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28-693: The Austrian Federal Railways has had two discrete periods of existence. It was first formed in 1923, using the Bundesbahn Österreich name, as a successor to the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways (kkStB), but was incorporated into the Deutsche Reichsbahn during the 1938–1945 Anschluss . It was reformed in 1947, under the slightly different name Österreichische Bundesbahnen , and remains in existence in this form. Major changes currently being made to

56-706: A branch-off from Olmütz (Olomouc) and Brünn (Brno) to Prague was opened in 1845/49. In 1851, construction works reached the northern imperial border with Saxony at Bodenbach , where the Northern Railway received access to the Royal Saxon State Railways . Beside the extension of the Northern Railway, plans for the construction of a Southern Railway ( Südbahn ) from Vienna to the Adriatic seaport at Trieste via Semmering Pass and Graz were finally carried out. Opened in 1857, it

84-479: A major effect on the price of coal transported. The line was opened to passengers on 1 March 1832. It remained limited to animal traction at three miles an hour until 1844, when the company bought two Schneider steam locomotives (The Loire and the Furens ) with, until 1845, "mixed" traction for goods, animal for passengers. The line was single track from Saint-Étienne-de-Pont-bull to Andrezieux Port. The track of

112-725: A new steam locomotive railway from the Austrian capital Vienna to Kraków in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria operated by the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway company opened in 1837. Designed by Franz Xaver Riepl , it was financed by the banker Salomon Mayer von Rothschild . The line then was the second solely steam-powered railway on the continent, after the inauguration of the Belgian Brussels–Mechelen railway line in 1835. While

140-472: A study trip to England, concluded the necessity of a railway. On 5 May 1821, Beaunier combined with financiers having interests in the region to demand the granting of a railway from Saint-Etienne to Andrézieux, about 23 kilometres long. By royal decree of 25 February 1823, MM. de Lur-Saluces and others were allowed, under the title of the railroad company, to establish a line from the Loire at Pont-de-l’Âne on

168-571: A succession of four inclined planes crossed the threshold of Neulise . The line joined the valley of Gand below Saint-Symphorien-de-Lay then to the Rhins where its track was taken over by the Roanne - Lyon line in 1869. On each inclined plane, the up train had to wait for a train down to balance. These expectations were scarcely compatible with passenger transport, yet the line was opened in August 1832 in

196-399: Is largely electrified. Electrification of the system began in 1912 but did not reach an advanced state until the 1950s. The last steam locomotive in regular service on the standard gauge network was retired in 1978. The post-war laws related to the Austrian railways were the: By a law of August 2009, the organisational structure dating from 2005 was further modified; the railways are under

224-848: The Wiener Stadtbahn network and the Neue Alpenbahnen project providing the Alps with major rail crossings, including the Tauern Railway and the Bohinj Railway , realised upon a 1901 resolution passed by the Imperial Council legislature. By nationalizing other companies or taking over their traffic, the State Railways obtained a practical monopoly in rail transport. After the acquisition of

252-812: The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , the Transleithanian (Hungarian) lines of the Dual Monarchy were nationalized as the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV). Already in 1866, the Austrian trade minister Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair had urged for a greater government commitment. A re-evaluation started in the Long Depression , sparked by the Panic of 1873 . The Vienna stock market crash resulted in

280-832: The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy . The introduction of railway traffic in the Austrian Empire had been pushed by pioneers like physicist Franz Josef Gerstner (1756–1832), who advocated a railway connection from the Vltava basin across the Bohemian Massif to the Danube river. After in 1810 a first 22 kilometres (14 mi) long horse-drawn railway line was built at the Eisenerz mine in Styria for

308-801: The World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the Imperial-Royal Rail Ministry was disestablished on 12 November 1918 by resolution of the Provisional Assembly of German-Austria . The vehicle fleet and infrastructure of former kkStB were divided among state railway companies of the successor states of the Dual Monarchy: With the promulgation of the Austrian Federal Constitutional Law on 10 November 1920,

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336-489: The 16.7 Hz electrification system, and two hep stations for 50 Hz power generation. As of 2009 it employed 17,612 staff. According to the Annual Report 2013, the company employs 39,513, there of 13,599 employees, 24,251 tenured employees and 1,663 apprentices. In 2013, ÖBB-Personenverkehr AG carried 469 million passengers of which 235 million were bus passengers. The ÖBB has All neighbouring railways have

364-1031: The Austrian railway network are the construction of the Koralm Railway , the Semmering Base Tunnel and the Brenner Base Tunnel connection with Italy . Eurobarometer surveys conducted in 2018 showed that satisfaction levels of Austrian rail passengers are among the highest in the European Union when it comes to punctuality, reliability and frequency of trains. Furthermore, with their Nightjet brand, ÖBB operates Europe's largest night train fleet. Unlike other major railway companies in Europe that offer more flexible cancellation policies, ÖBB only offers two types of tickets: full-price tickets, and cheaper but non-exchangeable and non-refundable tickets. The Austrian rail system

392-774: The Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway Company in 1906, followed by the Imperial Royal Privileged Austrian State Railway Company and the Austrian Northwestern Railway in 1909, the Southern Railway was the only major company that remained private until the end of Empire. In 1914, of a total of 22,981 km of railway tracks on Austrian territory, 18,859 (82%) were state owned. After the end of

420-703: The Forez mines to the river Loire , it marked the beginning of the expansion of the railway in France. At the end of the First French Empire and the beginning of the Bourbon Restoration , the mining basin of the Loire was the largest in France; Saint-Étienne one of the largest cities, but the existing communication was not sufficient to meet industrial and mining needs. Two local engineers, Louis de Gallois and Louis-Antoine Beaunier , after

448-538: The Northern Railway prospered, private investors held back on financing further railroad constructions and the expansion of the Austrian network came to a standstill. Nevertheless, after initial hesitation, the Austrian government took a keen interest in railways, and launched a public investment programme in 1841. The Northern Railway in Lower Austria was completed up to the Bohemian border at Bernhardsthal ,

476-704: The bankruptcy of several Austrian railway companies, and the state took them over. With effect from 1 January 1884, the k.k. Generaldirektion der Staatsbahnen ("Imperial-Royal General Directorate of the State Railways") was founded, situated at the Austrian Ministry of Trade; this was the birth of the Imperial-Royal State Railways. Operations Divisions were established in Vienna , Linz , Innsbruck , Villach , Budweis , Pilsen , Prague , Cracow , Lemberg , Pola , and Spalato . By

504-487: The beginning. By late 1854, 994 kilometres (618 mi) out of 1,443 kilometres (897 mi) of Austrian railway lines were state owned (almost 70%). After 1854, however, because of financial crisis in the Empire, the railways were sold at prices cut to the bone, many of them to French investors. Concessions for new private companies, like the Imperial Royal Privileged Austrian State Railway Company , were granted. After

532-550: The control of ÖBB-Holding AG , a holding company wholly owned by the Austrian state, under the Ministry of Transport . The holding company has a number of subsidiaries: The infrastructure of the state-owned Austrian network is managed by ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG, which was formed from former infrastructure-related units including Brenner Eisenbahn GmbH. It now manages 9,740 km of track, 788 signal boxes, 247 tunnels, 6,207 bridges and eight hydro-electric power (hep) stations for

560-458: The end of 1884 the state railway network covered 5,103 km. On 15 January 1896, Emperor Franz Joseph I , at the suggestion of Minister President Count Kasimir Felix Badeni , approved the establishment of the k.k. Eisenbahnministerium ("Imperial-Royal Rail Ministry"). Further divisions were founded in Triest , Olmütz and Stanislau . Minister Heinrich von Wittek promoted the expansion of

588-494: The first French line adopted a system where the cast iron rails were 1.20 m long and were supported at each end by a cast chair, itself attached to the stone sleeper with large-headed nails driven into oak pegs. To transport coal Etienne, the Andrézieux line at Le Coteau was built in early 1830 by Mellet and Henry. In the Forez plain, it bypassed the towns of Veauche , Montrond-les-Bains , Feurs and Balbigny . From there,

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616-425: The implementation and operation of the line. The company was formed for 99 years, unless renewed. The capital was one million francs, represented by 200 shares of 5000 francs plus eight bonus shares given to the author of the project, Louis-Antoine Beaunier, who became the director of the company. The line was used for trials from 1 May 1827 and fully opened on 30 June 1827. The "official" opening on 1 October 1828

644-407: The river Furens (or Furan , its modern name), to the coal-mining area of Saint-Étienne. Traffic was limited to goods, particularly coal. The mileage tax was 0.0186 francs per hectolitre of coal or 50 kg of goods. The concession was perpetual. The Ordinance of 21 July 1824 authorized and approved the constitution of a company called Compagnie du chemin de fer de Saint-Étienne à la Loire for

672-464: The same gauge. [REDACTED] Media related to Österreichische Bundesbahnen at Wikimedia Commons Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways The Imperial-Royal State Railways ( German : k.k. Staatsbahnen ) abbr. kkStB ) or Imperial-Royal Austrian State Railways ( k.k. österreichische Staatsbahnen , ) was the state railway organisation in the Cisleithanian (Austrian) part of

700-516: The supervision of the national railway system passed to the newly established Ministry of Transport . Saint-%C3%89tienne to Andr%C3%A9zieux Railway The Saint-Étienne to Andrézieux railway (ligne de Saint-Étienne à Andrézieux) was the first public railway in France and continental Europe, granted by order of King Louis XVIII to Louis-Antoine Beaunier in 1823. Eighteen kilometers long and opened on 30 June 1827 to transport coal from

728-531: The transport of iron stones, in 1832 a wagonway between Austrian Linz and České Budějovice (Budweis) in Bohemia opened. It was 128.8 kilometres (80.0 mi) long and was the second interurban railway in continental Europe (after the French Saint-Étienne to Andrézieux Railway line opened in 1827). The southern continuation from Linz to Gmunden was finished in 1836. The first section of

756-618: Was never held, nor any opening. This date refers to the first full financial year. The first line was only for goods in wagons pulled by horses. On the return trip, they carried gravel, sand and lime. A major drawback of this project, which is that the Loire is navigable to Andrézieux only on a few days of the year. Accordingly, boats to sail downstream of the railway line were built in Saint Rambert (neighboring city of Andrézieux) and launched in Andrézieux, but would only sail down, not return. They were then sold at very low prices, which had

784-577: Was then operated by the private Austrian Southern Railway company. In the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia , the first section of the Milan–Venice railway was opened in 1842. Plans for a connection to Trieste became obsolete upon the loss of Lombardy after the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859. First construction works on the projected Western Railway ( Westbahn ) line to the border with Bavaria via Linz and Salzburg got stuck in

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