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Austria-Hungary train services suspended due to overcrowding from asylum seekers

Xinhua, September 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Austrian Federal Railways (OeBB) has Thursday suspended its operations between Austria and Hungary citing "massive overload" of its trains due to the large numbers of asylum seekers.

The OeBB said in a press release its primary Railjet service between Vienna and Budapest was affected, along with regional cross-border services.

It said about 10,000 asylum seekers were on its trains on Thursday, with hundreds of staff working overtime and special train services constantly running to keep up. Its services would normally only be capable of handling an extra 3,000 to 3,500 persons per day.

OeBB spokesperson Michael Braun said the decision to halt the service was made for safety reasons.

The OeBB said no tickets to Hungarian destinations would be sold for the time being, with students and commuters to certain destinations being transported by bus. Trains between Vienna and the border town of Nickelsdorf will however remain running.

While some of the refugees crossing the border have made it to Vienna or beyond, thousands more are located at Nickelsdorf waiting to travel to Vienna. At least 1,000 were reported to have made the journey there on foot.

The Hungarian train authority MAV however said it would be continuing to provide its services from Budapest to Hegyeshalom, just across the border from Nickelsdorf.

Despite the vast majority of the asylum seekers wishing to travel on to Germany, no extra train services for that leg have been made available, with services and available trains already stretched thin. Existing train services to Germany are already running at full capacity, with only limited numbers of asylum seekers allowed in, depending on seat availability. Enditem