A minor news in connection to my The Old Westbahn diaries. In mid-August, German Rail's (DB) high-speed test train ICE-S achieved a new national rail speed record for Austria, 336.4 km/h, during the commissioning of the new Vienna–St. Pölten line. It seems they want to know whether the line, which is meant for 230 km/h only, is suitable for 300 km/h. (The ICE-S broke its own record of 305 km/h from August 2004, achieved on another section of the Vienna–Linz quadruple-tracking project.)

In honour of the event, here is one of the trains that shall run on the new tracks at 230 km/h from December, an Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) railjet (photographed at Unter Oberndorf on the old line):

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}