TRUE URBAN SPIRIT

3 VIENNA: REACHING BEYOND ITS BORDERS
3.2
THE
METROPOLITAN
REGION
Vienna has never before been as closely networked
with its environs. Administrative boundaries
play a dwindling role in the everyday lives
of people and enterprises. The population makes
use of the entire region to work and live in, for
leisure activities and shopping. This networking
within the region is further intensified as a
result of demographic growth, e. g. by triggering
stronger migration trends within the metropolitan
region. At the same time, housing and industrial
zones are extending across provincial and municipal
boundaries. Landscapes, natural and green
space networks, such as Lobau, Vienna Woods
or Marchfeld, have never stopped at administrative
borders. The metropolitan region is a reality
– physically, morphologically and functionally.
The centres in the centrope region, too, will
cohere much more strongly in the future and
result in a functional, polycentric network. Thus
the time required to travel from Vienna to St.
Pölten has been cut to 25 minutes since the
trains along the Western Railway Line are travelling
at a speed of up to 230 km/h. Living in the
capital of Lower Austria and working in Vienna or
vice versa or mutual visits to leisure, cultural or
shopping facilities have duly become much easier
and more attractive. The capacity use of trains
and increasing commuter flows also indicate that
Vienna is “growing closer” to the Slovak capital
Bratislava.
One outcome of this development is that the
region is becoming more diversified, but also
stronger. Many municipalities have evolved into
competitive locations, in the process boosting and
complementing the metropolitan function of the
Vienna Region. Wiener Neustadt and Tulln today
dispose of widely recognised tertiary-education
facilities and research institutes that serve as
magnets for attracting technology-oriented enterprises.
In the larger metropolitan region, the
same is true of Krems and St. Pölten. Hardly any
goods or services today are available in the core
city only.
For Vienna and the metropolitan region, this
development opens up economic possibilities and
investment options for Austrian and international
enterprises, creates attractive, easily accessible
workplaces and hence greater prosperity. Urban,
municipal and regional development can all
achieve more if they are given a wider leeway for
action – for example with regard to the provision
of infrastructure and public services.
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