Austria’s most important rail artery for passenger and freight traffic— the Weststrecke between Vienna, Linz, Salzburg and the German border—suffered a serious overhead-line failure late on 17 July that continued to disrupt services through the morning of 18 July. ÖBB’s traffic control centre confirmed that a torn catenary and a resulting signal-box malfunction near Linz–St. Valentin left only one of the four tracks fully operational. Long-distance Railjet Xpress and ICE services to and from Germany could be kept running, but dozens of InterCity, regional and night trains were cancelled or truncated. By 10:17 a.m. on 18 July the national operator was still warning travellers to expect major delays and to check connections shortly before departure. A rail-replacement bus service is running between Linz Hbf and St. Valentin, while Westbahn and ÖBB have agreed to waive the usual “train binding” so that tickets are accepted across both operators’ services until at least 21 July. Freight trains have been rerouted via the Pyhrn line where capacity allows. The Weststrecke carries more than 500 passenger trains and a significant share of Austria’s north-south freight every day; any prolonged outage immediately hits international business travellers and supply chains between Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Central-Eastern Europe. Deutsche Bahn has already advised passengers from Munich and Frankfurt to expect missed connections in Vienna and Salzburg, and tour operators have scrambled to re-book incoming holiday groups. Infrastructure teams are working around the clock to splice and tension new catenary wires and to reset the affected interlocking. According to ÖBB the damage was likely caused by extreme temperature fluctuations that led to wire contraction and subsequent rupture, a problem railways across Europe have faced during this summer’s heatwaves. Full normal operations are expected “not before late Sunday”, but contingency timetables will remain in force until technicians give the green light. Multinational companies with headquarters in Vienna and Linz have been advised to allow employees extra travel time or switch to remote meetings.
Source: ÖBB Verkehrsmeldungen
