Just like Paris or indeed so many other big cities in Europe, Vienna traditionally had more than one railway station. In fact we had one for each major direction, and then we had some more. Since about two years, the former Southern Railway Station is Vienna’s new Main Station. All major trains and certainly all international trains now pass through it.
In fact some of Vienna’s train stations became obsolete at the end of World War I, at the end of the great Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Budapest, Preßburg/Bratislava and Prague were in different countries now, traffic was diminished by post-war poverty and general distrust. Instead of being at the center of an empire, Vienna was a hypertrophic monstrosity tucked into the north-eastern corner of what was left of Austria.
Today, thanks to the EU and the vanishing of borders, the city is at crossroads again. I very much hope we’ll keep it at way.