The Austrian Federal Railways began rolling out the latest generation of Railjets a few days ago. It was announced on March 19, 2024 that 19 more copies of this type had been ordered. There are some new features for passengers in the new trains.

The Railjet sets that are now gradually being put into regular service are a further development of their existing predecessor. The ÖBB says it has eliminated a few weak points and has also responded to passengers' requests for second-class compartments. In the existing trains there are only large-capacity wagons in this transport class.

The 6-seater compartments in second class are still well known from older carriages that travel through Austria as Intercity and/or Eurocity, for example. But this is exactly what hasn't been available on the Railjet trains so far. This was repeatedly criticized by passengers. Now they are celebrating their comeback in the latest generation of the flagship of the Austrian Federal Railways. In business class, where there were already compartments, these remain.

However, the trains that are now being put into operation have nothing to do with them Type Kiss III double-decker trains ordered from Stadler, which are also to be marketed by ÖBB as Railjet. The order from the Swiss manufacturer is in addition to the one that is now gradually coming onto the rails. The repeat order from Siemens, which will be communicated on March 19, 2024, is once again on top.

The Austrian Federal Railways have renewed the design of the dining cars. As you can see from the photos, pretty much no stone was left unturned. To relieve this, they once again looked at their competitor Westbahn, because the new Railjets, based on the model of the private challenger, also have several snack and drinks machines in the wagons. By the way, the ÖBB has always been good as a “copying machine”: at the time the Westbahn started operating, not a single state railway train had WiFi on board. There were no separate toilets either. Both were “copied” by ÖBB within a very short time. Now the same step is not only being taken with the snack machines, but the identical double-decker railcars have also been ordered from Stadler. Passengers will be happy because the competition between Westbahn and ÖBB has led to improvements and increasing quality from day one.

The ÖBB also boasts improved first class in its new Railjet trains. This has not only been visually significantly improved, but the comfort for the passengers has also increased. In first class, passengers continue to have more space than in “economy class”. By the way: The luggage racks have also been further developed, because, following the example of the Westbahn, luggage can now also be chained.