AUSTRIA: Revenue-earning regional services began to use the 53 km western section of the Koralmbahn in southwest Austria with the timetable change on December 10.
This links Klagenfurt, St Paul im Lavanttal and Wolfsberg, all in the Land of Kärnten. An opening ceremony was held on December 7 at the newly relocated St Paul station, with inaugural trains running both to Klagenfurt and to Wolfsberg. The ceremony was attended by ÖBB CEO Andreas Matthä, the head of the EU representation in Austria Martin Selmayr, Vice-Chancellor of Austria Werner Kogler, governor of Kärnten Peter Kaiser, and the mayors of various towns along the route.
Work on the Kärnten section of the Koralmbahn has required multiple interventions involving upgrading of existing lines, improving connecting and diversionary routes and construction of significant new alignment.
Aside from the westernmost 15 km at the Klagenfurt end, most of the route is newly built, with loops constructed to and from a section of the legacy network to enable trains to serve Bleiburg. The western 31·1 km between Klagenfurt and Mittlern partly uses the alignment of the former Drautalbahn, where there has been double-tracking and some easing of curves. The eastern 21·9 km from Mittlern to St Paul is mostly new, aside from the 429 m long bridge at Drava which was used by trains on the old alignment, known as the Jauntalbahn. The bridge only opened in 1964, and so has been strengthened rather than replaced as part of the Koralmbahn work.
Between Jauntalbrücke and St Paul, three tunnels have been built on a new alignment, at Langer Berg (3 096 m), Einhausung Granitztal (430 m) and Deutsch Grutschen (2 550 m). St Paul station has also been relocated to a site 2·5 km northwest of the town centre.
Although not part of the Koralmbahn corridor itself, the 19 km route between St Paul and Wolfsberg has also been electrified as part of the latest work package so that it can be included in the Kärnten S-Bahn network.
Completion due in 2025
The Koralmbahn project covers construction of a 250 km/h route including a 33 km base tunnel to link Klagenfurt with Graz; this in turn forms part of an even wider programme to rebuild large sections of the entire Südbahn route between Wien, Graz, Klagenfurt, Villach and the Italian and Slovenian borders.
Opening of the remaining sections from St Paul to Graz, including the Koralm Base Tunnel, is planned for December 2025. Until the full route opens, ÖBB is running regional services over the rebuilt tracks in Kärnten using Cityjet EMUs running at up to 160 km/h.
At the ceremony in St Paul, ÖBB Chief Executive Andreas Matthä said it gave ‘a foretaste of what people can expect here in the south of Austria when the whole route would be opened’.
‘As part of the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor, the Koralmbahn brings Europe closer together’, added Martin Selmayr, the EU’s representative in Austria. ‘The EU wants to become climate neutral by 2050 at the latest. The expansion of rail is an important step towards this.’ EU funds have contributed around €543m towards the cost of the Koralmbahn scheme so far.
