PASSENGER services between Bratislava and Wien via Kittsee will resume on January 7, following a formal ceremony on December 18. The dates were announced at Bratislava Petrzalka during the Slovak Railways 150th anniversary celebrations on August 22, when Slovakian Transport Minister Jan Jasovsky and ZSR General Manager Michael Lazar officially declared the Slovak portion of the cross-border project ’complete’.
Reinstatement of the link closed in 1945 began in 1994. Austrian Federal Railways is relaying 22·4 km from Parndorf to the border and ZSR 1·8 km between the border and Petrzalka, which serves the growing southern suburbs of the Slovak capital. The station has been rebuilt at a cost of KS903m, with new buildings and twin island platforms (above). As the cross-border line is being energised at ÖBB’s 15 kV 16 2??3 Hz, four tracks in the station are wired at this voltage and the other nine at ZSR’s 25 kV 50Hz. Trains on the route will initially be diesel-hauled, with electric working due to begin with the May 1999 timetable change. ÖBB Class 4010 EMUs will operate a regular two-hourly inter-city service between Wien Sud and Petrzalka. o
