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The railways in Austria have had to tackle with large mountains much like in its neigbor Switzerland. The railroad building started early and significant upgrades have been made ever since to meet todays demands on capacity and higher speeds. Since the opening of the borders of the ex. Soviet satellite countries around Austria the country has also seen a significant although gradual internationalization of the traffic. There is also the Brenner pass linking North-South the railroad traffic through Austrian rails.
This page is currently mostly 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). |
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| Railjet | |
The Railjet units are the pride of the ÖBB, the Austrian state railways. Here the Railjet driving trailer is seen at Innotrans 2008 trade fair, when the concept of these virtual EMUs was officially unveiled. Semipermanently coupled coahes + Taurus locomotive allow for high speed operations both ways. This means that a certain amount of easy flexibility of formation is retained, should the need for changes arise later. On thew picture lower left a 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 in 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 in early 2009 connecting Budapest in Hungary with Wien Austria and Munich in Germany. The southern direction to Italy soon followed. 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! |
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