New plans presented

S-Bahn ring coming in 2032 at the earliest!

The S-Bahn is and will remain an important public transport backbone.

(Bild: andreas scheiblecker)

ÖBB and the City of Vienna are setting the course for a mega public transport project. Two lines are being extended for the Ring. But many details are still unclear.

The new millennium was just three years old. Michael Häupl had already been mayor for nine years at the time, and Ulli Sima was just starting her long-term career as a city councillor. That was twenty long years ago.

The extension of the S 45 to Praterkai, which would enable an S-Bahn ring around Vienna, was already being considered in the "Transport Master Plan 2003". Anyone who uses public transport knows that nothing has happened since then. The suburban line ends at Handelskai. The S-Bahn ring still does not exist.

A 2-line S-Bahn ring could connect the outer districts and create new tangential connections.

Verkehrsstadträtin Ulli Sima (SPÖ)

2-line S-Bahn ring: "Possible and sensible"
On Friday lunchtime, City Councillor for Transport Ulli Sima (SPÖ) and ÖBB Infra Board Member Judith Engel, flanked by the SPÖ and Neos club leaders, presented the results of the feasibility study. Conclusion: a 2-line S-Bahn ring is "possible and sensible".

The S-Bahn ring around the city could consist of two lines. The S45 (suburban line) and the S80.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

The concept envisages that the extended S45 and the S80 would create a ring with four trains per hour and direction with transfers in Hütteldorf and Praterkai. This requires an expansion of the infrastructure between the Handelskai and Praterkai stations, which will allow the S 45 to be extended to Praterkai (see diagram). There will therefore not be a continuous Ringbahn.

The study also examined a continuous ring variant without transfers, but found adverse effects for the S-Bahn system (e.g. for the Hütteldorf junction) and increased operating costs.

89 million

This is the number of passengers who use the ten S-Bahn lines in the city each year. On average, there is a train every four minutes on the main line.

But many important questions remain unanswered. For example, how much it will cost and, even more importantly, how it will be financed. In 2019, Neos put the figure at around 315 million euros. Just as much as the construction of two kilometers of subway. ÖBB is confident that an agreement will be reached with the city. But what happens now?

The extension of the S 45 including the new stops at Reichsbrücke and Donaumarina are now being examined for possible inclusion in the 2040 target network. This is due to be published at the beginning of 2024.