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In 2017, ILF was commissioned by ÖBB Infrastruktur AG as part of the consortium “Northern Railway Line Team” (Austria) to prepare planning documents for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) submission.
Works related to the Southern section of the line were commissioned in autumn 2021. With the contract, an option for further tendering and detailed planning was also awarded.

The project “Upgrade of the Northern Railway Line on the Wien Süßenbrunn–Bernhardsthal Section” comprises the section from Wien Süßenbrunn (at km 11.900) to the state border next to Bernhardsthal (at km 77.993). The Northern Railway Line, which shall be upgraded over a length of around 66 km, connects 17 stations is being Austria’s oldest railway line (opened in 1838). The upgrade of the line will increase the speed at which trains can travel, from 120 or 140 km/h to 160 or 200 km/h, and will enable the structural facilities to meet state-of-the-art standards.

From a railway engineering and permit application point of view, the line has been divided into two sections (the Northern and the Southern section).
Permission for the Southern section was received in autumn 2021; and permission for the Northern section is expected to be applied for in spring 2022.

The entirety of the line (both the Northern and the Southern section) forms part of the “European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) Corridor E: Dresden–Prague–Vienna/Budapest–Constanţa” as well as the priority projects “PP 22: Athens–Sofia–Budapest–Vienna–Prague–Dresden/Nuremberg” and “PP 23: Gdansk–Warsaw–Brno/Bratislava–Vienna”. Furthermore, the line is part of the Rail Freight Corridors 5 and 7 and the TEN-T Core Network.