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The Koralm railway (German: Koralmbahn) is a proposed 125 km long two track, electrified, high-speed railway link under construction connecting the Austrian cities of Graz and Klagenfurt. Construction started in 2001, the whole link is expected to be operational by 2022.
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Construction work at the Koralmbahn began in 2001 and will be finished by 2022, parts of the railway line however have been or will be opened earlier to enhance the quality of local commuter rail services. The railway is primarily built for intermodal freight transport but will also be used by passenger trains travelling at up to 250 km/h. The travel time from Klagenfurt to Graz will be reduced from three hours to one hour. Commissioning of the first new track section began in 2010 and construction is expected to be completed in 2022.[1]
The centrepiece of the new railway is the 33 km Koralm Tunnel under the Koralpe mountains that give the railway its name. The project is currently the largest under way to expand the Austrian railway network with a budget of several billion Euros, and will connect the federal state capitals of the adjacent states of Styria and Carinthia. The connection is currently made by a laborious three hour train journey via Bruck an der Mur.[1] In combination with the projected 27 km long Semmering base tunnel the Koralmbahn will remove bottlenecks in the Austrian freight and passenger railway infrastructure (namely the Semmering Pass and the Neumarkt Sattel). Together with the already existing Italian Pontebbana railway line between Tarvisio and Udine they will be part of what is referred to as Baltic-Adriatic Corridor - a traffic axis connecting the Polish port city of Gdansk and the Italian city of Bologna.
Between Graz and Feldkirchen the Koralmbahn coincides with the Southern railway line (Südbahn) connecting Vienna with Slovenia. This stretch was upgraded in order to meet High-speed rail and S-Bahn standards. Specifically, level crossings were replaced by undercrossings and train stations were upgraded with some of them now serving as interchanges to other transport modes.[2] The urban tram and bus services of Graz were extended to provide direct links from the train stations Graz-Don Bosco and Graz-Puntigam to the city centre. Graz Hauptbahnhof is currently being upgraded to meet the expected increase in railway traffic following the opening of the Koralmbahn and the extension of the Südbahn between Graz and Slovenia from a single to a two track railway line.
Features:[2]
After crossing the Süd Autobahn (A2) the Koralmbahn branches off the existing Südbahn tracks. Immediately after the junction a 3 km long subsurface route will be erected which will also include a station serving Graz Airport. Reemerging on the surface the tracks will then cross the Grazer Feld and subsequently follow the Pyhrn Autobahn (A9). South of the Container terminal Werndorf two junctions to the existing Southern Railway line will be built - the first to integrate the container terminal, the second (Weitendorf junction) will serve as a connection for local railway services. After undercrossing the Pyhrn Autobahn and going through the 1.7 km long Hengsberg Tunnel the Koralmbahn will arrive at Wettmannstätten. [3] In December 2010 the 14 km long section from Weitendorf junction to Wettmannstätten was opened as a single track, non-electrified railway. It is integrated in the Styrian S-Bahn system as S6 . When the entire Koralmbahn becomes operational this stretch will be upgraded to two tracks and become electrified.
Features:[3]
This section includes the 33 km long Koralm Tunnel undercutting the Koralpe, an up to 2000 m high mountain range separating Southern Styria and Eastern Carinthia. Before reaching the eastern portal of the tunnel the Koralm Railway crosses the Laßnitz valley on a 10 km open land stretch, incorporating the future structures of the train station Weststeiermark. The station will serve as the regional hub connecting existing local railway lines with the Intercity traffic running over the Koralm Railway. It will also harbour the security and maintenance installations of the Koralm tunnel.[4]
The Koralm Tunnel itself will consist of two single track tubes with cross-passages every 500 m and an emergency station halfway its total length of 33 km. The construction of the tunnel is divided into three sections (from east to west): KAT1, KAT2 and KAT3.
Features:[4]