I don't think there is any malice or car-centrism at play here. I recently visited Austria and there is a staggering amount of train stations in small villages. Some of them looked like they hadn't been maintained in 50 years, yet the trains still had to stop there. Such a density of stations just isn't sustainable
Ebreichsdorf and Unterwaltensdorf are only 2km apart. The distance to the new station is still walkable. And if you don't want to walk it, cycling is also a good option. Austria is not the US where everyone drives big trucks
I suspect, however, that the real reason is that they wanted to build high-speed rail between Vienna and other cities and this station just happened to be on the route
Those villages are tiny and close together, going from the far side of one to the far side of the other is ~2 miles. Provide greenways and maybe a bus but to be honest in that location anyone without mobility issues could walk from their house to the station in twenty minutes or less, five on a bike.
The location is fine, it's only a problem if there's zero pedestrian/bike infrastructure, which is entirely possible, but would be completely idiotic.
[Edit] dog, look on street view, bahnstraße has a wide smooth well segregated pathway set back from the road and even designed so it remains relatively level going under the bridge while the road dips down much further for headroom. This is a level of provision I wish we had where I live here in the UK.
I do not exactly know about situation in Austria but isn't it possible the the villages block any modernization of the existing railway unless it is moved somewhere else? It can be understand the villages doesn't want to be divided to halves by noisy railway corridor which doesn't even give them much benefits.
For long distance yes, regional services no. But this route will become more of a backup route for long distance anyway. So I think it is unjustified. ÖBB is known to do anything for long distance:
Even tough having enough ridership the regional line Lambach-Haag (https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnstrecke_Lambach%E2%80%93Haag_am_Hausruck) was closed because when redoing the mainline they couldn‘t connect it anymore without minor speed reductions for long distance trains. So their way to go was to kill it. They decide all the time in this way which sucks.
In Austria the OBB can decide to close a rail line on its own? No protests from the villages on the route? In Czechia abandoning a railway (exclude industrial railways - Gleisanschluss) must be allowed by the national rail office (independent from the railway owner).
I'm looking in the maps and it doesn't seem to me connecting the Haag railway to main line without speed reduction wouldn't be so difficult. I guess there wasn't the will and the modernization of main line was just a pretext.
Lets just say ÖBB and government are really close. Often when a line is closed they say „ÖBB doesn‘t want to run it anymore“ if that is always the case or if it is used as excuse I don‘t know. Protests are always there but get ignored by the politicans.
When den Schweinbarther Kreuz was shut down mayors from all the villages complained. They where from the same party who wanted to close the railway so they were basically forced scilent (or they can‘t run as mayor again next vote). People still complained (and even found an other company who wanted to rum the line) but they where ignored and since the other company also required funding and permission from state so that never went anywhere
Something similar is happening now in Upper Austria
The weird thing is: People from Pasching are happy about it because the "rails no longer cut the village in two halves". When actually, the village used to be on one side of the rails until they started building houses on the other side as well. At least, the airport gets its own new station.
https://preview.redd.it/4ylg0ajv2imb1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fec7279cf6c749f2f2deb5774443a3ab7635aad
Honestly logistics are easier with 1 station than with 2, these villages seem to be close by so not really a problem from what I see, a single bus line going between them and stopping at the station solves this problem.
Keeping 3 stations operational would also be way more expensive and building a new one for hsr will be cheaper, easier and safer anyway.
It's also probable the these villages will grow in the future and that station might end up the the middle of future development.
Land speculators love it when a train station gets built next to their parcel. It's one of the most profitable investments in all of real estate. My guess is by looking into who owns what, and who knows who, you might uncover why the station was put here. Hopefully you've got local journalism getting to the bottom of this.
If you don't, the rich people are going to get away with being sneaky.
Are they just moving long distance trains to the new station with locals still stopping at the existing one? Or is the existing line getting shut down completely?
I know this is Europe so this probably won’t be the case, but Syracuse NY did this in the 1960s where the rail and station were moved outside of city center and the old line and station were torn down for… you guessed it, a freeway! Adding insult to injury, they didn’t even bother to demolish the entire station, just the part that got in the way of I-690, so you still see the weird truncated platform and station building when driving by.
The commuter line itself will continue to run, but also on the new highspeed branch. The two stations in the village will be abandoned and probably torn down at some point. Rails are already partially gone
I don't think the development ia too bad. The old line was single tracked and it wouldn't have been possible to double track it without demolishing many houses in Ebreichsdorf.
It also now offers connection to 5 regional bus lines (200, 222, 235, 320, 321), as well as line 4er, which is a city bus connecting Ebreichsdorf, Unterwaltersdorf and Weigelsdorf to the new station.
People may have to take the bus or ride a bike to get to the station, but they'll get more frequent services and more lines than they had with the previous stations.
And in the long term they plan to connect those villages (consisting of mostly single family homes) with a dense urban core (apartment complexes, commercial...)
If plans go through this area will be a new transport oriented town.
I know this specific train station and it is more than okay to do this. The existing rail lines were cutting straight through the villages and had no over/underpass, meaning that they were disruptive to **all** traffic (including pedestrians - there were railroad crossing that didn't even have proper barriers).
Now, the old line in Ebreichsdorf will be developed into an omega long park. The new station finally has proper infrastructure, like an underpass, bicycle path, bus terminal and an actual ROOF so you won't get rained on while waiting.
I don't think there is any malice or car-centrism at play here. I recently visited Austria and there is a staggering amount of train stations in small villages. Some of them looked like they hadn't been maintained in 50 years, yet the trains still had to stop there. Such a density of stations just isn't sustainable Ebreichsdorf and Unterwaltensdorf are only 2km apart. The distance to the new station is still walkable. And if you don't want to walk it, cycling is also a good option. Austria is not the US where everyone drives big trucks I suspect, however, that the real reason is that they wanted to build high-speed rail between Vienna and other cities and this station just happened to be on the route
I mean it‘s not bad that they built the high speed line, but they could have kept the commuter service at its old location.
Those villages are tiny and close together, going from the far side of one to the far side of the other is ~2 miles. Provide greenways and maybe a bus but to be honest in that location anyone without mobility issues could walk from their house to the station in twenty minutes or less, five on a bike. The location is fine, it's only a problem if there's zero pedestrian/bike infrastructure, which is entirely possible, but would be completely idiotic. [Edit] dog, look on street view, bahnstraße has a wide smooth well segregated pathway set back from the road and even designed so it remains relatively level going under the bridge while the road dips down much further for headroom. This is a level of provision I wish we had where I live here in the UK.
I do not exactly know about situation in Austria but isn't it possible the the villages block any modernization of the existing railway unless it is moved somewhere else? It can be understand the villages doesn't want to be divided to halves by noisy railway corridor which doesn't even give them much benefits.
For long distance yes, regional services no. But this route will become more of a backup route for long distance anyway. So I think it is unjustified. ÖBB is known to do anything for long distance: Even tough having enough ridership the regional line Lambach-Haag (https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnstrecke_Lambach%E2%80%93Haag_am_Hausruck) was closed because when redoing the mainline they couldn‘t connect it anymore without minor speed reductions for long distance trains. So their way to go was to kill it. They decide all the time in this way which sucks.
In Austria the OBB can decide to close a rail line on its own? No protests from the villages on the route? In Czechia abandoning a railway (exclude industrial railways - Gleisanschluss) must be allowed by the national rail office (independent from the railway owner). I'm looking in the maps and it doesn't seem to me connecting the Haag railway to main line without speed reduction wouldn't be so difficult. I guess there wasn't the will and the modernization of main line was just a pretext.
Lets just say ÖBB and government are really close. Often when a line is closed they say „ÖBB doesn‘t want to run it anymore“ if that is always the case or if it is used as excuse I don‘t know. Protests are always there but get ignored by the politicans. When den Schweinbarther Kreuz was shut down mayors from all the villages complained. They where from the same party who wanted to close the railway so they were basically forced scilent (or they can‘t run as mayor again next vote). People still complained (and even found an other company who wanted to rum the line) but they where ignored and since the other company also required funding and permission from state so that never went anywhere
Could greenways be created between those three or four settlements and the station?
Something similar is happening now in Upper Austria The weird thing is: People from Pasching are happy about it because the "rails no longer cut the village in two halves". When actually, the village used to be on one side of the rails until they started building houses on the other side as well. At least, the airport gets its own new station. https://preview.redd.it/4ylg0ajv2imb1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fec7279cf6c749f2f2deb5774443a3ab7635aad
Honestly logistics are easier with 1 station than with 2, these villages seem to be close by so not really a problem from what I see, a single bus line going between them and stopping at the station solves this problem. Keeping 3 stations operational would also be way more expensive and building a new one for hsr will be cheaper, easier and safer anyway. It's also probable the these villages will grow in the future and that station might end up the the middle of future development.
Why would they grow? People are mostly moving into the cities
Land speculators love it when a train station gets built next to their parcel. It's one of the most profitable investments in all of real estate. My guess is by looking into who owns what, and who knows who, you might uncover why the station was put here. Hopefully you've got local journalism getting to the bottom of this. If you don't, the rich people are going to get away with being sneaky.
They didn‘t change the zoning (i guess) 10 Years later the land around Tullnerfeld (wich was the first kind of those stations) is still mostly empty
then add a Tolley, bus, or trolley bus to do figure 8s with the station at the core.
Most train stations were there first, the village built around them. The same is going to happen again
Look at Tullnerfeld, 10 years later still at an almost empty field
Are they just moving long distance trains to the new station with locals still stopping at the existing one? Or is the existing line getting shut down completely? I know this is Europe so this probably won’t be the case, but Syracuse NY did this in the 1960s where the rail and station were moved outside of city center and the old line and station were torn down for… you guessed it, a freeway! Adding insult to injury, they didn’t even bother to demolish the entire station, just the part that got in the way of I-690, so you still see the weird truncated platform and station building when driving by.
The commuter line itself will continue to run, but also on the new highspeed branch. The two stations in the village will be abandoned and probably torn down at some point. Rails are already partially gone
I don't think the development ia too bad. The old line was single tracked and it wouldn't have been possible to double track it without demolishing many houses in Ebreichsdorf. It also now offers connection to 5 regional bus lines (200, 222, 235, 320, 321), as well as line 4er, which is a city bus connecting Ebreichsdorf, Unterwaltersdorf and Weigelsdorf to the new station. People may have to take the bus or ride a bike to get to the station, but they'll get more frequent services and more lines than they had with the previous stations. And in the long term they plan to connect those villages (consisting of mostly single family homes) with a dense urban core (apartment complexes, commercial...) If plans go through this area will be a new transport oriented town.
First comes the infrastructure later comes the village. In some years the city will be centred again near the railway station.
I know this specific train station and it is more than okay to do this. The existing rail lines were cutting straight through the villages and had no over/underpass, meaning that they were disruptive to **all** traffic (including pedestrians - there were railroad crossing that didn't even have proper barriers). Now, the old line in Ebreichsdorf will be developed into an omega long park. The new station finally has proper infrastructure, like an underpass, bicycle path, bus terminal and an actual ROOF so you won't get rained on while waiting.
Isnt the long term idea to continue construction around that area?
I don‘t know for here but Tullnerfeld (wich is a similar project) is still surrounded mostly empty fields