Westbahn Expands Fleet with Four Double-Decker Trains

The Westbahn ordered the trains back in 2019. Haselsteiner criticized the long approval duration: "You are not a customer, but a supplicant." According to Haselsteiner, the European industry takes four years to deliver a train, which he finds "unacceptable." Any deviation from already approved trains further extends the process. The trains completed a total of 300,000 kilometers in test operation. The Westbahn has rented the trains for ten years and can purchase them at any time.

66 Westbahn Connections Daily

The decision for CRRC was made for reasons of quality, innovation, and delivery time, further explained Westbahn Managing Director Marco Ramsbacher. The trains are to be gradually deployed in the coming weeks. According to Managing Director Thomas Posch, the Westbahn reaches capacity limits on certain weekdays. The service will then grow with a total of 19 train sets by 28 percent to nearly 10,000 seats. In the future, there will be 66 instead of 60 Westbahn connections to and from Vienna Westbahnhof daily. There will be a "seamless" half-hourly service from Westbahnhof, said Posch.

Each of the new trains with six carriages offers 536 seats and a passenger capacity of more than 1,250 people. Compared to the train sets of the current fleet, the vehicles are eight meters longer, but according to Westbahn, consume up to ten percent less energy. Promised are adjustable seat surfaces, power outlets at every seat, and free Wi-Fi. Travelers can also use the new NFC function in addition to the usual QR code scanning during the so-called "Relax Check-in." Additionally, for large luggage storage, there is the NFC lock function as an alternative to the conventional coin system. Development, design, and essential components largely originate from Austria and Europe, according to Westbahn.

Chamber of Labor Criticizes Westbahn's Train Purchase from China

The Chamber of Labor criticized in a statement in the evening that the Westbahn has purchased double-decker trains from the Chinese manufacturer CRRC. The deployment on the western route would be "one of the first uses of Chinese rolling stock in passenger rail transport in the EU" and a "breach of the dam that endangers an Austrian key industry, future jobs, and the crisis resilience of the railway," writes Lukas Oberndorfer, head of the Climate, Environment, and Transport Department of the Chamber of Labor Vienna. Austria's railway industry, with 34,000 employees, is a key industry that exports a lot and holds numerous patents. "Unlike other modes of transport, we still have technological leadership in the railway industry in the EU. Endangering this with low-cost providers would be short-sighted in terms of industrial and employment policy," said Oberndorfer. He called on the EU Commission to "review its approval criteria." In the future, "tax money from the climate ticket network" should also be tied to conditions such as social and ecological criteria and a minimum share of European value creation.

(APA/Red)

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