AUSTRIA: ÖBB-Infrastruktur has awarded Siemens Mobility and Hitachi Rail framework contracts for digital interlockings worth around EUR 2.6bn in total. The first pilot is due to enter service in the fourth quarter of 2030.
ÖBB-Infrastruktur announced the award on 22 September at InnoTrans in Berlin, alongside Peter Hanke, Austria’s minister for innovation, mobility and infrastructure. The contracts conclude a multi-year tender decided on the best price-quality ratio. According to Siemens’ own figures, reported by Reuters, around EUR 1.3bn goes to Siemens Mobility and the remainder to Hitachi Rail.
The frameworks run for at least ten years, according to ÖBB-Infrastruktur. Service agreements for maintenance, technical support and availability cover a 25-year system life. The scope includes both the central units that carry the interlocking logic and the object controllers at the trackside.
From pilot to full replacement
ÖBB plans further pilots after the first installation in late 2030. Nationwide roll-out follows only once the pilot phase is complete, and the infrastructure manager has given no date for it. In the long term, every interlocking on the network is to be replaced.
The network has around 650 interlockings today, Johann Pluy, the ÖBB-Infrastruktur board member responsible for infrastructure, told Austrian news agency APA. In the final configuration, the interlocking logic is to be concentrated in three data centres linked by fibre. He described the award as the largest undertaking in signalling in ÖBB’s history.
Two suppliers with operations in Austria
Hitachi Rail develops its safety platform in Vienna, where it employs around 500 people, and will add 40 positions, said Hannes Boyer, the company’s vice president for Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. Siemens Mobility plans a EUR 25m test centre in Austria, said Tanja Kienegger, managing director of Siemens Mobility Austria.
The minister highlighted cybersecurity and technological sovereignty. The tender specified object controllers with EULYNX interfaces, specifications developed jointly by European infrastructure managers for connecting interlockings to trackside equipment. The award does not cover European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2, which runs under a separate Siemens framework.
SBB’s interlocking frameworks
Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) awarded framework agreements for interlockings worth CHF 1.4bn, around EUR 1.5bn, to Hitachi, Siemens and Stadler Rail in October 2025. The Swiss frameworks run for ten years with three five-year extension options, plus 25 years of maintenance and support.
Orders for individual interlockings are placed in later competitions among the framework partners. SBB expects its first digital interlockings to enter service in 2029.