THE BOARD of Austrian Federal Railways voted on February 9 to authorise a contract for supply of high speed inter-city trains valued at between €250m and €300m.

ÖBB has selected Siemens to provide the trains for its Railjet programme. Over the next two years, the manufacturer is to supply 23 seven-car sets of coaches which will be hauled by its existing Taurus electric locomotives of Classes 1016, 1116 and 1216.

Each trainset will offer accommodation in three classes: Economy, First and Business. Designed to run at 230 km/h with provision for 250 km/h, the vehicles will be derived from the latest ICE trailer car design, with pressure-sealed inter-car gangways and air-sprung bogies.

In conjunction with the Westbahn upgrading programme, ÖBB expects the Railjet trains to cut the Wien - Salzburg journey time by 30min to 2h 10min.