Early History
The introduction of railway traffic in the Austrian Empire had been pushed by pioneers like physicist František 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 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–Andrézieux line opened in 1827). The southern continuation from Linz to Gmunden was finished in 1836.
The first section of 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. After initial hesitation, the Austrian state took a keen interest in railways, and in late 1854, 994 kilometres (618 mi) out of 1,443 kilometres (897 mi) of railway lines were state owned (almost 70%). However the Southern Railway from Vienna to the seaport at Trieste via the Semmering Pass opened in 1857 was operated by the private Austrian Southern Railway company.
After 1854, because of financial crisis in the Empire, the railways in the Austrian part were sold at prices cut to the bone, many of them, like the Imperial Royal Privileged Austrian State Railway Company to French investors. Concessions for new private companies were granted.
After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Transleithanian (Hungarian) lines were nationalized as the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV). The Long Depression, started by Vienna stock market crash in 1873, resulted in the bankruptcy of several Austrian railways, and the state took them over.
Read more about this topic: Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways
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