Old Westbahn to reopen on 10 October, ‘several months’ for the new one
The older section of one of Austria’s busiest freight lines, the Westbahn, will be back at full capacity on 10 October, Rail Cargo Group (RCG) stated. For the new section, which was more damaged by the extreme weather conditions in Austria, the company said that “reconstruction work is expected to take several months.”
The Westbahn, connecting Vienna to St. Polten and then Linz and Salzburg, sees roughly 550 trains, both freight and passenger, when at full capacity. In the aftermath of the recent floods, “only about 150 trains a day can currently run – for all passenger and freight trains on the market”, RCG said.
The most damage was made at the Tullnerfeld station and the Atzenbrugger tunnel between Tullnerfeld and St. Pölten. “The extent of the damage only became apparent in the last few days, after the one-metre-high water in the tunnel had been pumped out”, RCG added, saying the damage was worse than initially thought.
