Abstract
The Galician rail network in Austria and Austria-Hungary was built before the outbreak of World War I. The first railway construction projects were developed in the 1830s. The construction of the first rail tracks began in the late 1840s. The first railway connecting Western and Eastern Galicia was put into operation in 1861. Before WWI, the Galician rail network spanned a total length of more than 4,000 km. The construction of local wide and narrow gauge railways began in the same period. The railway construction process, transport capacity and the railway infrastructure in Galicia have never been comprehensively studied in view of recently emerged data. This article offers a thorough analysis of the Galician network of strategic and local railways beginning from their construction to the outbreak of WWI.
Highlights
In the middle of 1890s, Lviv (1,439.363 km) and Kraków (1,082.862 km) Directorates of State Railways operated in Galicia (2,795.089 km of railways of all forms of ownership; 35.6 km / 1000 km2, 42.3 km / 100 thousand people)
The percentage of Galicia within Austria increased from 13.7% to 18.5% for the corresponding period
The highest density per area unit was in Czechia and Silesia (12 km / 100 km2), and the highest density per capita was in Salzburg (212 km / 100 thousand people) and Carinthia
Summary
Streszczenie: Sieć kolejowa Galicji na terenie Austrii i Austro-Węgier powstała przed wybuchem I wojny światowej. The construction of a strategic line from Lviv to Beskid by the company “Railway of Archduke Albrecht’s” began The commissioning of this railway was carried out in several stages: section Lviv – Stryi in 1873; section Stryi – Stanisławów (out of turn, replacing section Stryi – Beskid) in 1875. The axial part of the railway shoul integrate the already the existing sections of Bielsk – Żywiec, Nowy Sącz – Stróże, Zagórze – Khyriv – Stryi – Stanisławów, under the name of “Galician Transversal Railway” The latter, in turn, sould be connected with the Hungarian Railways (Kosice-Bohumil area), on the one hand, and with the Northern Railway (Kraków – Oświęcim), on the other hand. Year Area of the region, thousand km Population, people Length of railways, km km/1000 km km per number of inhabitants km/100 thousand people % of Austria
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