The Austrian Federal Railways are looking to the future. Even as the 2024-2029 framework plan, which outlines investments for the coming years, is still hot off the press, the Vienna government and ÖBB have initiated the Target Network 2040 technical project. This project carries a broad vision for the railway network's development towards the mid-21st century. A wide-ranging discussion with the federal states is now being promoted to gather feedback or consider possible additions. However, despite the seemingly distant horizon, the goal is to finalize the project definition by 2024.
After reviewing over a hundred project ideas, 67 projects have been selected to be part of the technical draft. The 2040 network's goal is to ensure a total traffic volume of 255 million train kilometers per year, one and a half times the current network's performance. The investments will be substantial. The 2024-2029 framework plan already allocates four billion euros, which will reach 26 billion at current prices for the target network 2040.
The projects are intricate and cover a good portion of the network, but particularly, there are four main directions where new investments will be concentrated. The first is the new Innkreisbahn, a double-track line in Upper Austria and Bavaria that would halve the current travel times between the two countries. This project has a cross-border development and is currently under study in Germany for the nationally interested section. The second project is significant for freight traffic as it involves constructing the new Bosruck tunnel in central Austria, a base tunnel that will allow the passage of standard European length freight trains without dimensional constraints and towing mass limitations.
The third project shifts focus to the Vienna hub, where a railway ring for suburban passenger services of the S-Bahn lines will be enhanced and completed. However, this will also positively impact freight trains by significantly increasing network capacity following the lines' specialization. The last extensive project concerns the Rhine Valley railway with the enhancement and expansion of railway lines in the Bregenz area, a crossroads between Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.
As the Target Network 2040 project details are being defined, the 2024-2029 plan is coming to life. Already in 2024, the investment program across the Austrian network is substantial. Particularly in the eastern region, projects worth over a billion euros are planned, while work on the Semmering base tunnel, which will significantly change freight transport, is progressing rapidly.
Funding will also go to Tyrol with 579 million euros (where planning continues in the Kufstein area for the new high-capacity line accessing the Brenner), to Styria with 732 million euros (here, after completing tunnel excavations, the final phase of constructing the new Koralmbahn line between Graz and Klagenfurt will start). Other allocations include Carinthia with 328 million euros, Upper Austria with 312 million euros (with the expansion to four tracks of the main Austrian railway line, the western line, in addition to the expansion of the Wels freight terminal), the Salzburg area with 268 million euros, and finally Vorarlberg with 76 million euros.
Piermario Curti Sacchi
