Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)

Aufsätze - Hillary Keel: West Train Station, Vienna

WEST TRAIN STATION, VIENNA

Hillary Keel

High ceilings, long rows of windows, a large clock ticks. Vienna’s west train station named after the Empress Elisabeth.

Rows of windows give an inkling, let in light, distance, shapes of Vienna: it’s inner- city, its traffic and boulevard that leads to the Ringstraße, to riches, treasures and pleasures of this big, big town. It waits for you out there: Viennese slang, mobile phones, civil servants, well-trained technicians. Wine, cigarettes, secrets. Artistic circles, intellectual circles, left and right wing. Gossip, intrigue and the setting of a short novel by Schnitzler. The who’s who of Vienna. Old world culture and the new, new, new wait for you.

The large wall clock ticks patiently, powerfully over slithering escalators, people in motion, newspaper salesmen, over ticket machines, desks and the

click-click-click-click-click-click-click

of departure and arrival.

Viennese woman in a camel colored coat, gloves and high-heeled boots carries carefully wrapped package to the post office.

Western windows look out to long rusty rails, bridges, the Vienna Woods and Wednesday morning’s destinations: Linz, Bregenz, Budapest, Salzburg, Villach and Cologne.

This place is paradise! Toujours Coca-Cola at Euro Snack, Wien Westbahnhof. Toujours Europe, toujours Schnitzelsemmel, toujours mit der ganzen Familie.

Feel the World, it says at the lower-level travel agent.

Click-click-click-click-click-click-click

as numbers and letters fall into place, the key to escape.

“Sorry,” someone just said, “Sorry.”