The Empress Elisabeth Railway (German: Kaiserin Elisabeth-Bahn) was the name of a former railway company during the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Today, the term is still used to refer to the railway lines that were formerly operated by that company.
Named after Empress Elisabeth, the k.k. privilegierte Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Bahn operated a line from Vienna to Linz, which was built between 1856 and 1858. The extensions from Linz to Salzburg and Passau were opened in 1860 and 1861. The company was nationalized in 1882 and is today operated by the Austrian Federal Railways.
Since World War I, the former Gisela Railway from Salzburg via Zell am See to Wörgl, the North Tyrolean Railway (Kufstein-Innsbruck, operated by the Austrian Southern Railway until 1923) and the Arlberg railway have been understood as part of the Western Railway. Vienna West Station was heavily damaged in World War II and reconstructed until 1952, when the railway had been equipped with electrical power lines.
Today, ICE trains and Austrian Railjet (ÖBB Railjet description) trains run on it, but most time below 200 km/h. The railway is being upgraded and partially rebuilt, and will partly allow speeds up to 230 km/h.
Read more about Empress Elisabeth Railway: In Numismatics
Famous quotes containing the words empress and/or railway:
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“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)