Ostbahn (Austria)

0.150	Vienna Südbahnhof (Eastern Railway) (until December 8, 2012)
	Vienna Central Station , Südbahn

	Vienna Südbahnhof freight station
	from Schnellbahn main line via the Steudeltunnel
1,539	Vienna Südbahnhof-Spitz
101.778	Vienna Hbf-Südosttangente
	to Laa an der Thaya and Marchegg
101.830 1.830	Km break
2.858	Vienna Grillgasse

	from Laa an der Thaya and Marchegg
	Aspangbahn cemetery loop
4,766	Vienna central shunting yard - entry group

5,850	Vienna central marshalling yard
	Loop to the Aspangbahn
	from Donauländebahn
5,547	Airport loop to the Donauländebahn
	Donauländebahn

	Provincial border Vienna / Lower Austria
7.365	Kledering


	to the Donauländebahn
8.246	Vienna Zvbf branch point Felixdorf
	Aspangbahn to Felixdorf



9,700	Lanzendorf - Rannersdorf
10.853	Pellendorf 01/11/1971 abandoned
13,188	Himberg
16.317	Gutenhof - Velm 09/30/1991 closed
19,410	Gramatneusiedl	180 m above sea level A.
	Pottendorfer line to Wiener Neustadt	180 m above sea level A.
26.955	Götzendorf
	Branch line Götzendorf - Mannersdorf
	Branch line Götzendorf - Fischamend

	Pressburgerbahn
	Fischamend Reichsstrasse	176.27 m above sea level A.
	Pressburgerbahn to Schwechat
30.960	Trautmannsdorf ad Leitha
33.207	Üst Götzendorf 2
33,578	Sarasdorf
36,537	Wilfleinsdorf
	Pressburger Bahn from Wolfsthal
13,557	Petronell-Carnuntum	180 m above sea level A.
	Pressburger Bahn
8,839	Rohrau loading point	148 m above sea level A.
8.135	Harrach'sche Güterdirektion connection line
	Pachfurth
	A4 east motorway
3,625	End of the route
2.621	Master Foods connecting railway
2.568	Connecting line LPT
2,454	Weindel Logistik connecting line
1.011	Raiffeisen warehouse connection line
0.235	EK B10
39.724 -0.667	Bruck ad Leitha -West
	Branch line Bruck ad Leitha - Petronell-Carnuntum
41.220	Bruck ad Leitha
42.665	Bruck ad Leitha-Ost
	A4 east motorway
46,950	Connecting railway ( Awanst ) substation
47.415	Abzw Bruck ad L. 1

47.665	Parndorf place ( wedge station )
	Pannoniabahn to Neusiedl am See
49.250 0.000	Parndorf	180 m above sea level A.
	Parndorf - Bratislava-Petržalka branch line

4,773	Neudorf loading point
5.820	Neudorf

9,050	Gattendorf
14.368	Pama loading point
14,900	Pama
19,880	Kittsee
22.429 1.763	State border Austria - Slovakia
	Bratislava-Petržalka Durvayova tehelňa
0.000 18.531	Bratislava – Hegyeshalom railway line
	to Wolfsthal (formerly Pressburger Bahn )
17,898	Bratislava-Petržalka
	to Bratislava hlavná stanica
51.155	Connecting railway ( Awanst ) Pannonia
55.545	Siebenjoch closed on April 15th, 1950
61.095	Zurndorf
66.623	Nickelsdorf	131 m above sea level A.
67.418 192.700	State border between Austria and Hungary
	Bratislava – Hegyeshalom railway line
187.845	Hegyeshalom (Straß-Sommerein)
	to Porpác
	to Budapest

The Ostbahn (also Raaber Ostbahn , formerly Vienna-Raaber Bahn ) from Vienna south of the Danube to Hungary is part of the European railroad Paris – Munich – Vienna – Budapest – Bucharest and –Belgrade – Sofia – Istanbul. Routes that branch off from this main line in Vienna: see Laaer Ostbahn (to the north) and Marchegger Ostbahn (north of the Danube to the east).

history

construction

In order to improve the transport offer compared to the only partially navigable Danube , the entrepreneur Baron Georg Simon von Sina commissioned the expert Matthias Schönerer to plan a railway from Vienna via Schwechat and Bruck an der Leitha (the border between Lower Austria and Hungary ran here until 1921 ) to Raab (Győr) with a branch to Pressburg (Pozsony), which was Hungarian until 1918 . He also planned another route from Vienna via Wiener Neustadt and Ödenburg to Raab. In 1836 Sina applied to the Imperial and Royal Government for approval for preparatory work on these routes .

With the highest resolution of January 2, 1838, Sina received a temporary building permit for the railway lines applied for, but not an exclusive privilege. On March 20, 1838, Sina founded a committee that consisted of subscribers who had already become financially active until the formation of a stock corporation.

On June 18, 1838 the authorization to found the company was granted, on September 30, 1838 the highest authorization issued on Sina was transferred to the shareholders, and on May 6, 1839 the Imperial Court Chancellery confirmed the statutes of the privileged Vienna-Raabers Railway , whose fund was 12.5 million guilders .

The originally proposed designation Kaiser-Ferdinand-Südbahn was rejected by the government (the Kaiser-Ferdinand-Nordbahn had existed since 1837 ).

While the construction of the southern route was tackled quickly, the construction work from Vienna to Bruck an der Leitha only progressed slowly after construction began in 1840. The reason for this was the existing plans for a competing railway line since 1839, the later Hungarian Central Railway from Pest to Pressburg with a branch to Gänserndorf in Lower Austria on the already existing Northern Railway. The initiator of this project was the banker Salomon Rothschild , a competitor of Sina. Although 15 km of the substructure of the Eastern Railway had already been completed, in 1842 Sina applied for the state to replace the railway construction because he saw the expected return on investment because of the competition that had emerged. However, the Imperial and Royal Government refused to continue building the route at their own expense. Instead, the Imperial and Royal Sina government withdrew the concession to build the railway to Hungary and commissioned its joint-stock company, which was renamed Vienna-Gloggnitzer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , with the southern railway project .

Since the work on the Hungarian Central Railway did not start according to plan, Sina applied for a license again in 1844. On February 4, 1844, he again received the concession for the construction of the Vienna – Bruck an der Leitha route and the Wiener Neustadt – Katzelsdorf route . In 1845 construction work to Bruck an der Leitha was resumed, and on September 12, 1846 the line from Vienna to Bruck was opened.

Since the Vienna – Gloggnitz, Mödling – Laxenburg and Wiener Neustadt – Katzelsdorf routes were taken over by the Imperial and Royal Southern State Railways in 1853 , the company was renamed the Vienna-Raab Railway Company again .

Eastern Railway

Status of construction work on the departure hall of the state train station (from 1913: Ostbahnhof) on March 13, 1870

Street view of the state train station around 1880

The ticket hall of the state train station around 1873

The train started at the Raab train station in Vienna, which (with a right angle between the two buildings) was right next to the Gloggnitz train station . In 1870, instead of the Raab train station, the state train station, called Ostbahnhof from 1913 , was built and the Gloggnitz train station became the old south station . After being damaged in the Second World War , the two stations were rebuilt in a joint building called the Südbahnhof (which shows the real significance of the two railway lines in the years 1945–1990). The amalgamation of two railway stations gave the large, combined southern station its peculiar track layout: the main line of the Vienna S-Bahn ran in a low position, the platforms of the so-called east side were on the first floor, and on the second floor, at right angles to it, the platforms of the southern railway. (Track connections between the two railways ran diagonally on the outer edge of the shared company premises.) In Favoriten , Vienna's 10th district behind the train station as seen from the center of Vienna, the Raaber-Bahn-Gasse can be found as a reminder of the original name . This third south station building was demolished in 2010; A provisional facility called Wien Südbahnhof (Ost) remained in operation for trains on the Ostbahn until 2012 . Its functions have been replaced by the new central station since December 9, 2012 .

This proximity of the southern and eastern railways also repeatedly led to confusion. Originally, the railway connection to the south to Trieste should have been made along the eastern edge of the Alps via parts of the Eastern Railway. However, this was not wanted by the Imperial and Royal Government, as it hoped that a connection through the Mur-Mürz-Furche in Styria would benefit the heavy industry there . Only the mountain landscape of the Semmering was still an obstacle, which Carl Ritter von Ghega removed with the construction of the Semmering Railway , which opened in 1854 .

Today the route of the Eastern Railway or the bypass of the eastern foothills of the Alps via Hungary for a high-performance freight transport connection between Vienna and the Adriatic is being discussed again. One could avoid the winding and therefore slowly negotiable Semmering route with its gradients and save the regionally controversial Semmering base tunnel. The Austrian government's transport policy does not address this alternative.

The State Railway Company

In 1855 the Raaber Bahn was merged with the (despite the name, private) Staats-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft . This established the "northern lines" via Stadlau and Marchegg to Pressburg (Pozsony, today Bratislava) ( Marchegger Ostbahn ) and via Mistelbach and Laa an der Thaya to Brno ( Laaer Ostbahn ) (interrupted since 1945 at the state border near Laa). - The old name lives on in local names, e.g. B. in the Staatsbahnstraße in Laa an der Thaya.

Orient express

The Austrian Eastern Railway was used by the now legendary Orient Express. Before the First World War, in the interwar period up to 1938 and 1945–1951, this took place from Vienna on the Marchegger Ostbahn to Pressburg (now Bratislava ), from where the line ran on the left, northern bank of the Danube to Budapest. From 1951 the luxury train operated on the former Raaber Bahn, which it had already used from 1938 until the outbreak of World War II. He no longer drove via Pressburg, but via Bruck an der Leitha on the right, southern bank of the Danube to Budapest, which reduced the number of time-consuming border crossings by one.

The locomotives

The Vienna-Raaber-Bahn set up its own machine factory, which later became the StEG's locomotive factory ; it was the first locomotive factory in Austria. Under the direction of John Haswell , the factory designed and supplied most of the locomotives for the Raaber Bahn. In terms of development history, they are among the oldest locomotives in Austria:

Route

Some of the routes of the Ostbahn belong to the network of the Vienna S-Bahn , all routes belong to the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region . The Ostbahn starts at Vienna Central Station . After a few kilometers, the route forks just before the Simmering Ostbahn station:

Branch to the right of the Danube: the "real" Eastern Railway

When people talk about the Ostbahn in Austria today, this route, the former Raaber Bahn, is meant: The route leaves the Vienna urban area at Kledering and runs via Himberg and Gramatneusiedl , where a connection branches off via Ebenfurth to Wiener Neustadt , to Bruck an der Leitha , where the border station to the Kingdom of Hungary was located until 1921 . Just before the next Parndorf train station , next to the Parndorf Ort stop, the route branches off to Neusiedl am See , and from there the Pannoniabahn along Lake Neusiedl towards Eisenstadt or the Neusiedler Seebahn through the Seewinkel . In Parndorf itself, the railway line divides again into the branch line to Bratislava-Petržalka and the main line to Nickelsdorf , where it leaves Austria (the Hungarian border station has been Hegyeshalom since 1921 ). The border controls were abandoned at the end of 2007. This is also the route over which the long-distance traffic from Austria to Hungary is run, every two hours with the Railjet .

Bruck an der Leitha station was rebuilt in 2014 and 2015

Sarasdorf stop

Branch line Fischamend – Götzendorf-Mannersdorf

Branch line Bruck an der Leitha-Petronell-Carnuntum (-Hainburg)

The line is single-track and not electrified. It was originally led to Hainburg an der Donau and connected this city to the railway network from October 1, 1886, long before the Pressburger Bahn was built , a local railway that started from Vienna. From December 10, 1951, there was only limited passenger traffic, which was completely stopped on March 3, 1952. The branch line is currently only run as far as the AB Mars Austria at km 2.621. From km 3,900 to 13,300, a trolley line was set up for tourists in September 2011 , but this was discontinued in 2019 and the tracks were removed.

Branch line Bruck ad Leitha-West – Petronell-Carnuntum
Route number :	193 01
Course book route (ÖBB) :	-
Route length:	14.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	C3
Maximum slope :	16 ‰
Minimum radius :	196 m
Top speed:	40 km / h

Parndorf – Bratislava branch line

The line is single-track and electrified. From 1945 it was interrupted at the state border near Kittsee and Petržalka, and passenger traffic ceased in 1951. On December 15, 1998, the continuous rail connection was reopened. Today it is served hourly in passenger traffic from Vienna Hbf to Bratislava Petržalka.

Branch line Parndorf – Bratislava – Petržalka
Route number :	194 01
Course book route (ÖBB) :	701
Route length:	24.8 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Power system :	15 kV, 16.7 Hz ~
Maximum slope :	13 ‰
Minimum radius :	920 m
Top speed:	160 km / h

Branch to the left of the Danube (northern lines)

Stadlauer Bridge

The branch turns at a right angle to the northeast in the Vienna city area in Simmering, crosses the Prater (connection to the Donauuferbahn ) and the Danube over the Stadlauer bridge and forks again at Stadlau.

Vienna Central Station – Marchegg – Bratislava route

This route runs almost in an easterly direction via Obersiebenbrunn / Leopoldsdorf through the Marchfeld to Marchegg , where it crosses the border river March on a bridge and leads north of the Danube to Pressburg / Bratislava in Slovakia . For the formerly double-track line, there are plans to expand it to two tracks again and to electrify it eastwards from the Vienna Aspern Nord station (the S-Bahn runs to there).

Route Vienna Hbf. – Mistelbach – Laa an der Thaya

The other part leads north into the Weinviertel . Important stations are Wolkersdorf , Mistelbach and today's end point Laa an der Thaya , located directly on the border with the Czech Republic . Cross-border traffic to Grusbach / Hrusovany and Brno in Moravia came to a standstill after 1945 due to the Iron Curtain . The bridge over the Thaya is destroyed; ÖBB is not interested in reactivation by Czech Railways.

Further routes

Originally, various branch lines branched off from the main lines of the Eastern Railway. They are mostly shut down today.

outlook

Since the Lainzer Tunnel , an underground connection between the Westbahn , Südbahn and Donauländebahn in western Vienna, opened in December 2012, the Ostbahn has been much easier to use than before in east-west traffic. The new Vienna Central Station , the local traffic tracks of which were also put into operation in December 2012 and the long-distance tracks in December 2014, also contributes to the fact that through traffic in the west-east relation can be handled in a time-saving manner.

The twin cities concept of the cities of Vienna and Bratislava, which is based on strong economic, cultural and social cooperation between the two capitals only 60 km away, sees the intensive use of the Eastern Railway south and north of the Danube for "local traffic" between the two cities in front.

It was also planned to connect Vienna Airport , located on the Pressburger Bahn, with the so-called Götzendorfer Spange , a new line, with the East Railway or the West-East Mainline; These plans were set aside in 2012 as they could not be financed for the time being due to the need to consolidate the budget.

From April 2012 onwards, a connection to the airport express train was built instead . Since December 2014, it has been facilitating the management of trains between the main train station and Vienna Airport by means of appropriate unbundling; so far, this traffic would have crossed the Donauländebahn at the same level. The connecting line begins in the area of the central shunting yard and crosses its tracks with a bridge; south of the central cemetery it is connected to the airport express train.

In 2015, a pilot project was started in which a solar power plant with 7,000 square meters of solar panels is to cover the electricity needs of the Ostbahn. At Wilfleinsdorf , the electricity is fed in via newly developed inverters from Fronius International . If the attempt is successful, around 20 more solar power plants will be built along the lines.

literature

Negotiations of the fourth general meeting of shareholders of the kk priv. Wien-Raaber Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft held on July 18, 1842 . [Sl], [1842] digitized

Negotiations of the third general meeting of shareholders of the kk priv. Vienna-Raaber railway , held on March 6, 1841 , [o. J.], digitized

Negotiations of the second general assembly of the Actionaire of the kk priv. Vienna-Raaber Eisenbahn , held on October 1, 1839 , [o. J.], digitized

Negotiations of the first general assembly of the Actionaire of the kk priv. Vienna-Raaber Eisenbahn , held on October 1, 1838 , [o. J.], digitized

Web links

Commons : Ostbahn (Austria) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Entry on Ostbahn in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
Entry on Raaber Bahn in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
Current (PDF) timetable of the ÖBB (S-Bahn).
Current (PDF) timetable of ÖBB (REX trains)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b statutes of the kais (erlich) regal (ichen) privileged Vienna-Raaber railway company . Sn, Vienna 1839. - Full text online .

^ Georg Simon Freiherr von Sina: Program of the Vienna-Raab Railway. In: Intelligence sheet for the united Ofner and Pesther newspaper , No. 27/1838, March 25, 1838, p. 285 (online at ANNO ) Template: ANNO / Maintenance / opz.

↑ Operation closed: No new season for draisines on www.noen.at from February 20, 2019, accessed on May 17, 2020

↑ kurier.at: ÖBB: There is not enough money for trains and service

↑ ÖBB Infrastruktur AG: Groundbreaking ceremony for the connection between Ostbahn and airport express train ( Memento from January 14, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

↑ Pilot project: train runs on solar power on ORF Lower Austria from April 27, 2015, accessed on April 27, 2015.

[Statuten_1838-1] statutes of the kais (erlich) regal (ichen) privileged Vienna-Raaber railway company . Sn, Vienna 1839. - Full text online .