About this journey

Wien Hauptbahnhof, the departure point, opened fully in December 2015 after replacing the old Wien Südbahnhof terminus, at a total construction cost of approximately €987 million. Formally inaugurated on 10 October 2014, the station is built around five island platforms sheltered by canopies roughly 210 metres in length. From here the RailJet calls at St. Pölten and Linz before continuing west along the Western Railway — the corridor that has connected Vienna and Salzburg since the mid-nineteenth century.

Salzburg Hauptbahnhof entered the international railway network in 1860, when the Empress Elisabeth Railway from Vienna met the Bavarian Maximilian's Railway at the city. The station was heavily damaged by bombing in 1944 and 1945, and unexploded ordnance remaining in the yard claimed two lives during a defusing attempt in 2003. A subsequent rebuild under the ÖBB-Bahnhofsoffensive, with a total budget of 270 million Euros, converted the old bay platforms into through platforms and added a shopping mall beneath the tracks. The journey thus moves between two stations that have each been substantially remade in the modern era, with centuries of railway history running beneath the surface of both.