About this journey

The journey begins at Graz Hauptbahnhof, whose history stretches back to 1847, when the first station opened on this site. A larger structure replaced it between 1871 and 1876, only for that building to be destroyed in Allied bombing raids in 1945. The current station, completed in 1956, serves as a major node on the Southern Railway linking Vienna and Graz, and from 2010 it underwent substantial reconstruction to meet its role as an international transport hub.

At the northern end of the route, Wien Hauptbahnhof represents a different era of railway engineering entirely. Formally inaugurated on 10 October 2014 and fully operational in December 2015, it replaced the old Wien Südbahnhof terminus and was built at a cost of around €987 million. Its five island platforms are covered by canopies roughly 210 metres long, and the station was designed with through platforms rather than dead ends, allowing it to handle more trains on less space than its predecessors. The RailJet service filmed here continues beyond Vienna through Brno, Prague, and Dresden to Berlin, placing this corridor firmly within a wider European network. The journey moves from a station rebuilt from wartime ruin to one conceived from the outset as a continental interchange.