About this journey

Linz Hauptbahnhof station in Linz anchors the journey's start. The station traces its origins to 1858, when it opened to coincide with the arrival of the Empress Elisabeth Railway's Western Railway from Vienna. Rebuilt from 1936 in a severe modernist style, it was damaged by Allied bombing and rebuilt again between 1949 and 1955, before a final transformation between 2002 and 2004 produced the current building, designed by architect Wilhelm Holzbauer. With 40,800 daily passengers recorded in 2018/2019, it stands as the busiest station in Austria outside Vienna, serving the Western Railway alongside the Pyhrn Railway, the Summerauer Railway, and the Linzer Lokalbahn.

The route runs south to Graz Hauptbahnhof station in Graz, a major node on the Southern Railway linking Graz northward to Vienna and southward to Slovenia. The first station on this site opened in 1847; a larger replacement followed between 1871 and 1876, only for that building to be destroyed in Allied bombing in 1945. The current station was completed in 1956, and its main ticket hall carries listed-building status. A long programme of works begun in 2010 extended and rebuilt platforms and added a subsurface tram stop, reflecting the station's growing role as an international hub. The ÖBB 1144 locomotive connects these two layered histories across a journey of nearly three hours.