in Vienna from 1883 to 1938 / E and M electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Organ / magazine of the Electrotechnical Association of Austria , year 1914, No. 26/1914 (XXXII. Year), June 28, 1914, p. 558. (Online at ANNO ). .
17. ↑ ^{a b} Katrin Litschko: The Pressburgerbahn celebrates its hundredth birthday . In: Neue Pressburger Zeitung from March 2014, pp. 36–37
18. ↑ The railway traffic between Vienna and Pressburg stopped. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 19524/1919, January 1, 1919, p. 9, top center. (Online at ANNO ). .
19. ^ The occupation of Pressburg by the Czechen. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 19525/1919, January 2, 1919, p. 1, center right. (Online at ANNO ).
20. ^ The Czechen in Pressburg. (…) Stories from travelers. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 19526/1919, January 3, 1919, p. 7, center left. (Online at ANNO ). .
21. ↑ Little Chronicle. Direct tram traffic between Vienna and Pressburg. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 21287/1923, December 15, 1923, p. 1, bottom center. (Online at ANNO ). .
22. ^ Peter Wegenstein: Multi-track railway lines in Austria. 6th part. In: Rail transport currently. October 1991, p. 6.
23. ↑ Wiener Lokalbahnen want to revive the Pressburger-Bahn. ( Memento of March 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: wieninternational.at , January 14, 2008, accessed on December 17, 2012.
24. ^ Gerhard Krause: Badner Bahn wants to go to Bratislava. The Wiener Lokalbahnen surprise with a new idea: They want to operate a tram to Bratislava again. ( Memento from April 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: kurier.at , December 27, 2007, accessed on December 17, 2012.
25. ↑ Current rail traffic . Edition 01/1993, ZDB -ID 568412-2 . Verlag Pospischil, Vienna 1993, p. 7.
26. ↑ Timetable of the Reichsbahndirektion Wien on bahnstatistik.de, accessed on January 6, 2020.
27. ^ Vienna-Pressburg Railway. In: Viktor von Röll (ed.): Encyclopedia of the Railway System . 2nd Edition. Volume 2: Building Design - Brazil . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1912, p.  246 .

Remarks

1. ↑ (Copy :) The Vienna-Pressburg electric railway has opened (/) that is practical. Members of the Vienna Men's Choir performed a choir, which is impractical. Inspectors Edelstein and Kronos took part in the opening trip, which is interesting, although the latter is not identical or by marriage. Arriving in Pressburg, one noticed that there in 1277 Ladislaus IV had concluded the alliance treaty with King Rudolf on the basis of which the battle at Dürnkrut was won, and that Ferdinand I moved his residence there, to Pressburg, after the battle of Mohacs . This is incomplete because Professor Bernhardi should also be performed in Pressburg . The Austrian Minister of Railways gave three speeches, one when the train was leaving, one at the border and one at the destination. That is much. “After all, they said to each other,” he said, “it cannot be up to the government to hold back technical progress, and what is in the general interest is ultimately also the interest of the state.” That is understandable. Another speaker said: "Austria needs Hungary and Hungary needs Austria, and so we want to live and fight together." That is ambiguous. The next day it was reported that the power line of the Vienna – Pressburg electrical railway had just broken at the Sophienbrücke . "As a result of this incident, the traffic on the route had to be stopped." That is regrettable.