THE European Commission announced on November 26 that it has launched infringement proceedings against Austria at the European Court of Justice for failing to comply with EU regulations on financial transparency in the rail sector.
AUSTRIAN railfreight continued to suffer the effects of the prolonged economic downturn last year according to annual figures released by Austria's rail regulator Schienen-Control, which also show a strong increase in passenger traffic.
JUST two years after launching its Vienna – Linz – Salzburg services, Austrian open-access operator Westbahn reached break-even last year according to the company's annual results, which were revealed on June 26.
AUSTRIAN open-access long-distance operator Westbahn announced on May 13 that it has pulled out of the European Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), accusing the association of blocking liberalisation and market opening.
THE finances of Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) continued to improve last year according to the railway's newly-published annual results, which show a continuation of the turnaround achieved in 2012.
AFTER several years of poor or mixed results, Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) achieved a strong turnaround in 2012 with a return to profitability.
RAILHOLDING, the 100% owner of Austrian open-access passenger operator Westbahn has increased its capital stock by €20 million following an injection of funds from Strabag CEO Mr Peter Haselsteiner.
Austria celebrated the opening of the new line from Vienna to St Pölten last month. While passenger journey times have been slashed, freight traffic is suffering from some early teething problems, as Erwin Reidinger reports.
IN a landmark ruling, the European Court of Justice has decreed that Austrian infrastructure manager ÖBB Infrastructure acted unlawfully in preventing open-access operator Westbahn from accessing real-time data on the train movements of other operators.
It's now almost a year since Austria's first long-distance open-access operator took to the rails. Erwin Reidinger looks back at the challenges encountered by Westbahn in its formative months.