About this journey

Fehring station sits above the valley floor of the Raab river in the district of Südoststeiermark, Styria, with rolling hills rising to the east toward Burgenland. From here the Steirische Ostbahn — the Styrian Eastern Railway — runs westward into Graz, and Fehring serves as the eastern terminus for S3 services along this line.

At its western end, the Steirische Ostbahn reaches Graz Hauptbahnhof, itself the terminus of the route and the most frequented railway station in Austria outside of Vienna. The first station on this site opened in 1847, with a larger structure built between 1871 and 1876. That building was totally destroyed in Allied bombing raids in 1945, and the current station was completed in 1956. Its main ticket hall, in the typical style of the 1950s, is now a listed building. From 2010, the station underwent significant reconstruction to serve as an international transport hub, with all platforms rebuilt and lengthened and two additional platforms added for regional trains. The journey on this December 2023 run moves from the quiet, hilly countryside of southeastern Styria — where Fehring's documented history reaches back to 1305 — into one of Austria's most important railway nodes, the contrast between rural eastern approaches and the urban scale of Graz Hauptbahnhof shaping the full arc of the ride.