AUSTRIA’s federal government has approved Austrian Federal Railways’ (ÖBB) infrastructure investment plan for 2017-2022, which pledges to spend €15.2bn on the rail network over the next five years.

AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) and German Railways (DB) presented their respective overnight train concepts for Germany on October 7, which will come into effect at the timetable change on December 11.

AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) announced on September 21 that Bombardier has been selected as preferred bidder for a framework contract to supply up to 300 EMUs.

IRJ at InnoTrans 2016: Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) revealed its InnoShunt eHybrid shunting locomotive at InnoTrans on September 20.

AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) has launched a tender for new multifunctional coaches, which include low-floor access and driving trailers, to be used on inter-city and overnight trains.

AUSTRIANS travelled further by rail than the citizens of any other European Union member state in 2015, according to figures released by the country's rail regulator Schienen-Control on July 13, which show the average distance travelled reached 1427km per inhabitant, a figure exceeded only by the Swiss.

AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) signed an agreement with the City of Vienna and the Austrian Ministry of Transport on June 14 to invest €450m to improve and expand the Vienna S-Bahn network.

THE supervisory board of Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) has approved plans to significantly increase the number of overnight trains it operates and the railway has been negotiating with German Rail (DB) to take over some of its overnight services, which are due to be withdrawn in December.

AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) CEO Mr Christian Kern resigned from his post with immediate effect on May 17 after being selected to become the next chancellor of the Austrian republic.

THE Austrian government has unveiled a new subsidy scheme which will enable the state to continue supporting wagonload rail freight traffic beyond the end of next year.