Excavation for Semmering Base Tunnel has been completely finalised on November 29, 2024, ten years after construction began in the Fröschnitzgraben, the last metre of tunnel that has been completed and the tunneling is now inished.
Both 27.3 km long tubes have now been dug from Gloggnitz in Lower Austria to Mürzzuschlag in Styria, with difficult conditions being mastered with the greatest commitment and technical know-how. The concrete inner shell will now be completed in the next few months and then the technical tunnel equipment can start.
“After ten years of tunnelling, the last metre has been completed and an important milestone has been reached. But there is still a lot of work ahead of us before our passengers can travel comfortably from Vienna to Graz in less than two hours in 2030. The Semmering Base Tunnel is a sustainable investment for the future of rail transport. As part of the new southern route, it strengthens the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor and the domestic economy,” Andreas Matthä, the Chairman of the Board of ÖBB Holding said.
The 27.3 km of the two-tube tunnel has been dug and all 14 advances have been successfully completed. In 2020, the ‘interior’ construction of the tunnel tubes also began. The tunnel is being lined with a concrete inner shell, almost 45 km of a total of 55 km in two tubes have been built so far. After the inner shell has been completed, the last step is to install the railway tunnel equipment including tracks, cables, technical systems, before the trains can finally travel through the tunnel.
The construction of the tunnel equipment will begin in summer 2025. The first trains will travel through the tunnel in 2030, when it will complete the historic expansion of the Southern Line and the new railway quality in the south of Austria will be a reality for our passengers.
“With the Semmering Base Tunnel, we will experience a massive saving in travel time by rail on the way to and through Styria. The train will thus become an even faster, more affordable and sustainable alternative to the car on this route as well. With the completion of the excavation work, we are getting ever closer to completing one of Austria’s most important infrastructure projects,” Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler said.
The Southern Line is one of the largest and most important rail projects of Austria and includes the modernisation of 200 km of lines and the construction of 170 km of new tracks which will expand North-South railway connection, and 80 km of new tunnels and 150 new bridges are being built.
ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG is working on more than 100 large and small scale projects along the so-called Baltic-Adriatic Corridor from north to south. Stretching between the Baltic and Adriatic seas, this area covers a total of 1,700 km. The corridor is both favoured and co-financed by the European Union. For Austria, the inclusion of the Southern Line in this far-reaching, trans-European connection means valuable access to emerging economies and the most important seaports.
The Southern Line includes the expansion of the Northern Line, the modernisation of the Vienna – Bratislava route, the new Vienna Main Station (operational from December 2015), the Freight Centre Vienna South (operational from 2016), the Pottendorfer line, which entered commercial operation in 2023, the Semmering Base Tunnel, 8 modernised railway stations between Bruck and Graz, the upgrade of Graz Main Station, completed in 2015, and the 130-km Kralm Line which includes the Koralm tunnel. Together, this mix will lay the foundation for future-orientated passenger and freight transport.
In addition to some 37 million passengers per year on the Southern Line, 22 million tonnes of goods are transported by the ÖBB along it and over the country’s borders to Southern European destinations, such as the Adriatic ports. An extended, high-performance line allows these goods to reach their destination even faster.
The Southern Line modernisation and expansion programme covers a total distance of 470 km from northern to the southern state borders of Austria, crossing two mountains – the Semmering and the Koralp – and will provide better and fats connections with the neighbouring countries, between the four federal states and between the three state capitals.
Once the projects are completed, the trains will rush from Vienna to Klagenfurt in 2 hours 40 minutes, and from Graz to Klagenfurt in 45 minutes.
Starting 2026, the Northern Railway trains will run at 160 km/h bringing closer Austria and the Czech Republic and passengers will be able to travel from Vienna to the South Moravian village of Breclav in just an hour. The journey to Prague will take a mere 3 hours 45 min, an entire half an hour faster than it is now, while freight transport will equally benefit from this line expansion.
Over the next few years, around 37 km of track will be expanded on the Austrian side, so that Vienna and Bratislava are linked with a modern and efficient railway infrastructure. The greater part of the route, covering 32.5 km, goes straight through the countryside, making it the longest straight track in the Austrian railway network. This is the shortest way, but in the future, it will also be the quickest, with trains travelling at 200 km/h because the current single track diesel powered route is being expanded to a two-track, electrified high-speed line. 90 km tracks are being newly laid, 9 stations are being modernised, 14 railway crossings are being eliminated and replaced by underpasses or overpasses. The expansion project is being continued on the Slovakian side.
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