Semmering Railway

Visit: the 17th of sept. 2024

In the middle of the chaos of the once-in-a-century floods in Austria with countless canceled or interrupted train connections I tried my luck and luck was with me as I was able to board a train very early in the morning from Vienna to Muerzuschlag from where I had to take another train to Semmering.Shortly after 8.00am I arrived at Semmering. It was like a miracle that I reached Semmering by train, as many metro lines and tram connections in Vienna were canceled.

I took some photos of the historic train with the Unesco plaque next to the train tracks of the station. Then I went inside the station and read through the information boards about why Semmering was a masterpiece of rail construction.
Outside the train station there is a large information board with the possible trails in the area. Since I was always looking at the Austrian railway app with one eye to know if and when I could return to Vienna by train, I decided that I should take a shorter trail than the one originally thought. I had to somehow get from Vienna via Salzburg to Munich that day because I had an appointment in the Bavarian capital Munich early in the morning the next day.

I decided to take the so-called "railway"(bahnweg in german) route. A trail that first leads uphill to the 20 Schilling view (the viewpoint offers a special view of the 184 meter …

This was a weird visit of WHS... I traveled by train from Vienna to Ljubljana via Villach and returned a week later by the same way in October 2021. However, I took it as the counted site, because I was aware of it, and I could see several OUV-related buildings and structures through the window on sunny autumn Sundays. I noticed that several railway stations and other smaller buildings are under scaffolding being reconstructed. Though I liked the viaducts, tunnels, and all the marvelous landscape around (PHOTO), I was slightly disappointed. I expected something a bit more spectacular. I am not railway enthusiast, thus I am not planning to return and explore it more in detail. However, son of my friends is, and I would not say NO if he asks my for accompanying him. Nevertheless, I would suggest him to go to Rhaetian Railway WHS first...

In a burst of fairly unusual spontaneity, I traversed the length of the WH-inscribed portion of Semmering Railway twice in both directions on consecutive days in December of 2016. I was spending a week and a half in Vienna and one day, being somewhat tired of the city, I got myself a ticket on a slow train to Mürzzuschlag and back.

It is hard to appreciate the magnificence of a railway from inside a railcar. You get to see beautiful landscapes outside the window; you only get glimpses of the tunnel entrances and the viaducts where they bookend the curves. That does very little to help you appreciate the ingenuity of human enterprise in building a transportation route across mountain terrain. Having read Clyde's review, I recognize that taking a car along the railway is the only proper way to "see" it.

The railway museum in Mürzzuschlag is open on very limited schedule in the winter, so I did not linger in town. Instead, on the return leg, I got off the train at Semmering proper for a walk around the village. It was beautifully covered in snow and surprisingly nearly deserted, although I eventually worked my way to the resorts area which was marginally livelier. There is not really anything of significant note in Semmering, although I came upon a viewpoint or two that allowed me to take middling pictures of far-away viaducts with high focal length. Semmering station is the main highlight itself, with a WH …

I visited this WHS in July 2017. I completed all Austrian WHS with this trainspotting visit so as such it will always have a special place in my memory.

The Semmering Railway was built between 1848 and 1854 under the supervision of Carl Ritter von Ghega. It is the world's first high mountain railway and is part of the Sudbahn which stretches from Vienna to Trieste. It reaches from Gloggnitz to Murzzuschlag over a distance of 41.8km, crossing the Semmering (984m).

The numerous gorges, rift valleys, rock faces and mountain ridges had to be made accessible for rail traffic by 15 tunnels, 16 viaducts and 100 bridges. By car (and some pleasant hiking trails), I saw the Haupt tunnel, the Kartner Kagel tunnel, the Weberkagel tunnel, the Polleres tunnel and viaduct, the Krausel tunnel and viaduct, the Semmering railway station, the Breitenstein viaducts and the Kalte rinne (790m) along the Semmering Hochstrasse and Bahnwanderweg.

The highlight of my visit was hiking along the Bahnwanderweg (around 1 hour hike on the Spiestal-Breitenstein trail) and trainspotting at the scenic 20 Schilling panoramic viewpoint of Breitenstein. I parked my car next to the Kunst + Technik Skulpturen Park and there is a small trail which starts right behind the small football pitch there. I was surprised to find out that trains (both passenger and cargo trains) pass through the single rail Breitenstein viaduct from both directions so they are timed to pass at different intervals to allow safe passage through the rather busy …

March 2010 - We had a Coupon to go by train between any two cities in germany and Austria, at any time, using whatever train, so we decided to visit Vienna. Going back, we decided to make a stopover in Munich.

Instead of going straight via Salzburg, we took the tracks via Semmering. The tracks were covered in snow and the landscape had a very special flair. Unfortunately we were not sitting in a steam engined Train. But the experience was nice. We passed the whs quickly but got the essence of it.

I had my first run on the Semmering Railway on board the regular train between Vienna and Graz. It’s warm, it has free wifi and it delivers a WHS visit without any effort. Although the railway was a major work of engineering in its day, today it’s not a spectacular ride anymore. The fast train winds easily around the many curves. The mountain pass at 895m even isn’t that high. The only difference between both sides of the mountain during my visit was that snow covered the fields on the south side, whereas the Vienna side had been completely green.

The next morning I took one of the few trains from Graz that actually stop at Semmering. Unfortunately, most of the “attractions” along the railway are closed during winter. Such as the small museums, and also the hiking path that follows the complete route. Walk all the way to Gloggnitz or Mürzzuschlag must be a good excursion in the summer months. As there wasn’t much snow on the ground, I decided to walk a little anyway along this path. It gave me the opportunity to take a closer look at one of the tunnel entrances – nothing too exciting.

However, I had decided to get out at Semmering because of the fine piece of cultural history that is part of the nomination file. Although the core zone of this WHS only covers the railway line and associated constructions, its importance also lies in the cultural landscape shaped by …

It is not that often that traveling between one World Heritage site and another will mean you visit a third. However if you catch a train between Vienna and Graz, the Semmering railway does exactly that.

I left Vienna in glorious winter sunshine, but about an hour out the clouds started to look a little more ominous. When I entered the WHS section at Glognitz, there were the first few flakes of snow. As the train pulled onwards the snow became thicker, the scenery more remarkable, the bends more regular, the drop at the side of the track even larger and the feats of engineering more impressive.

We stopped briefly at Semmering station where I was able to get off for a jog along the platform to take a picture and have a quick chat with the conductor. He didn't view me with as much amusement as I thought he would, so perhaps there are a fair few people who appreciate that they are travelling over a World Heritage Site and like to take pictures of it, or maybe he was just humouring me. Either way it was nice to be able to get off and see how deep the snow had become, before shuffling back to my cabin to warm up and enjoy watching the snow gradually abating by the time we got down to the end of the WHS at Mürzzuschlag.

The bright clear skies had returned by the time we rolled into Graz, leaving a rather magical …

Besides the feats of engineering and of nature that make this railway spectacular, I enjoyed visiting the exhibits arranged at stations along the route. There were the photographic exhibitions at Glognitz and Murzzuschlag. At Payerbach-Reichenau there was an original steam locomotive and other memorabilia. At Semmering there was an indoor exhibition of the construction process and a model, and outdoor exhibits as well as a memorial to Carl Ritter von Ghega.

The Semmering Railway is one of the masterpieces of 19th century architecture and engineering, but you have to be very interested in technology and related fields (I'm not) to appreciate these aspects of the railway (the viaducts are impressive though). Instead, do a nice daytrip from Vienna (or Graz) and enjoy the beautiful landscape in the area. Every train from Vienna to points south (Graz, Villach, all cities in Italy, Croatia, Slovenia) takes the Semmering pass route (at least until the construction of the railway tunnel, which is still in its planning stages), but you have to use the local trains with the destination "Mürzzuschlag" to be able to get off at the small town of Semmering at the top of the pass. There are numerous hiking trails (and skiing areas) there, as well as many hotels and pensions, many from the late 19th century, when the area was a favorite countryside retreat for wealthy Viennese.