The newer section of the Westbahn (Western Railway), a key line in Austria which connects Vienna, Linz and Salzburg, “will not be passable for a long time”, the country’s railway holding ÖBB stated. After what was described as ‘the flood of the century’, trains can now only run on the old Westbahn, but only on one of the tracks.
The infrastructure of the Austrian Westbahn is divided into a double-track new infrastructure, opened in 2012, and an older double-track line, inaugurated in 1860. Concerning the new Westbahn in Austria, for example, the Atzenbrugger Tunnel, roughly 60 kilometres west of Vienna, is completely destroyed, ÖBB said on LinkedIn.
Metrans, an operator highly active in the area, added that the Vienna-St Pölten section of the Westbahn “is completely closed to freight trains during the day, with limited passage only at night”. In other words, it is currently impossible to reach Linz and Krems from Vienna, while “the Salzburg service is in full operation”, Metrans specified.
