Scenic route
Mariazellerbahn
St. Pölten → Mariazell · Austria
Mariazellerbahn in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 84 km
- Fastest time
- 2 h 30 min
- Average speed
- 34 km/h
- Top speed
- 80 km/h
- Operator
- Niederösterreich Bahnen
- Train
- Himmelstreppe (Stadler)
- Countries
- Austria
- In service since
- 1907
- Runs
- hourly in the valley; 6–10× daily through to Mariazell
- Highest point
- 892 m
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Opened in 1907 and electrified with its own rare 6.5 kV 25 Hz current in 1911, Austria’s grandest narrow-gauge line crests at 892 m in the Gösing Tunnel.
Pilgrims have walked to Mariazell’s basilica for eight centuries; this narrow gauge was built so they could ride, swinging out of St. Pölten through the Pielach valley’s pear orchards into the limestone Alps. The mountain section is the reward: 21 tunnels, the lofty Saugraben viaduct and a ledge above the Ötschergräben, canyons billed as Austria’s Grand Canyon. Golden Himmelstreppe railcars work the service with a panorama car angled at the view, and heritage stock returns on summer dates.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 1919421 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 5 m from it
- Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits 0.1 km from the shape of R56 (Zug-Nr. 6805)
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Pielach valley orchards
- Gösing station facing the Ötscher
- Saugraben viaduct
- Ötschergräben gorge
- Mariazell basilica
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