Linz - Overview:
Linz is situated in the north west of Austria, close to the Czech and German borders, and has a population of approximately 200,000 people. The city sits astride the Danube River and is a major industrial centre and port as well as being one of Austria's leading cultural and educational centres. Linz is also capital of the state of Upper Austria (Oberösterreich), which is home to just over 17 per cent of the country's population and responsible for about a quarter of Austrian industrial production and exports.
The steel industry in Linz is well established and, along with industrial plants and machine construction, provides the backbone of the regions economy. The chemical industry is also particularly well developed especially in the areas of agrochemicals, foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals. In more recent years, high-tech businesses operating in the fields of instrumentation technology, automation, software and electronics have established themselves in the city and the surrounding area. These include companies such as GEC Alsthom, Hoffmann-La Roche, KEBA and Siemens.
Linz benefits from a large number of higher education establishments. For example, the Johannes Kepler University in Linz has 3 faculties covering engineering and science, economic and social studies and legal sciences and caters for approximately 17,000 students. There are also Centres of Exellence for Software, Multi-Media, New Media and Communication Technology situated in the Ars Electronica Center and in Hagenberg Software Park, just to the north of the city.
Linz has a good transport infrastructure. It is situated on the main railway line running between Germany and Vienna and there are hourly trains connecting the city to the Vienna and Salzburg. Direct trains also operate to and from Bregenz, Graz, Innsbruck and several other major European cities. The city is directly linked to the main road network, with connections to both northern and southern Europe, and is the largest of Austria's four ports on the Danube River, which is part of the Rhine-Main-Danube trans-European waterway that links the North Sea and the Black Sea.
The Blue Danube Airport is situated just 15 kilometres to the south-west of Linz and offers regular connections to several destinations throughout Europe such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Graz, London, Salzburg, Vienna and Zurich. It also handles in the region of 30,000 tonnes of freight a year, making it the second largest air cargo centre in Austria. In recent years, the airport has completed significant expansion and modernisation programs, to deal with ever increasing passenger numbers, and has developed an efficient air cargo centre with modern storage facilities.
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