Older cars are currently being used there because Railjets were damaged during the last onset of winter. Now some of the trains don’t even go south on older passenger trains – but, according to ORF, on S-Bahn trains with far fewer seats, no food and only one toilet.
This emerged on Saturday from a report in “Zeit im Bild 13:00”. The change, which the ÖBB had announced in advance, has been in effect since December 10th and until mid-January. It had been said that amplifier trains (“D trains”) would be withdrawn from the western route in order to replace railjets on the southern route. Therefore, three to four pairs of trains to the west are canceled every day.
“The current restrictions on the southern route are still the following-effects of the snow chaos at the beginning of December,” said ÖBB spokesman Bernhard Rieder on Saturday. Since then, four damaged Railjets have had to be replaced by passenger coaches. In addition, a Railjet had to undergo an urgent inspection on Friday. “That’s why regional train sets were used in exceptional cases. There were enough seats for all passengers, but unfortunately these sets do not have first class. Of course, customers with a first class ticket will be refunded the difference,” said Rieder.
Four sets are missing
On the southern route there will be almost the same number of seats in ÖBB passenger coaches, said a railway spokesman before the temporary change that became necessary due to force majeure. In any case, there will be small meals with a trolley. “What’s very important is that we try to use all the wagon material we have. We do that too, but our wagon reserves are also limited. This time, unfortunately, we are missing four trains due to the storm damage, which we are especially noticing during Christmas traffic,” said ÖBB spokesman Bernhard Rieder told orf.at on Saturday.
“It’s never been this bad”
Because the “ZiB” report talked regarding partially broken heating systems, standing passengers, individual wagons without interior lighting, garbage bins that were not emptied, partially defective toilets and delays. “It has never been as bad as it was now. This is a scandal. There is only one toilet on the train,” complained one affected passenger. “The seat wasn’t reserved, the garbage cans weren’t emptied. There’s nothing to drink,” said the next passenger. “Terrible. Cold. No Railjet as booked,” said another train driver. ORF said everything will stay as it is until mid-January – just over the Christmas holidays and the New Year.
In any case, no improvement can be expected soon. “So what is very clear is that there are a lot of passengers at Christmas, so we are usually well positioned. This year it will be a little tighter, but we still have enough capacity for the holidays in Carinthia,” said Rieder.
Damage caused by the onset of winter
Four Railjets were damaged by catenary damage and fallen trees during the onset of winter at the beginning of December. They should be made available for passenger traffic once more “mid-January at the latest” following the necessary checks. The Railjets can then be used once more on the southern route and the older wagon material that is now used there can also be used once more for amplifier trains on the western route, it was originally said. There will be no cancellations on the route from Vienna via Klagenfurt, Villach and in some cases further to Spittal am Millstätter See and Lienz in East Tyrol due to the rolling stock.
No seat despite reservation
“All reservations that were booked via the ÖBB customer account will remain in place despite changes to the vehicle material,” said ÖBB when announcing the measure. “The changes will be communicated directly to customers via mail. We apologize for the weather-related inconvenience and plan to resume scheduled services from mid-January 2024.” On Saturday, the original statements were put into perspective once more, because not all travelers with reservations will receive fixed seats in the coming weeks: “Unfortunately, this is also the case that we can only reserve certain trains, unfortunately some trains cannot technically be reserved because of the different train set.” said ÖBB spokesman Rieder.
Among other things, the heavy and wet snow on December 1st and 2nd caused trees to fall into the track area. This also led to cracks in the overhead line and trains were damaged. According to ÖBB, the trains must be carefully checked and then repaired before being used once more for passengers.
