Politicians in Upper Austria have turned their guns on Federal Railways (ÖBB) bosses after the firm announced plans to end its Linz Graz Intercity service.The state-owned company said today (Fri) that it would stop offering a direct high-speed connection between the Upper Austrian city of Linz and Graz in the province of Styria after […]
Federal Railways (ÖBB) boss Christian Kern has claimed now was the “last chance” to get the debt-stricken firm back on track.Kern said today (Thurs) he expected developments similar to the processes in the aviation industry to occur in the railway business. The ÖBB CEO who took up office in June also referred to […]
Traffic on a major railway route in Tyrol had to be closed down this morning (Thurs) after workers discovered a leak in a rail tanker.Federal Railways (ÖBB) announced that staff had noticed gas escaping from a wagon at Kufstein station. Officials decided to evacuate the venue and halt traffic for around an hour as a […]
A railway employee lost a leg when he was run over by a slow-moving train in Carinthia yesterday (Weds).The 52-year-old from St. Veit an der Glan was engaged in repair and maintenance work at a Weißenstein chemistry firms railway system when he failed to observe an oncoming train.Christoph Posch, a spokesman for Federal Railways ÖBB, […]
Viennese commuters are outraged after the citys public transport agency Wiener Linien said 20 years will pass before all its fleet vehicles have air conditioning.Answer Lang, a spokesman for the company, said today (Weds): “Every new tram or underground is equipped with air conditioning.”Lang claimed it would be an economic mistake to set up old […]
Strabag boss Hans Peter Haselsteiners ambitious bid to break the Austrian Railways (ÖBB) monopoly will start next year.The construction business entrepreneur announced today (Thurs) that his private Westbahn railway service between Vienna and Salzburg was set to operate from December 2011.Haselsteiner whose firm Strabag is one of the biggest players in European construction industry […]
A faulty brake conduit is to blame for a dramatic train crash in Vorarlberg, according to an expert commissions report.Rene Zumtobel, a spokesman for Federal Railways (ÖBB), said today (Fri) an investigation showed that the car-transporting cargo trains brake line had been defunct. He added that experts ruled out human error.Around half of the 320 […]
Austria has made the top three in a humiliating European Union (EU) retirement age ranking.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures presented today (Weds) reveal that Belgium and France were the only other EU member states with a comparably low average pensioning age as Austria where men retire on average at 59 and […]
Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) boss Josef Bucher has suggested to privatise parts of indebted Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) to help the company to recover.The head of the opposition party said today (Thurs) the government should list some departments of the struggling firm, which is close to the state, on the stock market. […]
Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) is back in the black after ending a controversial speculative deal with Germanys Deutsche Bahn (DB).ÖBB said today (Mon) its operating profit had been 121 million Euros in 2009 after it had had 970 million Euros in losses in the previous year.The company however lost 300 million Euros in a speculative […]