The Semmering base tunnel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmering_Base_Tunnel which will shorten travel between Vienna and Graz, and the Koralmbahn tunnel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koralm_Tunnel
Also, no Alps between Vienna and Graz? Have you looked out of the window? If you haven't, here is the map. The heights of the peaks are in meters, so 3x for feet:
That is a bona fide mountainous terrain.
It's a train, so:
- Accelerating takes a lot of time and space
- Braking takes a lot of time and space
- Allowing overtaking takes a lot of infrastructure and good timetabling.
You what? Please don't take this the wrong way, but the things I read about European countries on HN sometimes are asinine and part of why, despite desperately wanting to sometimes, I'll do my best to never comment on US centric topics where I have little to know personal knowledge or experience.
Not only is the Südbahn between Vienna and Graz going through the Alps[0], it is the railways that goes through the alps. It is world famous for that fact. It was the first regular mountain railway in the world and is a UNESCO heritage because of it.
> [...] 130kmph highway speed limit which plenty of drivers do not to shorten their journey.
I'm certain the Railjet could also gain a few minutes (at most considering the Autobahn between Vienna and Graz) if their drivers ignored both laws and safety.
> My ex-CEO would floor it to get home much quicker than the train and have his secretary pay the speed-cam fines on his company's dime.
And people wonder why the government saw the need to introduce the ability to confiscate the vehicles [1] of such responsible individuals. As a motorcycle rider, the wanna be speed demons who have such important reasons for speeding are amongst the most dangerous, next to people unwilling to put their phone away. Also, a great statement on equality in our society. For some, a speeding fine can be devastating, for others, it's something their secretary handles.
Maybe your ex-CEO should spend a bit of their precious time to calculate how much they are really saving by speeding on that particular stretch of the Autobahn compared to sticking to the 100-130km/h speed limits.
> [...] average speed on the straights is somewhere around 100kmph [...]
On the straights, which on this route are limited to the area between Gloggnitz and Vienna Meidling, the Railjet averages roughly 150km/h. I got off one, only a few hours ago, so can attest to that.
Look, the fact that the Semmering base tunnel hasn't already been built is a failure of local government, not least because the Westbahn (between Salzburg and Vienna) is already far faster than the car [2] and we could have had the same. Interested whether your ex-CEO at least uses the train between Vienna and Salzburg, considering it's only about the speed for them?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmering_Pass
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-19/austria-a...
[2] 2h 18m vs 3h 15m
There are no Alps between Vienna and Graz, the second largest city yet it takes 2.5 hours to get to Vienna from Graz, while the same ~200km journey is faster by car on the highway and that's accounting for traffic and you sticking to the 100-130kmph highway speed limit which plenty of drivers do not to shorten their journey. My ex-CEO would floor it to get home much quicker than the train and have his secretary pay the speed-cam fines on his company's dime.
When you monitor the trains' speed on the internal screens, you can see the average speed on the straights is somewhere around 100kmph, slower than cars on the adjacent highway.
What's the excuse there for such slow ass trains? And Austrian train tickets aren't cheap either.