Austria at the Top in EU Comparison for Train Travel

In Austria, the number of passenger kilometers increased by 12 percent, which corresponds to the average of the 31 European countries examined. Croatia and Hungary stand out with increases of 41 and 33 percent respectively in train travel. In contrast, Greece experienced the largest decline, due to natural disasters and a severe train accident, with 37 percent.

Trend Towards Home Office with Changes in Train Travel

The trend towards sustainable mobility is likely to continue. The Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) recently announced that in 2024, they transported over half a billion passengers for the first time. Around 300 million of these are attributed to rail transport. "However, building new routes everywhere is probably not going to happen. Therefore, it is necessary to look at how existing capacities can be better utilized," explained Frank Michelberger, head of the Department of Railway Technology and Mobility at FH St. Pölten, in a conversation with APA about the current challenge.

In addition to technological progress, events such as the coronavirus pandemic, for example through the trend towards home office, lead to sustainable changes. "If Friday used to be the usual return travel time from Vienna to the federal states, it is now more likely to be Thursday. The same applies in reverse for Sunday and Monday," said Michelberger. This increased flexibility in the workday is a positive factor for train occupancy. Austria is not only at the top of the EU countries in terms of train travel, but according to experts, it is also very well positioned in research and development in rail vehicle construction.

"Rail4Future": Lighthouse Project for Digitalized Train Travel

The domestic lighthouse project "Rail4Future" is intended to pave the way for a fully networked and digitalized rail system. A route simulation was developed, which models the interactions of rail vehicles with the track, individual bridges, tunnels, and switches, explained Manfred Grafinger from the research area of Mechanical Engineering Informatics and Virtual Product Development at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien). Specifically, various train combinations can now be sent virtually on the track on the platform to simulate the loads of the coming months and years.

In the digital image, the condition can be displayed using traffic light colors, a green-colored component is therefore in order. "If you move the time slider forward, you can observe when it eventually turns yellow and maintenance work is due, so that the condition hopefully never turns red," said Stefan Marschnig from the Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economics at TU Graz. From this, it can also be deduced how the infrastructure copes with increased frequencies and loads. Because to get more traffic from the road to the rail, an increase in train traffic is necessary.

(APA/Red)

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