Semmeringbahn

The world’s first true mountain railway (1854) and a UNESCO site: 16 viaducts built before the age of dynamite.

Some 20,000 labourers built Carl von Ghega’s masterpiece with picks, barrows and mule trains, and Railjets still cross their stone double-deck viaducts every hour on the way to Graz. The showpiece section between Gloggnitz and Mürzzuschlag stacks curved galleries against the Rax cliffs: views so prized they once graced Austria’s 20-schilling banknote. Ride it with intent: when the Semmering Base Tunnel opens, the expresses will duck beneath the pass and leave the old line to stopping trains and hikers.

Stations

1. 0 kmWien Hauptbahnhof
2. 3 kmWien Meidling
3. 48 kmWiener Neustadt Hauptbahnhof
4. 116 kmMürzzuschlag
5. 157 kmBruck an der Mur
6. 210 kmGraz Hauptbahnhof

The stations OpenStreetMap lists for this service, in order, with the distance along the line as drawn here. A train may skip some of them.

Along the way

• Gloggnitz castle at the foot of the ramp
• Kalte Rinne Viaduct
• Adlitzgraben horseshoe curves
• Semmering station at the 898 m summit
• Mürz valley descent to Bruck
• Graz’s red-roofed old town

How this line was checked

• Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 10757934 — 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 6 m from it
• Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits under 100 m from the shape of RJ 754
• Wikipedia has an article for this line
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the Semmeringbahn?

The Semmeringbahn runs 224 km from Vienna to Graz.

How long does the Semmeringbahn take?

The fastest scheduled journey is 2 h 35 min for the 224 km. That is an average of 87 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 230 km/h.

Who runs the Semmeringbahn?

ÖBB, with Railjet.

How old is the Semmeringbahn?

The line has been in service since 1854. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.

How high does the Semmeringbahn climb?

898 m above sea level at its highest point.

View on the world railway map →

Read more on Wikipedia ↗