Trunk line (Vienna)

S-Bahn main line
Logo of the trunk line
Route number (ÖBB) :	114 01, 122 01
Course book route (ÖBB) :	900
Route length:	11.3 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV / 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	21.5  ‰
Top speed:	100 km / h
Legend Northern Railway of Břeclav Vienna Floridsdorf see northern runway 6.741 Vienna North Station (until 1945) Vienna Praterstern (since 1959) 6.200 Vienna Praterstern (1883 to 1945) Connecting railway bridge over the Danube Canal Pressburger Bahn (until 1945) 5.602 Vienna Radetzkyplatz Danube Canal line from Heiligenstadt 4.845 Vienna center Lower Wientallinie to Meidling-Hauptstraße St. Marxer Tunnel I (400 m) 3.725 Vienna Rennweg Aspangbahn to Felixdorf 2,881 Üst Vienna Matzleinsdorf 4SB 2.675 2.584 Error profile (-91 m) 2.200 Vienna Arsenal (until 1961) Expressway tunnel (1235 m) 1.925 Vienna Quartier Belvedere Arsenal tunnel under the Eastern Railway (160 m) 1,340 Vienna Central Station 1.200 Vienna Favoriten (until 1961) from the Eastern Railway Steudeltunnel (283 m) 0.000 Vienna Matzleinsdorf see southern runway Vienna Meidling South runway from Spielfeld-Straß

The main line (old pink) in the Vienna rail network

The main line of the S-Bahn Vienna is the central main line of the Vienna S-Bahn and the most frequently used railway line in Austria . The 13-kilometer, standard-gauge , electrified and double-track connection serves eleven stations and crosses the federal capital Vienna from the Vienna Floridsdorf train station in the northeast to the Vienna Meidling train station in the southwest.

The section from Floridsdorf to Wien Praterstern station leads over the route of the northern railway . The route then continues on the Vienna connecting line via Wien Mitte station (formerly the main customs office ) and Vienna main station to Meidling, where it joins the southern line at Matzleinsdorfer Platz station. As a western extension which usually also follows Verbindungsbahn called railway Vienna Penzing Vienna Meidling .

course

Express train on the bridge over the Old Danube in the water park

The S-Bahn main line ( high-speed train main line ) begins at the Vienna Floridsdorf station ( 21st, Franz-Jonas-Platz ) in an elevated position. The route runs from here in a south-westerly direction on an embankment and is accompanied on the left by the U6 subway line , which, however, is still in the lower position at Franz-Jonas-Platz and only in higher position from about Leopold-Ferstl-Gasse directly next to it the S-Bahn runs. The S-Bahn line then reaches the water park , where the Old Danube is crossed on a bridge. After passing through the abandoned but still existing Strandbäder stop , the route crosses the A22 city ​​motorway , the New Danube and the Danube Island. The Danube is then crossed on the north railway bridge, directly after that is the Handelskai station , where you can change to the U6 and S45 . Then you can watch the sloping U6 line on the left, which continues straight on, while the S-Bahn makes a swivel to the left or south and crosses the streets of the 20th district on numerous bridges before it reaches the Traisengasse stop .

After leaving this stop you can see on the left side the extensive former Nordbahnhof area, today called Nordbahnviertel , where a new district is emerging. On the right-hand side, Dresdner Straße and Nordbahnstraße accompany the route (the area between the street and the railway body was or is being built). Shortly before the Praterstern , buildings of the ÖBB from the 1960s come into view, which were built after 1965 instead of the station building of the former North Station.

Then the glass-covered hall of the four-track Vienna Praterstern station is reached, whereby the built-up part of the eponymous Praterstern with the Tegetthoff monument and the view towards the old town is on the right , the largely unobstructed part that merges into the Venediger Au and the adjoining Prater Ferris wheel on the left. Here you can change to the underground lines U1 and U2 as well as to tram and bus lines. The journey continues on a viaduct and on the connecting railway bridge over the Danube Canal .

The viaduct section then slowly descends until it reaches the Wien Mitte train station , which is built over with a building complex. You can change to the underground lines U3 and U4 as well as to the City Airport Train (CAT), which provides a direct connection from the city center to Vienna Airport . Then the route continues in the open cut; partly it is the former bed of the Wiener Neustädter Canal . The overbuilt Rennweg station, which is also located in the cut, is located at the beginning of the St. Marxer Tunnel, which is also where the junction of the airport express train is located, which uses the entire tunnel. The main S-Bahn line, on the other hand, leaves the tunnel immediately after the stop and makes a right-hand bend that is level between Adolf-Blamauer-Gasse and the Fasanviertel . After crossing under the Landstraßer belt , you can see the last remains of the line wall on the right-hand side , which also form the border to the Schweizergarten .

In this park, the route runs in an open cut before it disappears in express train tunnel I and reaches the underground station Quartier Belvedere (formerly: Südbahnhof). The Hauptbahnhof (Südtiroler Platz) stop is just 600 meters further in the tunnel , where you can again get to the U1 and, since December 9, 2012, also to the Vienna Central Station . Shortly afterwards, the S-Bahn leaves the tunnel and climbs up. (The formerly parallel connecting track from the Steudel tunnel from the Ostbahn no longer exists, as the tunnel was demolished in 2010 due to the construction of the main train station.) In an elevated position, the route now runs between the southern railway line on the left, south and the one on the right, north Gürtel , one of Vienna's main thoroughfares, until you reach the Wien Matzleinsdorfer Platz stop . Along Eichenstrasse, from which the tracks are separated by Wilhelm von Flattich's railway officials ' houses, the route leads to Vienna Meidling station , where the S-Bahn can take the S-Bahn to platforms 1 and 2 (in the direction of Mödling) and 3 and 4 (in the direction of Floridsdorf ) used.

business

The main route is used almost exclusively by regional and S-Bahn trains. Around 640 trains transport 270,000 passengers on this route every day. The interval on the main route, including the regional trains, is three to 15 minutes with an operating time from 4:00 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., since December 15, 2019 in the nights before Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays at 30-minute intervals. The main route can be found in the ÖBB timetable book under the timetable image number 900. In terms of signaling , a train can run a maximum of every three minutes, except from Wien Mitte to Rennweg every two and a half minutes. There is currently a nine-minute gap every 30 minutes so that operations can return to normal in the event of delays.

Trains coming from the south end in Floridsdorf or go beyond it. Trains coming from the north mostly go to Meidling and further, the trains to the airport (S7) leave the main line after the Rennweg stop and some trains end in the Praterstern and Wien Mitte stations. The section between Wien Mitte and Rennweg is also used by the City Airport Train, and that between Matzleinsdorfer Platz and Meidling by the S80.

The lines of the main route have single-digit line numbers. Lines S1, S2, S3 and S4 currently operate on the main route between Meidling and Floridsdorf. The S7 airport line also serves the route between Rennweg and Floridsdorf.

The rapid transit trains are run by the series 4020 , 4744, 4746 and occasionally 4024 , the regional trains consist of double-decker push-pull trains that are run by locomotives of the series 1116 or 1144 .

According to a study carried out in 2020, train headway times could be reduced by around 40 seconds with ETCS .

Guidance system

Information on the S-Bahn in the direction of Floridsdorf in Vienna Central Station (Südtiroler Platz)

In 2017, a new control system for the main route and the S45 line was introduced together with Wiener Linien. The trunk line was given old pink as the line color. The terminal stations of the main line, Floridsdorf and Meidling, were not only included in the control system, but have also been communicated via the train destination displays and announcements since then.

history

Planning and construction of the connecting railway

The Vienna connecting railway is still in its original high position at the end of Landstraßer Hauptstraße in the center

The Northern Railway and the Vienna-Gloggnitz Railway , the Southern Railway, were the oldest and heavily frequented locomotive trains. The Vienna terminus were about four kilometers apart for tax reasons and because of the line wall . The railway directorates and the main customs office wanted a track connection, but this encountered technical difficulties as the differences in level are very large. In 1844 the architect Anton Ortner presented the Ministry with a plan for two routes, one of which led through the Prater and the other along the Wiener Neustädter Canal . The ministry did not comment on this.

The connection became more and more urgent, and after long negotiations the project was declared a state railway project in 1846, although initially only a horse-drawn tram was intended for freight traffic. The detailed plans were drawn up by the State Railway Directorate under the direction of Carl von Ghega and the construction was transferred back to the Klein brothers and Christian Ludwig Förster in 1847 . Initially it was planned to run the route along the Wiener Neustädter Canal, but this was subsequently changed to the extent that the route should now be laid in the canal bed instead of the canal. In addition, it was then intended for locomotive operation, but initially thought of an atmospheric railway .

The March Revolution of 1848 caused delays. Even after that there was only slow progress, as it was now considered to create a central station at the main customs office, for which several studies were carried out. In addition, the emperor forbade crossing the main avenue in the Prater, which meant that some route options were no longer applicable. With the resolution of May 3, 1851, a route was approved that translated the Prater at its extreme northwestern edge, next to the Praterstern , on a viaduct, crossed the Danube Canal and reached the main customs office via the Weißgerber district .

The construction work, which was carried out by the kk court architect Leopold Mayer, began as early as autumn 1850. Most of the stretch between the Südbahnhof and the main customs office was completed in 1854, but the bridges on the high-altitude stretch over Landstraßer Hauptstrasse and Ungargasse were still missing , which led to a further delay. The first test drive on this southern section took place on September 1, 1857, the official opening of the 6.741-kilometer line, which is run as a state railway , took place on October 15. The operation was carried out provisionally by the kk Betriebsdirection Wien, two branches led to the main customs office (0.454 kilometers) and the freight yard of the northern railway (0.159 kilometers).

In the area of ​​the south station, the route ran roughly along the current route, but at a level. It passed south of the station building and made a wide arc in front of the arsenal , to which several sidings led. Then it cut through the line wall and reached the high altitude around Beatrixgasse.

Although the construction work was well advanced, there was still no final project for the bridge over the Danube Canal. After numerous discussions, Ghega decided on a chain bridge based on the patented system of his deputy Friedrich Schnirch . As a result of the defeat in the Battle of Solferino , the military demanded an accelerated completion of the connection between the stations, and therefore a provisional wooden bridge was built so that the Vienna connecting railway could start operating on July 1, 1859. The Schnirch Chain Bridge was opened on September 2nd, 1860, although the first stress test was not satisfactory. The bridge continued to cause problems.

A brick viaduct with 60 openings was used between the main customs office and the north station. On the basis of a lease agreement dated December 28, 1859, the southern and northern railways took over operations for a fee of 40% of the gross income. The contract was limited to one year, but it was tacitly continued and the share of the railway companies in the revenue increased to 50%. Although the route was only intended for freight traffic, from 1860 there was a modest passenger traffic on Sundays and public holidays, but this was discontinued in 1862 due to insufficient use. The Südbahn, however, continued some of its trains afterwards.

Sale and lowering

The steam operation led to complaints from neighbors about smoke nuisance, so that smoke-consuming devices were installed and a demand for coke-firing was made. In 1871 the Austrian Northwest Railway tried to connect its station in the Praterstern area to the connecting railway, but failed due to resistance from the City of Vienna, which feared that this additional high line would create a barrier to the neighboring residential areas.

After the state had sold almost all of its own railways to raise funds, the connecting railroad was the only one that was still state-owned, along with two short routes operated by foreign railways. In 1870, the line was also sold, one sixth each to all operators of the main lines departing from Vienna, i.e. to the Kaiser Ferdinand's Northern Railway , the Southern Railway Company , the Austro-Hungarian State Railway Company (Eastern Railway), the Empress Elisabeth- Railway (Westbahn), the Austrian Northwest Railway and the Kaiser Franz Joseph Railway , each at two million guilders. The concession period was 90 years. This agreement was signed on January 25th, 1870, the purchase contract was concluded on February 20th and came into effect retrospectively on January 20th.

Section 7 of the purchase contract stated that the concessionaires had to relocate the route in the area of ​​the stations because of the reconstruction of the Südbahnhof and Staatsbahnhof (Ostbahnhof) and to improve traffic conditions. The connecting line with its numerous side tracks was a major obstacle to road traffic. The 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna was therefore taken as an opportunity to lower the line.

Since this renovation also affected the laying of pipelines for Vienna's 1st high spring water pipeline and the construction of collecting canals, the city administration asked for a say. After the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Commerce gave the consortium of six railway companies on December 11, 1871 the building consensus for the route between the freight station Matzleinsdorf and the state train station (Ostbahnhof), the local council protested at the ministry so that no decisions would be made before the construction plans were submitted to it exist. The Ministry of Commerce then decided to oblige the consortium to build the modifications if the City of Vienna would cover the additional costs. After several negotiations, the changed route was approved on February 12, 1872, after it was also lowered in the area of ​​the line wall, in accordance with the city's request.

The new route now branched off from the southern line at the Matzleinsdorf station in an elevated position, led north of this to Kliebergasse, then lowered itself and under the southern and state stations in a large arc using two tunnels. Then it continued in a cut and reached the old route again in the area of ​​today's Swiss Garden in the run-up to the Arsenal. Operations started on May 4, 1873. Because of the world exhibition, passenger traffic was resumed on May 15, but it was stopped after two months due to the low frequency. In 1881 there was a 15% drop in freight traffic; The reason for this was competition from the new Donauuferbahn .

expansion

On October 21, 1881, the Vienna – Aspang railway received a double-track connection to the connecting railway, contrary to the wishes of the City of Vienna with a street crossing. From June 15, 1882, the railway company ran one train a day on a trial basis to the main customs office, but gave up this traffic on November 1 of the same year.

When a Berlin company planned to buy or lease the Vienna connecting line in order to make it the starting point for a local railway network, the consortium rejected it. One consequence of the Berlin advance, however, was that from September 1, 1881, regular passenger traffic on the connecting line was resumed, with a provisional station being built near the main customs office. From June 28, 1883, the entire route of the connecting line, that is, its western section from Meidling to Hütteldorf, was operated. In that year, new stops at Rennweg, Arsenal and Sonnwendgasse ( Favoriten stop ) were put into operation, and finally in 1885 the Radetzkyplatz stop in Hochlage.

On the occasion of the "Electrical Exhibition" in the Prater in 1883, the Praterstern stop was built a few hundred meters south of the North Station and the passenger traffic that had previously ended at the main customs office was extended to this point. In 1884 the bridge over the Danube Canal, which had only been passable on a single track for five years, was replaced by a more stable new building.

In 1882 and 1884, respectively, the 1/6 shares of the nationalized Kaiserin Elisabeth-Bahn and the Kaiser Franz Josephs-Bahn were transferred to the state, before the Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn also sold their share back in 1887 for 600,000 guilders. As a result, on May 7, 1889, the government introduced a bill for the complete repurchase of the connecting railway - against annual pensions. The Austrian Northwest Railway and the Austro-Hungarian State Railway Company immediately agreed to do so; However, negotiations with the Südbahn-Gesellschaft dragged on until 1894, and from January 1, 1895, the state was again the sole owner of the connecting railway. The total costs for the repurchase amounted to 3,826,460 guilders, the operation was carried out until the opening of the Stadtbahn by the Südbahn-Gesellschaft and the Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn.

Reconstruction of the main customs office and partial integration into the Vienna light rail

The lower Hauptzollamt station around 1905

For the construction of the Viennese steam light rail of the Commission for Transport Systems in Vienna , the connecting line in the area of ​​the main customs office had to be lowered from 1896 in order to be able to link it there with the Lower Vienna Line, opened in 1899, and the Danube Canal Line, opened in 1901, both of which from the beginning Were deep.

According to the original plans, the connecting line should be included in the so-called narrow light rail network; the three-track expansion between the main customs office and Praterstern was planned for this. However, since this would have greatly narrowed Helenengasse in the 2nd district , resistance arose , so that only one pull-out track was laid between the main customs office and Radetzkyplatz. Ultimately, the line remained with the state railway and only became part of the outer light rail network.

Passenger traffic between the main customs office and Meidling was suspended for about a year because of the lowering, before it was resumed on June 30, 1899 - at the same time as the opening of the Lower Wiental line. The part between the Favoriten stop and the main customs office was equipped with a route block in 1901 , for which two log cabins were built. At Matzleinsdorfer Platz there was originally a stop, but it fell victim to the expansion of the freight station. In 1903 negotiations were started to rebuild, but they did not lead to any result.

Plans for electrification or transmission to the Vienna Stadtbahn

The test locomotive from 1906 in the main customs office

Since the Wiener Stadtbahn was not a success, thought was given to improving the operation. The Ministry of Railways asked a number of companies to submit projects for electrification. From July 1906 to the beginning of 1907, the company Křizík & Co started an electrical test run between the main customs office and Praterstern. A complicated direct current system with a three-wire arrangement (2 × 1500 V) was used. The Križík company also built its own converter station for this purpose. The trains were pulled by a locomotive with a central driver's cab, which was called "WIEN 1". After the test drives it was transferred to Prague and taken over by the ČSD in 1927 as the E 225.0 series . Today it is in the National Technical Museum in Prague . The complex system resulted in numerous discussions in the specialist literature. The weighing of advantages and disadvantages led to this system not being pursued any further. The ministry decided that railcars would have to be examined in further attempts, but no more test drives took place for financial reasons. From 1907 passenger trains were no longer routed to the Praterstern via the connecting line, but instead via the Danube Canal line of the Vienna City Railway to Heiligenstadt. Therefore, there was only one shuttle service between the main customs office and Praterstern with 264 trains a day.

In order to improve the light rail traffic, negotiations with the city of Vienna were started from 1908, which should electrify and take over the operation including the main customs office-Praterstern, but these negotiations failed. In 1911, the Commission for Transport Systems in Vienna decided on an expansion program which, in addition to a subway network, also provided for the electrification of the light rail system, with the main customs office – Praterstern route again being included in the program this time. However, the program could no longer be implemented because of the First World War . It was not until 1925 that the Stadtbahn, which had now been transferred to the City of Vienna, operated again under the name Wiener Elektro Stadtbahn , but was operationally separate from the state railway at the Hauptzollamt station, as well as at the other two connecting stations Hütteldorf-Hacking and Heiligenstadt.

Development after 1918

2006 walled up portal of the former arsenal tunnel (also known as the StEG tunnel . It was removed in the course of the work on the main station), in the background the arsenal

During the war, the traffic on the connecting railway was stopped and only resumed somewhat in 1921, although the trains were already continuing to the Lower Austrian area. A number of important long-distance trains, such as the Nice Express, also used the connecting line.

During the Second World War , traffic was greatly reduced, until 1941 there were only four professional driver's trains, then only one pair of trains from the main customs office to Gänserndorf and one express train for those traveling on the front. Passenger traffic continued until the winter of 1944, but the line was then extremely badly damaged by bombs. Then one track was closed and the line was only used on a single track. The other track was retained, but it was soon overgrown.

The construction of the high-speed rail line then resulted in the closure of the section of the line between the Schweizergarten and the Favoriten station, which largely ran under the eastern railway tracks. The last time it was driven there was on December 4, 1961. The Arsenal tunnel was then filled in and partially filled with concrete, but in 1979 it was converted into an access road to the post office building, the Steudel tunnel was retained as a connection between the east and south lines. On the occasion of the electrification of the Donauländebahn it was even expanded and electrified as a diversion in 1972, the ramp slope on the east side was reduced from 25 ‰ to 12 ‰.

Adaptation for the express train

Western portal of the express train tunnel under the south station, which was demolished in 2010; outside of the picture is immediately to the right of the western portal of the disused Steudel tunnel

The Floridsdorf train station was relocated about 400 meters into town, so that it came to rest on what would later be Franz-Jonas-Platz. This square was only created through the removal of war-damaged houses, but subsequently developed into the district center. As early as June 4, 1961, the tram lines were moved from Floridsdorfer Hauptstrasse to Schöpfleuthnergasse, which ran parallel to one another, so that they led in front of the station building.

The most important structure on the future trunk line was the north railway bridge, the reconstruction of which was completed in 1957, but practically all the other bridges had to be rebuilt, especially over the roads in Brigittenau . The Traisengasse stop was also built there, which was not yet available in the initial plans, but whose construction proved to be urgent. On June 1, 1959, the new station building was opened on the Praterstern in the middle of the square, which was greatly expanded by a roundabout, and was intended to replace the North Station and the former Praterstern stop. (The construction was therefore started even before the decision to build the rapid transit system.) In the area of ​​the main customs office station, the route had to be lowered by about half a meter in order to enable electrification.

The most important construction for the rapid transit railway was the relocation of the line in the area of ​​the south station, which was necessary to create favorable transfer conditions to the other means of transport. The route follows roughly the very first route in this area, but runs at a low level. The subterranean stops Quartier Belvedere (formerly Südbahnhof) and Hauptbahnhof (formerly Südtiroler Platz) are only 600 meters apart, so that consideration was given to building just one stop in between and creating moving walkways. However, the technology for this trail was not considered to be sufficiently developed.

The first underground tram station in Vienna was opened on May 7, 1959 under Südtiroler Platz , which was originally planned independently of the rapid transit system, but was then planned and built together with the S-Bahn station. A new bus station was also opened there in 1961. There were no major changes on the rest of the route to Meidling. In contrast to S-Bahn systems in other cities, the systems in Vienna are completely suitable for full railways and are also used by freight trains. It was therefore not possible to get into the vehicles steplessly, especially because the platform heights were also very different. In 1959, models of the future station buildings could be seen in an exhibition in the Südbahnhof.

Development from 1962 to 1980

The Schnellbahn was an instant success. There was overcrowding, which could only be eliminated by replacing the single with double sets. An agreement was signed with the Vienna public transport company that allowed passengers to use the parallel lines of the other carrier in the event of a disruption without having to buy additional tickets. In 1963, the first television monitors for train handling were installed in the Südbahnhof station on a trial basis.

The main line was initially driven every quarter of an hour, but as early as October of the opening year, traffic between Floridsdorf and Landstrasse was increased during rush hour, and from 1964 onwards on the entire main line.

Lido stop, still in operation in 1987

On the occasion of the 1st Vienna International Garden Show , the new "Strandbäder" stop was opened on April 16, 1964. Originally it was only intended as a seasonal stop, but was then in constant use. It was the only stop on the main line that had no platform roof and a simple exit towards the Old Danube . In order to create a better connection with the Schnellbahn, the departure points of regional bus lines were abolished at various points in the city, instead a bus station was opened on May 30, 1969 above the Landstrasse station.

To unbundle the express train from freight traffic, a new route was built between Meidling and the express train tunnel on the northern edge of the freight station and operated from June 27, 1969. The Matzleinsdorfer Platz stop is also located there, but it was only possible to put it into operation three months later, on September 27th.

The Rennweg stop in its original condition

The Wien Rennweg stop after the renovation

In 1968 the Vienna City Senate submitted an application to Transport Minister Ludwig Weiß to set up the Rennweg stop, which the Ministry only wanted to respond to if the City of Vienna would cover the costs of 25 million Schillings. Due to these delays, the stop was only opened on May 23, 1971. As a result, the Aspang station was shut down. The stop was already prepared for the construction of the airport express train and was given a central platform with a sliding trough for this train. There was never a track there, however. A fourth track was to be built later on the opposite side, which was not done either. In addition, the station was prepared for an intersection with the U2 subway line , which was supposed to pass there in the planning at the time. For this purpose, an underpass was built and provisions were made for outflows.

The first validators were set up at this stop and quickly spread throughout the network, so that the last platform barriers could be abolished in October 1972. After the delivery of more rapid transit vehicles, the number of trains could be increased significantly with the 1973 summer timetable. After a simple ticket machine had already been set up at the Meidling station at the beginning of the S-Bahn service, the prototype of a new generation of machines was put into operation on August 4, 1975 at the Wien Mitte station. It was the type CST 21 from Landis & Gyr , which was already more versatile and could also return any remaining money. Soon afterwards, the further development CST 41 was also set up in Wien Mitte.

Due to the demolition and rebuilding of the Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof , the express train Vindobona was diverted via the northwest railway line and ended at Landstrasse station. That is why the Landstrasse and Praterstern stations were renamed Wien Mitte and Wien Nord on June 1, 1975 .

The collapse of the Reichsbrücke on August 1, 1976 severely hampered traffic to the other bank of the Danube, so the interval on the rapid transit railway was immediately compressed to 7.5 minutes throughout the day, but this was reversed on August 6.

Due to the poor state of preservation, the Floridsdorfer Bridge had to be closed on December 23, 1976 , which is why a 7.5-minute cycle was reintroduced on the rapid transit system, which was even compressed to 3.5 minutes during rush hour. In addition, there was New Year's Eve operation for the first time in the same year. After the temporary renovation of the bridge and the resumption of tram operation over it on April 2, 1977, the heavy traffic was continued for three weeks at the request of the Ministry of Transport in order to carry out frequency counts.

Development from 1980 to 1999

In November 1980, track 1 between Vienna North and Floridsdorf was renovated, which is why only 15-minute traffic could temporarily be handled on this section. During some nights from Friday to Saturday and from Saturday to Sunday there was also a total closure with replacement rail traffic.

On October 26 and 27, 1984, the construction of the Danube bank motorway A22 required the trunk line to be completely closed for the first time. Although this actually only affected the northern area, the circumstance was immediately used to renew the catenary in the southern part.

There were major changes in Meidling, where the Philadelphiabrücke subway station was built. The platforms of the station were therefore extended out of town up to this structure, platforms 1 and 2 used for the S-Bahn, for example, by 181 meters and 150 meters respectively. The switches were moved from the original station building to the underground passage level for the underground and train stations.

Due to the construction of the northern extension of the U6 underground line, the last part of which runs parallel to the S-Bahn, there were operational disruptions from 1991 onwards, which resulted in longer intervals and earlier closing times. In the area of ​​the 20th district, the S-Bahn line had to be relocated a bit to the north because of the underground. It now runs on the piece in front of the northern railway bridge on a bridge structure instead of on a dam as it used to be. Since there was always a lack of space at the Floridsdorf train station, the subway construction was used as an opportunity to add platform 5 to the train station, which went into operation on January 7, 1992.

A regional train (double decker) in the no longer served stop Strandbäder

The construction of the Freudenau power plant required the northern railway bridge to be raised , which required the S-Bahn line between Vienna North and Floridsdorf to be closed from August 1 to 16, 1992. The lock was used for further construction work on the route, such as changing points on the north station site, renewing the platforms in the Traisengasse stop and various conversions to adapt to the U6. As a replacement, a rail replacement service with buses from the ÖBB vehicle service was set up. The Wiener Verkehrsbetriebe also built a separate tram line with the line signal "E", which took over some of the express train passengers, and increased traffic on other lines in the vicinity of the S-Bahn.

The Strandbäder stop was closed during the construction of the U6 from May 4 to June 1, 1996, which was used to move the entrance from the northeast side to the southwest side. The U6 station Neue Donau next to it , however, led to a further decrease in the already low frequency of the S-Bahn station, so that it was shut down on September 24, 2000, but not dismantled.

Development from 2000

The expansion of the S7 also led to temporary restrictions on the main route, as the Rennweg stop had to be completely rebuilt. In the Rennweg area, it was often only possible to drive on a single track. At this stop, an intersection-free integration of the S7 into the main S-Bahn line was established, but in a different form than originally intended. The new station only has one central platform and was built over with a shopping center. The junction is only south of the stop.

The tense situation in the multiple units led to the fact that from December 14, 2003 S-Bahn trains, which were run to increase the regular frequency, were replaced by regional trains traveling on the main line: Double-decker trains connect the southern and northern branches of the S-Bahn and stop on the main route in all stations. The trains used, with four intermediate and one control car, are 154 meters too long for most of the platforms of the S-Bahn stations. Therefore, the locomotive has to stop outside the platform area, for which separate signal boards have been installed.

Current plan of the main route

From April 8th to 17th, 2006 the main line was closed again: four points were installed between the Südbahnhof and Südtiroler Platz stops. This was necessary in order to be able to convert the Südtiroler Platz stop into a train station so that trains could be turned around there. In addition, sound-absorbing tracks were laid.

On the occasion of the European Football Championship in 2008 and the associated extension of the U2 underground line over the Praterstern, the Vienna North station was rebuilt according to a project by Albert Wimmer and received two wide platforms and a glass roof, which will be operational in stages in 2006 and 2007 were taken. On December 10, 2006, the station got its old name (Vienna) Praterstern back. From then on, there was night traffic on the main route every 20 minutes on weekends, which was discontinued with the timetable change at the end of 2008. Trains from Vienna Airport to Vienna Floridsdorf ran every hour during the summer months.

In the course of the construction of the new Vienna Central Station, the cladding of the rapid transit tunnel in the area of ​​Südbahnhof and Südtiroler Platz had to be changed, so in 2007 overhead conductor rails were installed there for the first time in the ÖBB area instead of the overhead line systems.

On August 6, 2012, the trunk line was switched to right-hand traffic. The occasion was the opening of the Lainzer Tunnel in December 2012, which connects the Western Railway (regular operation on the right) with the Southern Railway and the main line (previously regular operation on the left). With the timetable change on December 9, 2012, the station Wien Südbahnhof (S-Bahn) was renamed Wien Quartier Belvedere and Wien Südtiroler Platz in Wien Hauptbahnhof.

See also

• List of Vienna S-Bahn stations

literature

• Franz Haas: The Wiener Schnellbahn. Main line Floridsdorf – Meidling. Sutton, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-084-7 .
• Ernst Kurz: The urban development of the city of Vienna in relation to traffic. Magistrate of the City of Vienna (MA18), Vienna 1981.
• Hans Lehnhart: 25 years of the Wiener Schnellbahn. VOR, Vienna 1987, Festschrift.
• Hermann Strach [Hrsg]: The history of the railways of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Karl Prochaska, Vienna-Teschen-Leipzig 1898 (reprint Archiv-Verlag, Vienna 2000).
• Peter Wegenstein: The connecting lines in the Vienna area. Pospischil, Vienna 1991.
• Railway Atlas Austria. Schweers + Wall, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89494-128-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Book timetable booklet 17L, 1995, p. 130.
2. ↑ Wiener connecting railway, Grundbuch KG 02001 Railway book with deposit number EZ 3400 at the District Court of Inner City Vienna :
   "Railway book deposit for the Vienna connecting railway with the direction from the northern land pillar of the southern railway viaduct next to the evangelical cemetery near Matzleinsdorf to the southern escape of the passenger hall [of the Vienna North station ; Note] of the Kaiser-Ferdinand-Nordbahn ”.
   Quoted from: Thomas Baar: Das Eisenbahnbuch - Investigation of the development and today's importance of a special land register. Diploma thesis , University of Applied Sciences Real Estate Management at FHWien der WKW , March 2006 ( full text online (PDF) ), p. 41: Fig. 5: Copy from the railway book KG 02001 EZ 3400 (last TZ 5415/2005 on the query date March 6, 2006 ).
3. ↑ Maximilian Wirth, Andreas Schöbel: Minimum headway times for ETCS Level 2 and Level 3 on the Vienna S-Bahn main line . In: signal + wire . tape 112 , no. 4 , 2020, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 21-26 .
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Vienna connection railway. In: Viktor von Röll (ed.): Encyclopedia of the Railway System . 2nd Edition. Volume 10: Transitional bridges - intermediate station . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1923, p.  401 ff.
5. ↑ Slezak: Canal Nostalgie Aspangbahn. Slezak publishing house, Vienna 1990, p. E18.
6. ^ Administrative report of the City of Vienna, 1867–1870, p. 429.
7. ↑ See RGBl. 21/1870 .
8. ^ Administrative report of the City of Vienna, 1871–1873, p. 575.
9. ↑ W. Sengelin: Wiener transport planning in the Emperor Franz Joseph era. Dissertation at the University of Vienna, 1980, p. 202.
10. ^ Administrative report of the City of Vienna, 1883, p. 156.
11. ↑ See RGBl. 88/1889 .
12. ^ Administrative report of the City of Vienna, 1901, p. 90.
13. ↑ Railway and Industry, 1906/20, p. 375.
14. ↑ trains and heavy industry, 1909/2, p. 30
15. ^ Announcements from the Association for the Promotion of Local Railways and Tramways, 1911, p. 218.
16. ↑ Krobot-Slezak-Sternhart, Tram in Vienna, Verlag Slezak, Vienna 1972, p. 322.
17. ↑ R. Koller: The structure 1959. P. 239.
18. ↑ Railway 1961/5 p. 80.
19. ↑ Stockerau Railway Chronicle . District Museum Stockerau, Stockerau 1991, p. 93.
20. ↑ Railway 1963/6, p. 129.
21. ↑ Railway 1969/7 p. 115.
22. ↑ The ÖBB in words and pictures. 1972/2, p. 4.
23. ^ Railway 1977/2, p. 21.
24. ↑ Railway 12/1984, p. 231.
25. ↑ FJ Barta: The plan that takes you further. Vienna 1992.