Flood damage on key Austrian rail link will take months to repair

Austria’s national railways will need months to restore the country’s busiest train line after catastrophic flooding destroyed infrastructure, limiting the ability to transport people and goods.

Commuters and supply chains will have to adapt after record rainfall damaged tracks, tunnels and switch stations. About 409 millimeters (16 inches) of rain fell over five days—almost double the previous record—in St. Pölten, the provincial capital of Lower Austria, which is at one end of the 60 kilometer (37 mi) route from Vienna. .

“It was a flood of the century that caused incredible damage to the rail infrastructure,” Judith Engle, board member of ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG, said in a statement on Monday. “Reconstruction will take several months.”

The rail corridor is operating at about a quarter of its capacity. The temporary repairs will increase the number of trains to around 300 a day until October 10 – the equivalent of its capacity in 2012. ÖBB did not say how much the repairs needed to get the 550 passenger and freight train back into service would cost. services that traversed the route daily before the floods.

Insurers expect total flood-related damages of up to 700 million euros ($778 million), although that figure is likely to rise once the Austrian government taps into 1.5 billion euros in disaster funds.

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Flood