Graz Hauptbahnhof

Geschichte

Graz Hauptbahnhof, abbreviated Graz Hbf, is the main railway station in Graz, the capital of the Austrian state of Styria. The station is located some west of the city centre, to which it is connected by the tram.The station serves as a major node on the Southern Railway, which links it to Vienna in the north, and Slovenia in the south. It is also the terminus of the Styrian Eastern Railway, which runs eastwards towards Hungary, and of the local Köflacherbahn to the west. In the future, the Koralm Railway will provide a direct link from Graz to Italy via Klagenfurt.HistoryThe first Railway station was opened here in 1847 but due to a big increase in passenger numbers a bigger station was constructed on the same site between 1871 and 1876.In 1945 the grand station from 1876 was totally destroyed in allied bombing raids. In 1956 the building works on the current station were completed. The station was built in the typical style of the 1950s and the main ticket hall is now a listed building.In 2001 the station was modernised and partly rebuilt to incorporate escalators to the platforms and also a small shopping mall.Project Hauptbahnhof 2020Since 2010 there has been further major building work taking place to prepare the station for its new role as an international transport hub and to cope with increasing national and regional traffic. When the construction of the Koralm Railway is completed all international traffic from Vienna to Italy will pass through Graz.