★ 4K 🇦🇹 Vienna - Linz - 🇩🇪 Passau (D), Austria - Germany cab ride [03.2021]

Welcome to the first train driver's view video on this channel in Austria!

We begin our journey in the Freudenau Harbour of Vienna, where our train has just been manoeuvred out of the container terminal we will pass to the right. Our locomotive is a Br 193 Vectron (many of which we will pass along the way).

We can leave the harbour in both directions to get to our destination, today we're taking the route via Oberlaa and continuing onto the Westbahn line, the main east - west line in Austria, through to wels, where we will be heading north Towards the German border station of Passau. The line between Vienna and Linz was successively expanded into a 4 track railway between 1994 - 2014, including the Wienerwald and Lainzer tunnels, which pass underneath the city of Vienna with a length of over 22 Km. The new line allows high speed operation with cab signalling (ETCS Level 2, LZB) and the whole line retains the older PZB system.

On our trip today, we will travel almost entirely on the old line, which is especially enjoyable over the hills via Rekawinkel. The line generally features more curves and stations and is predominantly used for regional trains and freight. Having said that, the system is very flexible, with most switches allowing for track changes at 100 Km/h and signalling in both directions for all tracks. It's not uncommon to see 3 to 4 trains travelling in parallel, especially at night. It seems to me that Austria has put a lot of thought into their railways - and their signal operators are good at what they do.

Some speeds are included in the video, but most of the time we will be travelling at 100 Km/h, which is generally the top speed allowed for freight trains in Austria.

There are a few interesting facts I've included along the way, of bridges that were destroyed during World War II and so on. The scenery isn't as beautiful as it could be, unfortunately it was late winter, so there was no snow and things hadn't started to get green yet. Hopefully I can record this line in a more colourful season in the future. Austria does have a lot more to offer, which you will see in coming videos, some of them curving through the alps for hours on end.

Stations we pass through:
30:55 Oberlaa
40:42 Hetzendorf Junction
45:56 Hadersdorf Junction
59:23 Rekawinkel
1:27:31 Wagram Junction
1:31:39 St Pölten
1:45:05 Prinzersdorf
2:17:05 Ybbs an der Donau
2:27:40 Amstetten
2:53:46 St Valentin
3:10:10 Linz Verschiebebahnhof
3:25:16 Linz Hauptbahnhof
3:45:38 Wels Verschiebebahnhof
3:53:50 Wels Hauptbahnhof
4:01:00 Haiding
4:22:25 Neumarkt-Kallham
4:59:00 Passau Hauptbahnhof
5:00:47 Passau Güterbahnhof

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