Welcome
to the Austrian section main page!
This starting page is currently an Austrian pictures page with a lot of
Taurus
locomotives on it! There is also a special page for the
Railjet pride of the ÖBB (Austrian railways).
Railjet
by ÖBB
The
Railjet units are the pride of the ÖBB, the Austrian state railways.
Here the Railjet unit is seen on the beautiful Austrian mountain
landscape. Each Railjet unit is formed of a Taurus locomotive and an
EMU looking coach rake for passengers with driving trailer at both
ends (in the picture there are 2 coaches, 2 driving trailers and 2
locomotive; enough hose power for any mountain slope ;) . Both the
Tauruses and passenger unit are manufactured by
Siemens AG of Germany. According to the year 2005 order there
are
67 Railjet
units with one Taurus locomotive and one coach section. Siemens has
managed to offer the ÖBB a very cost effective and reliable solution
for the budget ÖBB has been able to gather (Austria is one of the
smaller railway nations just like Finland, Denmark
or the
Baltic countries). The technology is well proven and the
maximum speed of 230 km/h (143 mph) well suited for effective journeys
inside the
hilly Austria and its eastern and southern neighbors (no super high
speed lines available for immediate near future). The initial Railjet
international operations started for real early 2009 connecting
Budapest in Hungary
with Wien Austria and Munich in Germany. Interesting is that the
Railjet name
expresses what the (super) high speed railroads have been doing in the
recent years: replacing the airline connections of max 1000 km with a
more convenient and greener rail transportation.
ÖBB
Taurus locomotives
The
second generation Taurus class 1116 number 045 with a traditional
passenger train arriving at St Poelten (Sankt Pölten) Austria. These
locomotives have
double electircal systems and can run for instance to Hungary
ande Slovenia. Picture by Ilkka Siissalo.
This
is the older generation class 1016 Taurus of the ÖBB, here seen in
Bregenz at the Austrian German border. Unit number 040 of class 1016
also seen in Bregenz. Pictures
by Ilkka Siissalo.
Another
Taurus family locomotive class 1016 number 047 passes the mountain town
Matrei with a
long train in a beautiful sunshine and gleaming snow on the Alps
behind. Matrei is in the Western Austria on the Brenner pass, not far
away from Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Pictures by Ilkka Siissalo.
MAV
(Hungarian Railways) Trains in
Austria
Austrians
have regular connections abroad by several companies like Deutsche
Bahn, who use their ICE2 high speed trains to link Wien Austria and
Munich Germany. This is a major competitor to the Railjet family of
trains. While the railjet is capable of 230 km/h (143 mph)
the ICE2 can run up
to 280 km/h (174 mph). However, the 280 km/h can be run only on the
high speed
track, and it takes time for acceleration and deceleration, so the real
differences in travel times are not that big and can easily be
compensated for many passengers with higher service level (that is
friendlier service personnel, punctuality, more comfortable and roomier
cars, food services, mobile phone and internet connections, etc.) .
Here seen is a MAV Hungarian railways Taurus class 1047 number 005
in
Linz. Pictures by Ilkka Siissalo.
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Created for 4rail.net by John McKey. Pictures by Ilkka
Siissalo, Sanna Siissalo and
John McKey.
Also in this section
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