Austrian Southern Railway
Encyclopedia
The Austrian Southern Railway (German
Österreichische Südbahn or just Südbahn, Slovene Južna železnica) was an Austria
n railway company established in 1841. It was the main railway company in the Austrian Empire
(later Austria-Hungary
) operating train services between Vienna
and Trieste
until 1923.
Today, the term Südbahn is still used to refer to the railway lines which were formerly operated by it: from Vienna
via Bruck an der Mur
to Graz
and via Slovenia
to Trieste
(Southern Railway
). Historically incorrect, the term is sometimes also applied to the railway line from Bruck an der Mur via Klagenfurt
and Villach
to Italy
(Tarvisio
).
port city of Trieste in order to meet trade demands in the upcoming age of industrialization.
Construction began in 1839 and the first section between Vienna and Gloggnitz
was completed by the private Wien-Gloggnitzer Eisenbahn Gesellschaft in 1842. It followed the construction of the section from Mürzzuschlag
via Graz
and Maribor
and Ljubljana
to Trieste
, completed by the Imperial government in 1857. The two lines were connected by the Semmering Railway
, when the railway over the Semmering
mountain pass was built according to construction plans by Carl von Ghega between 1848 and 1854.
In 1858 all lines were sold to the private Südbahn Gesellschaft, which constructed another line from Maribor
via Klagenfurt
, Villach
and Lienz
to Franzensfeste
. The Austrian Southern Railway lifted trade to and from Trieste manyfold. It lifted Austria-Hungary's international sea trade and established Trieste as the main sea port of all Southern and Eastern Central Europe
(Lloyd Triestino). Trieste became the Empire's fourth largest city after Vienna
, Budapest
and Prague
and the railway had substantial influence in developing tourism along the surrounding Adriatic coasts which made Trieste the center of the so called Austrian Riviera
.
After World War I
Trieste fell to Italy in 1921 and in 1923 the remaining Austrian part of the company was nationalized. During World War II
the Südbahnhof was damaged and rebuilt only in 1956, while Ostbahnhof was integrated into it. Graz
Main Station also had to be rebuilt after being totally destroyed by bombs, it was reopened in 1955.
During the Cold War
trade between Vienna and Trieste was mainly run through Tarvisio in Italy which tracks had been equipped with electric
power by 1963; the same for the branch from Vienna into Graz and Yugoslavia
by 1966.
Nowadays most of the line is double track, though the line between Werndorf (South of Graz
) and Maribor
is still single track after having the second track removed in 1945, though this is to change in the near future.
The Southern Railway was recently selected as the main motif of a very high value collectors' coin: the Austrian Southern Railways Vienna-Triest commemorative coin, minted on September 12, 2007. The obverse shows the locomotive “Steinbrück” with one of the typical viaducts of the Semmering Railway in the background. The engine “Steinbrück” can be seen today in the Technical Museum in Vienna. It is the oldest existing locomotive built in Austria; it was constructed in 1848 for the Southern Railway.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Österreichische Südbahn or just Südbahn, Slovene Južna železnica) was an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n railway company established in 1841. It was the main railway company in the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
(later Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
) operating train services between Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
until 1923.
Today, the term Südbahn is still used to refer to the railway lines which were formerly operated by it: from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
via Bruck an der Mur
Bruck an der Mur
Bruck an der Mur is a city of some 13,500 people located in the Austrian state of Styria. It is located at the confluence of the Mur and Mürz Rivers. Its manufactures include metal products and paper; Bruck is an important rail junction in the region located on the Graz to Vienna main...
to Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
and via Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
to Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
(Southern Railway
Southern Railway (Austria)
The Southern Railway is a two-track, electrified railway line in Austria that runs from Vienna to Graz and Trieste via Wiener Neustadt and the Semmering Pass and is one of the major lines of Austria. It was originally built by the Austrian Southern Railway...
). Historically incorrect, the term is sometimes also applied to the railway line from Bruck an der Mur via Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt
-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...
and Villach
Villach
Villach is the second largest city in the Carinthia state in the southern Austria, at the Drava River and represents an important traffic junction for Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 58,480.-History:...
to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
(Tarvisio
Tarvisio
Tarvisio is a town in the Province of Udine, in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli–Venezia Giulia region in Italy...
).
History
The railway company was established to create train services between the capital city of Vienna and the busy Adriatic seaAdriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
port city of Trieste in order to meet trade demands in the upcoming age of industrialization.
Construction began in 1839 and the first section between Vienna and Gloggnitz
Gloggnitz
Gloggnitz is a mountain town in the Neunkirchen district of Lower Austria, Austria.Gloggnitz is situated in the south-western part of the Vienna Basin in Lower Austria. It is surrounded by the highest mountains in Lower Austria, Mount Rax and Mount Schneeberg...
was completed by the private Wien-Gloggnitzer Eisenbahn Gesellschaft in 1842. It followed the construction of the section from Mürzzuschlag
Mürzzuschlag
Mürzzuschlag is a town in northeastern Styria, Austria, the capital of the Mürzzuschlag District. It is located on the Mürz river near the Semmering Pass, the border with the state of Lower Austria, about southwest of Vienna. The population is 8,745...
via Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
and Maribor
Maribor
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....
and Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
to Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, completed by the Imperial government in 1857. The two lines were connected by the Semmering Railway
Semmering Railway
The Semmering railway, Austria, which starts at Gloggnitz and leads over the Semmering to Mürzzuschlag was the first mountain railway in Europe built with a standard gauge track. It is commonly referred to as the world's first true mountain railway, given the very difficult terrain and the...
, when the railway over the Semmering
Semmering
For the town of the same name, see Semmering, Austria.Semmering is a mountain pass in the Eastern Northern Limestone Alps connecting Lower Austria and Styria, between which it forms a natural border.-Location:...
mountain pass was built according to construction plans by Carl von Ghega between 1848 and 1854.
In 1858 all lines were sold to the private Südbahn Gesellschaft, which constructed another line from Maribor
Maribor
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....
via Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt
-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...
, Villach
Villach
Villach is the second largest city in the Carinthia state in the southern Austria, at the Drava River and represents an important traffic junction for Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 58,480.-History:...
and Lienz
Lienz
Lienz is a medieval town in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is the administrative centre of the Lienz district, which covers all of East Tyrol. The municipality also includes the cadastral subdivision of Patriasdorf.-Geography:...
to Franzensfeste
Franzensfeste
Franzensfeste is a village in Northern Italy, in South Tyrol . The village is famous for its large fort and the historic railway-station.-Geography:...
. The Austrian Southern Railway lifted trade to and from Trieste manyfold. It lifted Austria-Hungary's international sea trade and established Trieste as the main sea port of all Southern and Eastern Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
(Lloyd Triestino). Trieste became the Empire's fourth largest city after Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
and Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and the railway had substantial influence in developing tourism along the surrounding Adriatic coasts which made Trieste the center of the so called Austrian Riviera
Austrian Riviera
The Austrian Riviera is a description for the coastal strip of former Austrian Littoral, a Habsburg crown land which until 1919 stretched along the northeastern Adriatic Coast.The Austrian Riviera covered coastal areas adjacent the port city of Trieste...
.
After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Trieste fell to Italy in 1921 and in 1923 the remaining Austrian part of the company was nationalized. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the Südbahnhof was damaged and rebuilt only in 1956, while Ostbahnhof was integrated into it. Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
Main Station also had to be rebuilt after being totally destroyed by bombs, it was reopened in 1955.
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
trade between Vienna and Trieste was mainly run through Tarvisio in Italy which tracks had been equipped with electric
Railway electrification system
A railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...
power by 1963; the same for the branch from Vienna into Graz and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
by 1966.
Nowadays most of the line is double track, though the line between Werndorf (South of Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
) and Maribor
Maribor
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....
is still single track after having the second track removed in 1945, though this is to change in the near future.
The Southern Railway was recently selected as the main motif of a very high value collectors' coin: the Austrian Southern Railways Vienna-Triest commemorative coin, minted on September 12, 2007. The obverse shows the locomotive “Steinbrück” with one of the typical viaducts of the Semmering Railway in the background. The engine “Steinbrück” can be seen today in the Technical Museum in Vienna. It is the oldest existing locomotive built in Austria; it was constructed in 1848 for the Southern Railway.