Klagenfurt Hauptbahnhof (German for Klagenfurt Main station; occasionally translated as Klagenfurt Central Station) [1] is the main railway station in Klagenfurt, capital of the Austrian state of Carinthia. [2] It is an important railway junction in southern Austria.
The station opened on 1 June 1863, when Klagenfurt received connection to the Southern Railway, one of the main train routes within the Austrian Empire, via the Carinthian branch line to Marburg, Styria (now part of the Drava Valley Railway). One year later, the line was extended to Villach Hauptbahnhof, which quickly superseded Klagenfurt as major Carinthian transportation hub with rail connections to the Brenner Railway at Franzensfeste and the Tarvisio–Udine railway (Pontebbana line) at Tarvisio. In 1906, Klagenfurt received access to the Rosen Valley Railway running from Sankt Veit an der Glan via the Karawanks Tunnel to Assling (Jesenice) in Carniola (present-day Slovenia).
The railway premises located in the present-day district of Sankt Ruprecht south of the city centre were not incorporated into Klagenfurt until 1938. Severely damaged by strategic bombing during World War II the station had to be demolished and completely rebuilt. The reception hall was adorned with a large fresco, created by the local artist Giselbert Hoke (1927–2015) in the style of Pablo Picasso and completed in 1956. The station was extensively renovated from 2002 until November 2015. [3]
Operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), Klagenfurt station connects to the Drautal (Drava Valley) and Rosental Railway lines. The Koralm Railway, a direct high-speed connection to the Styrian capital Graz via the 32.9 km (20.4 mi) long Koralm Tunnel is currently under construction. Part of the Pan-European Baltic-Adriatic Corridor, it is scheduled to be operational in 2026.
The station is currently served by the following train connections:
Beside long-distance traffic, Klagenfurt is served by ÖBB Regional-Express and Regionalbahn trains. It is also a railway hub of the Carinthian S-Bahn network.
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The Rudolf Railway refers to a railway in Austria connecting Amstetten and the Italian border near Tarvisio, along with a branch from Kastenreith to St. Valentine. Its name is derived from the k.k. priv. Kronprinz Rudolf-Bahn Gesellschaft. The main line, which was opened from 1868 to 1873, ran on the St. Valentin–Kastenreith–Kleinreifling–Selzthal–Schoberpass–St. Michael–Neumarkt saddle–St. Veit an der Glan–Feldkirchen in Kärnten–Villach–Tarvisio Centrale route. The section of the line within the current borders of Italy now runs over the new Tarvisio–Udine railway through Tarvisio Boscoverde. It replaced a very windy route to Udine that originally formed part of the Rudolf Railway.
The Drava Valley Railway is an east–west railway running along the Drava. It runs from Maribor to Innichen, where it merges into the Puster Valley Railway to Franzensfeste (Fortezza). It starts in northern Slovenia, crosses Carinthia and East Tyrol and ends in South Tyrol. The Klagenfurt–Bleiburg section has been rebuilt as part of the Koralm Railway, which follows the Jaun Valley Railway (Jauntalbahn) from Bleiburg. Like the rest of the line in Slovenia, this section of the line has one track and is unelectrified.
The Rosen Valley Railway is a mainly Austrian railway that runs from Sankt Veit an der Glan via Klagenfurt and Rosenbach to Jesenice in Slovenia. The section between Rosenbach and Jesenice through the Karawanks Tunnel is part of and international long-distance route between Salzburg and Zagreb. The railway line is operated by the ÖBB. Traffic between Weizelsdorf and Rosenbach was suspended at the commencement 2016/17 timetable change. The line was sold to the state of Carinthia. NBIK heritage trains have been running between Weizelsdorf and Feistritz since the summer of 2020.
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