railography photo galleries : Austria : EMUs ( 2 images )

Electric units have a long history in Austria but numbers have been limited with most concentrated in and around urban areas. In the early years of the current century that began to change with hundreds of modern units being acquired from Bombardier and Siemens.

Although a handful of electric motor coaches had been introduced as early as the 1920s, it was 1956 before the first EMUs of Class 4030 were acquired, primarily for suburban services around Wien. The 4020s followed in the late 1970s, giving enough units to operate suburban and some local services elsewhere in the country.

One other class is worthy of note, the Class 4010 "Transalpin" units, introduced initially for the prestige Wien - Zürich service of the same name in 1965. The class eventually grew to 29 units and was used on InterCity services throughout Austria until withdrawn in 2008.

The introduction of new EMUs from Bombardier's Talent and, more recently, Siemens Desiro-Mainline ranges has seen the withdrawal of the last 4030s in 2004 and a progressive reduction of the number of 4020s in traffic from 2017 onwards. ( less . . . . )