Wienerwald Tunnel

The Wienerwald Tunnel is a railway tunnel beneath the northern Wienerwald near Vienna. It carries the Westbahn line between Vienna and St. Pölten at up to 250 kilometres per hour. The tunnel is 13.35 km long and forms part of a four-track upgrade of Austria’s most important rail corridor. The tunnel was built to remove steep gradients and allow high-speed trains to reach Wien Hauptbahnhof. It connects to the Lainzer Tunnel and an earlier 2.2 km tunnel, creating an underground route of 26 km. Construction began in autumn 2004 using drilling and blasting, later joined by two tunnel boring machines. Over two million cubic metres of spoil were excavated and reused in embankments along the line. Visitors cannot enter the tunnel itself, but the surrounding landscape shows where it passes beneath the Wienerwald. The route’s new cuttings and embankments are visible from nearby paths. The project also improved local roadworks and sewers as part of the wider upgrade. Trains now travel faster and more freight can be carried between Vienna and St. Pölten.