14. 12. 09. - 16:00

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14. 12. 09. - 16:00

Chaos as Vienna southern railway station closes

By William Green

Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) was forced to downplay media reports of near chaos after Vienna’s southern railway station (Südbahnhof) closed ahead of construction of a new main city railway station on the site.

The railway station in Vienna-Meidling will serve as the new main southern railway station during construction of the station and the switch caused numerous delays yesterday (Sun).

ÖBB officials denied claims of "chaos" but spokeswoman Verena Radlingmayr said today that some passengers had waited for up to 55 minutes for trains.

But she said commuter transport had functioned and delays had been confined to the hours between 9am and noon yesterday.

She added rail passenger transport would function normally today. "We have few reservations," she said.

Workers will tear down the old southern railway station beginning in January, and the new main station should be in partial operation by the end of 2012.

The old southern station was designed by architect Heinrich Hrdlicka and built between 1955 and 1961, uniting the former southern and eastern railway stations in one building.

The station replaced a neo-Renaissance building on the site that had been there since 1874 and survived World War II relatively undamaged.

Austrian Times

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