Tauern Railway

Tauernbahn Schwarzach St. Veit – Spittal-Millstättersee
Railjet 793 near Bad Hofgastein.
Route number (ÖBB) :	222 01
Course book route (ÖBB) :	220
Route length:	79 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV / 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	30  ‰
Minimum radius :	247 m
Top speed:	130 km / h
Dual track :	* Schwarzach-St. V. - Loifarn-Süd (5.4 km) * Abzw Loifarn 1 - Abzw Bad Hofg. 1 (13.3 km) * Angertal - Abzw Angertal 1 (2.3 km) * Böckstein - Spittal-Millstättersee (46.5 km)
Legend Salzburg-Tyrolean Railway from Salzburg 0.000 Schwarzach-St. Vitus Salzburg-Tiroler-Bahn to Wörgl 1,840 Untersberg tunnel (270 m) 2.556 Birgl tunnel (960 m) 4.273 Kenlach tunnel (314 m) 5.431 Loifarn (no PV since 2006 ) 6,800 Loifarn-South 7.103 7.422 Error profile (-319 m) 7.416 Lower gorge tunnel (739.38 m) 8,200 Upper Klamm Tunnel (744.01 m) 9,292 9,337 Abzw Loifarn 1 (error profile (-45 m)) Klammstein (01.06.1991 closed) Gasteiner Ache 14.313 Dorfgastein 19.281 Bad Hofgastein 22,360 Bad Hofgastein stop 22,570 Junction Bad Hofgastein 1 Steinbach Viaduct (110 m) Pyrker Viaduct (77 m) Weitmoser Viaduct (94 m) Hundsdorfer Viaduct (101 m) Schlossbach Viaduct (53 m) 25,132 Angerschlucht bridge New Bridge (138 m) 25,390 Angertal no PV since 2006 27.662 Abzw Angertal 1 27.840 27.900 Error profile (-60 m) 30.078 Bad Gastein 30,474 Nassfelder Ache 33.622 Inrun stream 34.183 Böckstein 34.200 34.204 Flaw profile (-4 m) 34.816 Tauern tunnel (8370 m) 1226  m above sea level A. State border Salzburg / Carinthia 43.187 Tauern tunnel (closed in 2001) 43,347 Mallnitz- Hinterertal 43,541 Seebach 45.110 Mallnitz-North 45.932 Mallnitz- Obervellach formerly Mallnitz 46,000 46,862 Error profile (-862 m) Dozen Tunnel (891.19 m) 47.635 Kaponig Tunnel (5096 m) 51.738 Üst Mallnitz-Obervellach 2 51.767 Kaponig formerly Obervellach closed in 1999 52.731 Upper Kaponig Tunnel (236.05 m) Rescue tunnel 52.842 Ochenig tunnel (690 m) Lower Kaponig Tunnel (789.22 m) Upper Lindisch Tunnel (260 m) 54,537 Kofelwand avalanche protection gallery I (63 m) 54.647 Kofelwand avalanche protection gallery II (33 m) 54.861 Lindischgraben Bridge (283 m) Lower Lindisch Tunnel (379 m) 55.819 Oberfalkenstein (closed in 2019) Leutschacher tunnel (247 m) Falkenstein tunnel (67 m) 56.159 Falkenstein Bridge (396 m) Gratschacher tunnel (357 m) 56,369 Gratschacher avalanche protection gallery (98 m) 57.495 Pfaffenberg-Zwenberg Bridge (377 m) Pfaffenberg tunnel (499 m) Zwenberg tunnel (391 m) 57,942 58,300 Error profile (-358 m) 58.417 Penk 59.623 Mölltheuergrabenbrücke (94 m) 60.236 Litzelsdorfergrabenbrücke (185 m) 62.752 Rieckenbach Bridge (190 m) 64.790 Kolbnitz 69.124 Üst Kolbnitz 2 69.360 Mühldorf - Möllbrücke 69.428 Mühldorf-Möllbrücke station replaced by Üst Kolbnitz 2 72.904 Pusarnitz 74,000 Pusarnitz-South 74.394 Junction Str 407 01 Drautalbahn from San Candido / Innichen 80.897 Spittal - Millstättersee Drautalbahn to Villach and Maribor double track line

The Tauern Railway runs between Schwarzach - St. Veit in the state of Salzburg and Spittal - Millstättersee in Carinthia . It is part of one of the most important north-south thoroughfares in Europe and also serves to develop the Gastein Valley for tourism .

This classic mountain railway is 79 km long and overcomes the Hohe Tauern with a maximum gradient of 25 per mille. The mountain ridge is crossed in the 8371 meter long Tauern tunnel .

Planning and construction

The construction was part of a large investment project of Cisleithania , which was presented to the Imperial Council by the Imperial and Royal Government under the political term " New Alpine Railways " and which should facilitate the use of the main trading port of Trieste . Four important rail connections were to be built almost simultaneously: the Tauernbahn, the Wocheiner Bahn , the Karawankenbahn and the Pyhrnbahn .

Site plan of the Tauern Railway , 1921

Bridge near Böckstein, approx. 1908

With the construction of the Tauern Railway, the direct connection of Trieste to the industrialized north of the Habsburg Monarchy, especially Bohemia , without the detour via Vienna (with a route saving of over 200 km) was planned: This was intended to serve the monopoly of the private southern railway that had existed until then Triests can be eliminated from Vienna. At the same time, the outdated port facilities of Trieste were to be expanded in line with the times.

The construction planning and management of the Tauern Railway was the responsibility of engineer Carl Wurmb , railway construction director in the Imperial and Royal Railway Ministry since 1901 . In his honor, a monument was erected in Salzburg in 1913 and a street near the main train station was named Karl-Wurmb-Straße. In Vienna there has been a Wurmbstraße near the Wien Meidling train station of the Südbahn since 1910 .

The construction of the Tauern Railway (groundbreaking: June 24, 1901) began with the excavation of the Sohlstollen on the north side of the Tauern Tunnel in July 1901 and the Sohlstollen on the south side in October of the same year. The construction of the north ramp itself from Schwarzach-St. Veit to Badgastein was added to the Union-Baugesellschaft in Vienna in 1902 . Operations on this line began on September 20, 1905.

The construction company Brüder Redlich & Berger , Vienna, took over the execution of the remaining part of the north ramp as well as the entire Tauern tunnel and the south ramp to the lower Kaponig tunnel, km 52.5 , on December 2, 1905. The remaining part of the south ramp up to the Spittal ad station Drau was built by the building contractor Wilhelm Carl von Doderer , Vienna, from the summer of 1906. The Badgastein – Spittal ad Drau line opened on July 5, 1909 in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Development and incidents from 1933

The line was electrified in 1933–1935. Until then, the Tauern tunnel had to be artificially ventilated. In the Tauern tunnel, the line was double-tracked from the start, otherwise only single-tracked.

A special feature was the Obervellach train station , located 365 m above the town center in the Möll valley. From 1931 the express train stop had its own cable car as a connection to the town. There were already plans for this at the beginning of the century, initially for a funicular , but the First World War and the economic crisis delayed construction. In 1930, Obervellach finally received the concession to build and operate a cable car for 90 years. In 1976 the cable car was closed and dismantled, the Mallnitz train station was renamed Mallnitz-Obervellach and a bus line was set up from Obervellach. Obervellach station was renamed Kaponig and finally closed in 1999.

In the interwar period , the line belonged to the area of ​​responsibility of the Innsbruck Federal Railway Directorate . After the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938, it operated briefly as the Reichsbahndirektion Innsbruck before it was dissolved on July 15, 1938. The route was subordinated to the Reichsbahndirektion Villach . In 1945 the ÖBB was re-established, the management structure from the time before 1938 re-established, including the Federal Railway Directorate Innsbruck.

Before the Second World War , the Tauern Railway was comparatively weakly frequented in long-distance traffic. In 1939 only two pairs of trains ran from Munich to Zagreb , with through coaches to the Yugoslav Adriatic coast and to Belgrade . A single through car ran as far as Sofia . After the war, traffic increased rapidly, as the previous connections to south-eastern Europe via Budapest were significantly impeded by the Iron Curtain .

On August 12, 1947, a bomb attack on a British military train took place on the south ramp of the Tauern Railway near Mallnitz. It has been suspected that the Jewish terrorist organization Irgun Tzwa'i Le'umi was behind the attack, which only resulted in no deaths due to good luck. Similar attacks took place in other European countries. Since Israel did not yet exist at the time, the perpetrators were attributed to Palestine.

As early as 1951, the Tauern Express, the first high-quality connection from Ostend to Yugoslavia, was introduced. Due to the high demand, the Tauern Express was soon run twice and supplemented by other pairs of trains such as the Austria Express or the Jugoslavia Express . With the increasing number of guest worker traffic between Central Europe and the Balkans, more trains such as the Istanbul Express and the Hellas Express came to the Tauernbahn and ensured high line utilization. With the Yugoslav Wars from 1991 onwards, international long-distance transport, which had already lost market share for several years in favor of airplanes and roads, largely collapsed and has not returned to pre-war levels since then.

An approximately 100 year old engine shed made of bricks and timber framework at the Böckstein station was dismantled in 2013/2014 and moved to the Salzburg open-air museum .

In mid-November 2019, after heavy rain, mudslides and landslides hit the tracks. The Obervellach – Mallnitz section (and thus the Spittal / Millstätter See - Bad Hofgastein connection) was closed for ten days before a track could be released again after it was cleared. Slope protection, avalanche barriers, overhead lines and signal systems were damaged. During the single-track operation, the repair work was carried out for six weeks with the support of a construction train and helicopter . On January 25, 2020, the completion and resumption of double-track full operation in the next few days was announced.

Expansion and dual track

Since the heavily used line had reached the end of its capacity for a long time, the double-track expansion was carried out in sections from 1969, combined with partial re-routing. On the south ramp in particular, new, double-track viaducts were built, with which the line was straightened somewhat and its performance could be increased, which, however, resulted in a slightly greater incline. This also enabled various tunnels and viaducts that were in urgent need of overhaul to be left open. Most of the remnants of the old route are still visible when driving the new route. At the end of 2009, the last section Kolbnitz - Pusarnitz was completed with two tracks on the south ramp , the south ramp is now consistently double-track.

Except for three shorter sections, the north ramp also has two tracks. In one of them, the shell for a new, double-track Angerschlucht bridge was completed in summer 2008. After that, however, the work was suspended due to an objection to the subsequent environmental impact assessment . The old steel construction was still used and preserved for the operation. Seven years later, in autumn 2015, the EIA was concluded with a positive decision. After completion of the work costing around 7 million euros, it was put into operation on April 25, 2016, when EC 115 “Wörthersee” was the first train to cross the new bridge at around 5:30 pm. It has not yet been decided whether the old bridge will be placed under monument protection again or removed (as of April 2016; → List of listed objects in Bad Hofgastein ).

• 

  Falkenstein Bridge

• 

  Old and new Angerschlucht Bridge (2017)

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  Car lock train with 1043 locomotive near Mallnitz (1998)

passenger traffic

The Tauernbahn is listed in the ÖBB course book or as a timetable picture with the number 220. On the route there is a 2-hour long-distance service from Klagenfurt – Villach – Spittal – Bischofshofen – Salzburg. Railjets have also been in use since the 2016/2017 timetable year , now mostly. In the mornings and evenings, a pair of regional trains runs on the south ramp between Spittal-Millstätter See and Mallnitz-Obervellach. On the north ramp there is a morning regional express train (REX) Bad Gastein → Schwarzach-St. Veit → Salzburg and an evening train in the opposite direction.

NJ 237 runs from Vienna via Salzburg via the Tauern Railway to Villach and on to Venezia Santa Lucia . This train runs from Salzburg through coaches via Ljubljana to Zagreb or Rijeka. NJ 295 also runs from Munich via Florence to Rome with through coaches to Milan on the Tauern Railway.

Car loading in the Tauern tunnel

Car loading has been available between Böckstein and Mallnitz since 1920. This connection, known as the Tauern lock , is next to the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and the Felbertauern Tunnel, the third crossing of the main Alpine ridge between the Brenner Pass and the Tauern motorway that is suitable for cars . Loading is possible between 5:50 a.m. from Mallnitz and 11:20 p.m. from Böckstein, the trains run every hour in each direction.

See also

The history of the construction of the Tauernbahn is presented in the Tauernbahn Museum in Schwarzach.

literature

• W. Kellner: The production of a railway through the Hohe Tauern. (Part I) . In: Messages from the German and Austrian Alpine Club . tape XX , 1894, pp. 120 ff . ( online in: austrian literature online - alo [accessed June 16, 2013]).
• W. Kellner: The production of a railway through the Hohe Tauern. (Part II and conclusion) . In: Messages from the German and Austrian Alpine Club . tape XX , 1894, pp. 131 f . ( online in: austrian literature online - alo [accessed June 16, 2013]). .
• The opening of the Tauernbahn. In:  Innsbrucker Nachrichten , No. 215/1905, September 20, 1905, p. 8 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
• Kurt Rudolf Kreuschner:  The Tauern Railway. At its opening on July 5th. In:  Innsbrucker Nachrichten , No. 148/1909, July 3, 1909, p. 1 ff. (Online at ANNO ). .
• Franz Hochwarter (text), Franz Fuchs (photographer) : 100 years of the Tauern Railway. 1905-2005. The construction of the north ramp Schwarzach - Bad Gastein. In memoriam Franz Fuchs (1870–1925). (Historical photo book) . 1st edition. Hochwarter, St. Johann 2004, ISBN 3-9501626-4-X .
• Alfred Horn: Infrastructure construction, vehicle construction, foreign locomotives in Austria, recruitment, closures in Lower Austria . Railway picture album, Volume 12 (The last 30 years 1978-2007. Part 2). Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-901983-81-8 .
• Klaus Eckert, Gerald Kowarik, Gerfried Moll: Tauernbahn - Austria's modern alpine railway . Europmedia-Verlag, Irsee 2009, ISBN 978-3-940262-03-5 .
• Christoph Posch (Ed.), Detlef Löffler: 100 Years of the Tauern Railway - the daring venture of building a railway line across the Tauern to the south. A hundred years of impressive engineering that is still unparalleled today . Art Quarterly Publishing House, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-9502841-0-2 .
• August Steinermayr:  The construction of the second railway connection with Trieste. In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1906, pp. 90–110 (online at ANNO ).
• Heinrich Zimburg: The last ride of the horse mail to Bad Gastein and the opening of the north ramp of the Tauernbahn in 1905 hochwarter.at (PDF; 886 kB)

Web links

Commons : Tauernbahn  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Tauernbahn  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Würthle & Sohn Salzburg: Opening of the north ramp of the Tauern Railway by Franz Joseph I .; Opening ceremony in Schwarzach-St.Veit, September 20, 1905 . In: bildarchivaustria.at .
• The Tauernbahn - www.tauernbahn.at
• Enderes-Kleinwächter: (Building history of the) Tauern Railway . In: zeno.org , accessed on July 15, 2011.
• Photo album: TAUERNBAHN - Railway, photographed on the Tauernbahn (www.eisenbahn-in-oesterreich.at)
• Documentation Center for European Railway Research, DEEF: The Tauern Railway - a reader in 3 parts

Remarks

1. ↑ In 1890 a Berlin company submitted a project to the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Commerce, which included the construction of a narrow-gauge ( Bosnian gauge ) local railway leading from Lend (on the Salzburg-Tiroler Bahn ) via Hof-Gastein and Wildbad-Gastein to Böckstein . See: Miscellaneous. (...) Transportation. (...) Local train Lend – Wildbad-Gastein – Böckstein . In: Messages from the German and Austrian Alpine Club . tape
    XVI , 1890, p. 9, bottom left ( online in: austrian literature online - alo [accessed June 16, 2013]). Also: transport. (...) Train into the Gasteinerthal . In: Messages from the German and Austrian Alpine Club . tape
    XVIII , 1892, p. 77, top right ( online in: austrian literature online - alo [accessed June 16, 2013]).
2. ↑ On May 13, 1935 by Minister of Trade and Transport Fritz Stockinger the opening of the electrical operation carried out on the south ramp. - Opening of the south ramp of the Tauern Railway. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt (No. 25382 M / 1935), May 11, 1935, p. 1, bottom left. (Online at ANNO ). .
   In 1914 there was, among other things, the project to build a narrow-gauge, electrically operated small railway that was to run from Bad Gastein to Böckstein and into the Naßfeld and Kötschach valleys . - See: Commerce, Industry, Transport and Agriculture. Pre-concession. In:  Wiener Zeitung , No. 28/1914, February 5, 1914, p. 10, top center. (Online at ANNO ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ parlament.gv.at Is also called OBERFALKENSTEIN-LSG
2. ^ Victor von Röll : Sea port tariffs - transition curve . In: Encyclopedia of Railways . tape 9 . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1921, p. 271–275 ( archive.org [accessed June 16, 2013]).
3. ↑ Tauern Railway . In: Messages from the German and Austrian Alpine Club . tape XVI , 1890, p. 133 , center left ( digitized in: austrian literature online - alo [accessed on June 16, 2013]).
4. ↑ ^{a b} The opening of the Tauern Railway. In:  Innsbrucker Nachrichten , No. 215/1905 (Volume II), September 20, 1905, p. 8 f. (Online at ANNO ). and
   the opening of the first section of the Schwarzach – Gastein Tauern Railway . In: Deutsche Bauzeitung . Issue 78 (XXXIX. Year), 1905, ZDB -ID 211963-8 , p. 474 f . ( opus.kobv.de [PDF; 22.1 MB ; accessed on June 16, 2013] full text).
5. ↑ The opening of the Tauernbahn (...). In:  Neue Freie Presse , afternoon paper (No. 16117/1909), July 5, 1909, p. 4 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
6. ↑ Thomas Wunschel: 100 years of the Tauern Railway. eisenbahnwelt.de, accessed on July 15, 2011 . 
7. ↑ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of August 6, 1938, No. 36. Announcement No. 488, p. 213.
8. ↑ Wilfried Biedenkopf: Across old Europe. The international train and through car runs as of the summer of 1939. P. 45 Verlag Röhr, Krefeld 1981, ISBN 3-88490-110-9
9. ^ Daily newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung , Vienna, No. 188, August 14, 1947, p. 1
10. ↑ Lokschuppen Böckstein comes to the museum bahnbilder.warumdenn.net, August 19, 2014, accessed January 25, 2020.
11. ↑ Tauernbahn will run again from Saturday , November 27, 2019, accessed January 25, 2020.
12. ↑ Renovation of the Tauern Railway after storms orf, January 25, 2020, accessed January 25, 2020.
13. ↑ Pongau (...). oesterreich.orf.at, June 19, 2010, accessed on July 15, 2011 . 
14. ↑ Notification: Environmental impact assessment and partially concentrated approval procedure according to §§ 23b, 24 and 24f UVP-G 2000 - section Schlossbachgraben - Angertal. (PDF) BMVIT (Supreme Railway Building Authority), September 15, 2015, accessed on December 12, 2015 . 
15. ↑ The railway bridge in the Gastein Valley should still be able to go into operation. (PDF) Salzburger Nachrichten (archive), September 29, 2015, accessed on December 12, 2015 . 
16. ↑ Angerschlucht Bridge: The first trains are rolling in April. In: salzburg.orf.at. April 5, 2016, accessed April 5, 2016 . 
17. ↑ First trains cross the new Angertal bridge. In: salzburg.orf.at. April 26, 2016. Retrieved April 26, 2016 . 
18. ↑ https://www.oebb.at/file_source/reiseportal/strecken-%20und%20fahrplaninfos/Fahrplanbilder/Fahrplanbilder%202016/kif220.pdf ( Memento from August 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
19. ↑ ÖBB will soon be operating new Railjets on the western route. Der Standard, September 27, 2016, accessed October 19, 2016 . 
20. ↑ ÖBB are replacing IC trains with Railjets. In: salzburg.orf.at. September 26, 2016. Retrieved October 19, 2016 . 
21. ↑ Tauernbahn Böckstein - Mallnitz car lock, travel times and prices. Retrieved June 16, 2013 . 

Coordinates: 47 ° 4 ′ 13.2 ″  N , 13 ° 8 ′ 20.8 ″  E