ULTIMATE Rail Journeys: Vienna and the Semmering

About ULTIMATE Rail Journeys: Vienna and the Semmering

By the ULTIMATE Vienna Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Few cities have a railway story like Vienna’s. In 1883 the first Orient Express called here on its way from Paris to the East. Thirty years earlier, engineers had already carried the line south over the Semmering pass, and today Wien Hauptbahnhof sends Railjets to Budapest, Munich and Zurich and Nightjet sleepers across the continent.

The Semmering Railway

UNESCO calls the Semmering Railway, built over 41 km of high mountains between 1848 and 1854, one of the greatest feats of civil engineering of the pioneering age of the railways. Its engineer was Carl von Ghega, and the line has been in use ever since; UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List in 1998. The local tourist office counts 16 viaducts and 14 tunnels on the route, among them the two-tier Kalte Rinne viaduct near Breitenstein.

The Orient Express

When the Orient Express began running on 4 October 1883, Britannica notes, Vienna was one of its brief stops, with Munich, Budapest and Bucharest, on the way from Paris towards Constantinople. The name still means luxury travel, and Vienna still sits on the line between west and east.

Take a regional train over the Semmering on a clear autumn day, and sit by the window.

The hub today

Wien Hauptbahnhof is the meeting point: ÖBB says trains run to Budapest every hour and Railjets to Munich and Prague every two hours, with direct Railjets to Zurich and two a day to Venice by the new Koralm Railway. Nightjet sleepers leave for Hamburg, Berlin, Rome, Venice, Zurich and Amsterdam. Beneath the old mountain line, the Semmering Base Tunnel has been dug, and ÖBB-Infrastruktur says its first trains will run in 2030.

Riding it yourself

Regional trains from Wien Hauptbahnhof climb over the Semmering: check oebb.at for times. Walkers can follow a marked route beside the line between the stations, with views of the viaducts.

Our advice: ride up in the morning, walk a stretch of the line, and come back by train in the late-afternoon light. See our page Vienna by rail for the international trains.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with ULTIMATE Rail Journeys: Vienna and the Semmering before you go.