The Westbahn will start on Friday with up to four direct connections between the Westbahnhof in Vienna and the Hauptbahnhof in Munich. From Vienna (Hütteldorf) to Munich (East) the journey time should be 3 hours 47 minutes – six minutes faster than the competition. From June 12, the travel time will be shortened by another four minutes, according to the company. Climate card holders have another advantage on the route.
In Austria, trains stop at all stations previously served by the Westbahn (Amstetten, Wels, Attnang-Puchheim and Vöcklabruck). The trains also stop at Munich East station. This allows travelers from the center of Upper Austria in particular and Salzburg in particular to reach Munich Airport quickly and with just one change to the S-Bahn, says director Thomas Posch. With the inclusion of the new destination Munich in the timetable, the Westbahn is also expanding the offer between Vienna and Salzburg to 52 connections per day.
Discounts for climate card holders
The standard price Vienna-Munich is 79.90 euros, with the ÖBB Vorteilscard 54.90 euros. The ticket (Mon-Thu) costs 39.99 euros for people aged 60 and older and 23.99 euros for online early bookers. For climate ticket holders, the additional ticket to Munich – the so-called “KlimaPlus-Ticket Munich” – costs only 14.90 euros. They would therefore particularly benefit from cross-border traffic, “because they can travel in Comfort class 2plus at no extra cost and are therefore always one class better on the road,” says Posch. In addition, the seat reservation is free for them.
Westbahn founder and Strabag boss Hans Peter Haselsteiner explains further plans: “Our name is Westbahn and we want to go as far west as possible”. But he does not mean Paris, that would also be difficult, as the new trainsets from the Swiss company Stadler have only been approved to a limited extent for Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Innsbruck is a destination, but unfortunately the competitor ÖBB is heavily subsidized and privileged on the route there, says Haselsteiner.
“As soon as the pandemic is a bit behind us, the damn war will come”
He states about the state of affairs: “The Westernbahn no longer worries us, but it doesn’t make us really happy either.” Deutsche Bahn is doing better than a few years ago, but there is still “room for improvement”. It is difficult to make a forecast for this year. “As soon as we put the pandemic behind us a little bit, this fucking war will come,” Haselsteiner said of the war in Ukraine. Would he be tempted to return to politics? “No,” was the short but clear answer from the co-founder of the Liberal Forum.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
