After thirteen years of planning, the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) company finally decided on May 12: it will not participate in the railway project supposed to link Russia to Vienna via the Slovak city of Kosice.
The public company has sent a letter to this effect to its Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian partners, assures The press. “Under the terms of the contract, the three partners only have four weeks left to complete the takeover. [des parts autrichiennes]. Otherwise the planning company will be liquidated – an option on which the ÖBB is betting.”
Launched in 2009, the initiative was to extend a Soviet-type railway line (whose rails are more widely spaced than in Western Europe) to Austria, in order to avoid transhipment of goods. It had already been shut down in 2019 by the Austrian authorities, without being abandoned. But now, “this controversial rail extension is truly ancient history”.
A whole different era
“It’s no wonder it’s come to this,” note The press. Because the project, in which the Slovak, Ukrainian and Russian railways also took part, “date from another time”. He was to encourage trade between the republic of the Alps and Russia, as well as with Asia via the new silk routes.
At the time, the Austrian authorities intended to make Vienna, and to a lesser extent the neighboring Slovak capital of Bratislava, important exchange points for European railway trade.
On his side, “Russia wanted to take advantage of this breakthrough in the West to strengthen its transport capacities in Central Europe”, explains the conservative daily. “And at the same time, forge closer economic relations with the countries of the region, as it had already done with its gas pipelines.”
The war in Ukraine changed everything. Despite its military neutrality, Austria joined in European sanctions against Moscow. The country has also been trying since the beginning of the conflict to break away from Russian gas, on which it depends almost 80%. Its Slovak neighbor also supports Ukraine in the conflict between it and the Kremlin.