Arlberg Railway

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The Arlberg Railway, which connects the Austrian cities Innsbruck and Bludenz, is Austria's only east-west mountain railway. The 135,7 km line is referred as Europe's most difficult mountain railway since it was always - and still is - threatened by avalanches, mudflows, rockfalls or floods. It is operated by the ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) and frequented by international trains as well as by the Orient Express.

Trisanna bridge and Castle Wiesberg.

[edit] History and construction

By 1842 a railway over the Arlberg Pass was under discussion, as the English sought a rail connection for traffic from England to Egypt. Two years later, in 1847, Carl Ganahl - a textile industrialist from Feldkirch - decided to locally and privately support the construction. But there were at that time still too many technical reservations. The opening of the Semmering railway in 1854 showed that a mountain railway over the Arlberg was possible.

Construction started in 1880 and proceeded at a faster pace than planned. Completion was not expected before the fall of 1885, but already by May 29, 1883 the valley route from Innsbruck to Landeck in Tyrol was put into service. On September 21, 1884 the entire length was completed, including (for the time being) a single-track, 10.25 km (6.4 miles) long Arlberg tunnel. In comparison to other Alpine tunnel projects there were few problems with the Arlberg tunnel. Nevertheless, tunnel construction alone claimed 92 lives. This caused many problems and more precautions were made.

Zammer tunnel near Landeck

[edit] Development of the operation

With the opening of the Arlberg, a completely new connection between Lake Constance and the Adriatic Sea was created. Traffic increased so rapidly that already by July 15, 1885 the second track was opened through the tunnel, which had been projected from the beginning as double-tracked. The flagship train of the Arlberg route was the Arlberg Orient Express, which had only first-class sleeping-, dining- and parlor cars from London to Bucharest.

The use of steam engines presented problems from the beginning: The tunnel exposed passengers and crews to the unhealthy effects of sulfuric acid, acid rain. The gradients of up to 3.1% on the west ramp and 2.6% on the east ramp made the steam locomotives problematic as well. On November 20, 1924, the problem was eliminated once and for all with the electrification of the tunnel. The ramp sections finally followed in 1925. The electrification of the railway proceeded with foresight on the 15 kV, 16 2/3 Hz system. From then on, many heavy trains could be pulled over the route. As a consequence, however, tracks and civil engineering structures for the increased axle weights had to be prepared, including the renovation of the "Trisanna bridge" at "Castle Wiesberg", in 1964.

Altogether the traffic through the tunnel has increased considerably - despite competition from the streets - so that the approaching ramp rail routes have almost all been expanded as double tracks. Fast EuroCity trains from Vienna to Vorarlberg roll over the connection. On the occasion of the World Ski Championships in 2001 the train station St. Anton on the eastern side of the Arlberg tunnel was completely reconstructed and the tunnel itself prolonged by a few hundred feet.