Semmering () is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

in the Eastern

Northern Limestone Alps The Northern Limestone Alps (), also called the Northern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps north of the Central Eastern Alps located in Austria and the adjacent Bavarian lands of southeastern Germany. The distinction from the ...

connecting

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

and

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

, between which it forms a natural

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

Location

Semmering Pass is located west of Sonnwendstein and Hirschenkogel and east of the Pinkenkogel. With the Wechsel Pass, the Semmering is the most important connection between Lower Austria and Styria. It can be crossed by road (via an ''

Autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

'' with a tunnel or on the local street on top), or using the Semmering Railway in a short tunnel. A longer Railway tunnel is currently under construction. The village of Semmering is on the pass. The villages of Maria Schutz and Spital am Semmering are slightly below the pass, on the Lower Austrian and Styrian sides respectively. Schottwien and

Mürzzuschlag Mürzzuschlag () is a town in northeastern Styria, Austria, the capital of the former Mürzzuschlag District. It is located on the Mürz river near the Semmering Pass, the border with the state of Lower Austria, about southwest of Vienna. The ...

are the closest sizeable towns on either side.

Rail transportation

As the Semmering is a major bottleneck in the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

network, the Semmering Railway, which is a UNESCO

World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

site, is planned to be supplemented by a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

at the base of the mountains. The project is supported by the Austrian Federal Government and the governments of Styria and

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

, but has been heavily opposed by the government of Lower Austria, which stalled the project by issuing negative

environmental impact statement An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...

s. The project has now been revised according to the advanced state of technology and the layout of the line has been altered in order to minimize effects on

ground water Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidat ...

. A ground-breaking ceremony was held at Gloggnitz on April 25, 2012 to officially launch preliminary construction works for the 27.3 km Semmering Base Tunnel. Opening is planned for 2030. The €3·1bn base tunnel between Gloggnitz and Mürzzuschlag is a key part of the 'new Südbahn' project. It will eliminate the current bottleneck on the 41 km Semmering Railway route where steep gradients and numerous curves require freight trains to use two or three locomotives. The tunnel will comprise two 10 m bores between 40 and 70 m apart, linked by cross passages every 500m. Boring is planned to start in 2014, with excavation completed ready for fitting out from 2021. The tunnel will be designed for passenger trains to run at up to 230 km/h, shortening Vienna - Graz journey times by 40 min to 1 h 50 min, which is expected to attract more customers to rail.

Skiing

The Semmering

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North Am ...

, called Zauberberg, which also hosts

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

events, is located at the pass and extends on to the Hirschenkogel mountain. It is mainly used by skiers from Vienna, from where it can be reached within one hour, but increasingly also by people from

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

Numismatics

The view was printed on the 20

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

note from 1966 to 1983. The Semmering Pass is featured on a famous commemorative coin: the 25 euro 150 Years of the Semmering Alpine Railway Coin. The reverse of the coin shows a typical Semmering view. A steam engine has just emerged from a tunnel crossing one of the distinctive viaducts.

External links

http://www.semmering.com/Stuhleck - Skiregion Semmeringhttp://www.semmering.at/
{{Authority control Mountain passes of the Alps Mountain passes of Lower Austria Mountain passes of Styria Rax-Schneeberg Group Fischbach Alps

Location

Rail transportation

Skiing

Numismatics

See also

External links