Train travel is becoming increasingly popular in Austria. In 2023, Austrians traveled an average of 1,597 kilometers by train per person, putting the country ahead of France (1,542 km) and Sweden (1,261 km) and placing it first among EU countries, according to a report by the European network of rail regulatory authorities (IRG-Rail). Austria even surpassed its previous record from 2019 (1,507 km). Europe-wide, Switzerland holds the top spot with 2,487 kilometers per person.
The total number of passenger kilometers in Austria rose by 12 percent, in line with the average across 31 European countries. Croatia and Hungary saw the largest increases at 41 and 33 percent respectively, while Greece saw the sharpest drop (37 percent), due to natural disasters and a serious train accident.
Home Office and Capacity Optimization Support Growth
Austria’s rail trend appears to be continuing. The Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) recently announced that for the first time in 2024, it transported over half a billion passengers—around 300 million of them by rail. “We likely won’t be building entirely new lines everywhere. So we need to look at how to better use existing capacity,” said Frank Michelberger, head of Railway Technology and Mobility at the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten, in an interview with APA.
Working from home, a practice that became widespread during the pandemic, has changed travel patterns. “Fridays used to be the main return day from Vienna to the provinces—now it’s more often Thursday. The same shift has happened from Sunday to Monday,” Michelberger explained. This added flexibility is helping distribute demand more evenly across the week. Austria is not only a leader in train usage but also in rail technology research and development.
Digital Simulations to Predict Rail Infrastructure Stress
The Austrian “Rail4Future” project is working toward a fully connected, digitized rail system. Researchers have developed a simulation model that reflects how trains interact with tracks, bridges, tunnels, and switches. “We can now run various train configurations virtually to simulate the stress on the network in the coming months and years,” said Manfred Grafinger of TU Vienna’s mechanical engineering and virtual product development unit.
A digital traffic light system indicates the state of infrastructure components—green means fully functional. “If you move the timeline forward, you can see when a component turns yellow and needs maintenance, ideally before it turns red,” explained Stefan Marschnig of TU Graz. These insights help predict how infrastructure will cope with increased train traffic, which is essential to shifting more transport from road to rail.
