Vienna Central Station (Wien Hauptbahnhof), Austria

Vienna Central Station, also known as Wien Hauptbahnhof (Vienna Main Train Station), is the largest railway station under construction in Vienna, Austria. It will replace the old Südbahnhof terminal station. ÖBB-Infrastruktur is the owner of the project.

The station will link four major railway lines which meet at Vienna from four directions. It will offer significantly improved connectivity across nations and will also provide access to the Vienna S-Bahn, tramway and bus lines.

It is estimated that the station will be used by 120,000 passengers and up to 1,000 trains each day by 2025.

The station is expected to be partially opened in December 2012 and by 2015 full operations will begin.

Project approval for Vienna Central Station

The city council of Vienna gave the green signal for the construction of the new station building in December 2006. The environmental assessment for the rail infrastructure began in 2007.

The project involves construction of a 20,000 square metre new station building and of a new Austrian Federal Railways headquarters building next to it.

It also includes developing 109 hectares of area surrounding the new station, with 5,000 residential apartments in Sonnwendviertel and 550,000 square metres of office space.

The estimated investment for the whole project is €4bn ($5.06bn). It is financed by ÖBB master plan, the community of Vienna, TEN-aids and ÖBB real estate revenues.

Design of the major Austrian station

The station will feature a 25,000 square metre diamond-shaped translucent glass-and-steel roof over the platforms. It will be a transportation hub with 100km of new rails, 300 state-of-the-art switches and crossings.

The station will be energy-efficient and environmental-friendly as it is designed to have integrated CO2-controlled ventilation and geothermal energy systems. The windows and walls of the station will be soundproof.

Construction of the Wien Hauptbahnhof

The construction of the Vienna Central Station is expected to be fully completed by 2015, with a section of the station expected to enter service by December 2012.

Preconstruction works included alteration and modernisation of the facilities at the Südtiroler Platz station. These works began in June 2007. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations at Südtiroler Platz were connected in 2008.

In November 2009, the main station's construction started on the eastern plant, with excavation work undertaken for roads and logistic areas. The demolition of the old Südbahnhof station and the railway systems began in December 2009 and was completed in August 2010.

The construction of rail infrastructure at Vienna Central Station was commenced in 2010. More than 45,000 cubic metres of concrete was used in the construction of the baseplate of the station and the garage entrance. The construction of bridge support structures and platforms was completed by the end of 2010.

In 2011, construction of office buildings in the Belvedere district began. The new Austrian Federal Railways headquarters building construction also began in 2011. Construction of apartments was initiated in early 2012.

Contractors involved with Vienna's train station

In November 2009, a Strabag-led consortium was awarded a €220m ($278.69m) contract to build the new Vienna Central Station. Strabag holds a 30% share in the contract.

The joint venture of Arge Östu-Stettin and HOCHTIEF Construction was awarded a contract worth €5.9m ($7.40m) for the railway infrastructure. The scope of the contract includes construction of truncated east station, provisional east railway yard with a storage capacity of 3,320m and a bypass track.

Liebherr Group was awarded the contract to provide nine Liebherr 280 EC-H 12 Litronic tower cranes for the construction of the station building.

Zechner & Zechner ZT were the architects for the new Austrian Federal Railways headquarters building.

Facilities at Vienna's new railway station

The new railway station will have 16 tracks and 15 platforms, including five roofed platforms and ten platform edges. The width of the platform will be 12.1m. The station will have about 100 shops and restaurants.

The passenger facilities will include escalators and elevators, train information displays and waiting rooms. There will be a parking garage below the station, with more than 600 car parking spaces.