Historic Moscow-Vienna railway project

Russian Railways and Austrian Railways, together with partners in Ukraine and Slovakia, are planning an ultramodern rail link of historical dimensions from Moscow directly to Vienna.

Austrian meeting in Moscow

The project was presented at the end of February at the fifth meeting of the Austrian Business Forum at the Petrovich Club in Moscow. Leopold Specht, lawyer and member of Austrian Railways’ supervisory board, gave an insight into the plans as well as the status of negotiations, while Andreas Fuchs, Austrian Railways representative, gave a short talk. Both men spoke of an exceptional project that could enable “Centropa” – the greater Vienna-Bratislava region – to develop into a Central European logistics hub. Vienna and Austria were facing a “sensational and unique historical opportunity” to expand their role as a hub between Western and Eastern Europe. Andreas Fuchs emphasized that Austrian Railways attached great importance to the project – improving the Moscow-Vienna link would create many new jobs, particularly in the field of logistics – and the plan should be implemented as soon as possible.

Russia highly interested

At the Austrian meeting there were reports that the Russian government had reacted positively to the idea of a direct fast, high-capacity train link between Moscow and Vienna. Vladimir Yakunin, head of Russian Railways, has apparently expressed a keen interest in the rapid realization of this project. Yakunin is absolutely set on constructing it despite the high cost involved. Above all, Russia is hopeful that a direct high-speed railway to Vienna via the hub of Central Europe will give it an important access route to Western Europe.

Wide gauge railway

According to Austrian Railways, a wide gauge railway is planned between Moscow and Vienna. Wide gauge refers to a gauge of 1,520 mm. Russian Railways operate on this wide gauge, as do Ukrainian Railways. However, the railway networks of Central and Western Europe use a standard gauge of 1,435 mm. Slovakia also has a network of railways based mainly on the standard gauge. In the past the country therefore played a key role whenever international trains on the Moscow-Vienna route had to change gauges. Modern trains already have automatic gauge-changing systems. ÖBB-Breitspur Planungs-GmbH is a company based in Vienna set up by Austrian Railways specially to concentrate on the extension of a wide gauge line. In Austria special lifting equipment is used for transferring freight from wide to standard gauge or trucks. The new high-capacity Moscow-Vienna line will carry freight from air, sea or road.

Routing via Ukraine and Slovakia

The wide gauge railway is to be routed via Kiev in Ukraine as well as Košice and Bratislava in Slovakia. So far there have only been preliminary calculations of the cost involved. It is assumed that the link will cost nearly six billion euros. According to a study commissioned by the Slovakian government, just the construction of a wide gauge track from Košice to the greater Vienna area would cost over four billion euros, and could be realized from 2010 to 2017. Modernization of the existing wide gauge line from the Ukrainian border to Košice is estimated to cost around 312 million euros. The planned construction of a new railway terminal in Bratislava will require some 49 million euros. Critics have complained about the high cost of the project.

Four countries in partnership

The partners in this project will be the railway companies in Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia and Austria. Each of them will contribute 25 per cent of the costs, and a memorandum of understanding was signed last November. The next step will be for ÖBB-Breitspur Planungs GmbH to become fully operational before the summer of 2009. At the same time, a feasibility study will be carried out for around six million euros. The cost of the study will be shared between the four participating countries.