Austrian Southern Railway

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Austrian Southern Railway
standard gauge
Minimum radius171 m
Electrification15 kV/16,7 Hz AC Overhead line (Austria)
3 kV DC Overhead line (Slovenia and Italy)
Maximum incline2.8%

The Austrian Southern Railway (German: Österreichische Südbahn) is a 577.2-kilometre (358.7 mi) long

double track railway, which linked the capital Vienna with Trieste, the former main seaport of Austria-Hungary, by railway for the first time. It now forms the Southern Railway in Austria and the Spielfeld-Straß–Trieste railway
in Slovenia and Italy.

Construction and history

Section Opening
Wiener Neustadt-Baden 16 March 1841
Baden-Mödling 29 March 1841
Mödling-Vienna 20 June 1841
Graz-Celje 2 June 1846
Celje-Ljubljana 18 June 1849
Wiener Neustadt-Mürzzuschlag 23 October 1853
Ljubljana-Postojna 20 November 1856
Postojna-Trieste 27 July 1857
Wien Südbahnhof c. 1875
Trieste Centrale railway station, opened in 1857

Borovnica viaduct

The 561 m long and 38 m high

Borovnica, Slovenia, was completed in 1856. The viaduct was badly damaged during World War II
and demolished completely a few years after.

Current

The section from

Šentilj v Slovenskih goricah
), which had been downgraded to a single track railway in the 1950s, is currently again rebuilt as a double track line. On the Slovenian section, work is in progress to upgrade and renovate
railway crossings from Maribor to Celje
. A new viaduct and tunnel are being built between Maribor and Pesnica. The old route will be turned into a bike path. The upgrades in Maribor railway station, Slovenska Bistrica railway station, Poljčane railway station and Celje railway station have already been completed.

Management

Infrastructure and transport management on the line is now provided by three railway companies:

Italian
section.

Sources

  • Dietrich, Herbert. Die Südbahn und ihre Vorläufer. Wien, 1994.
  • Mit Volldampf in den Süden : 150 Jahre Südbahn Wien-Triest. Wien, 2007
  • Brate, Tadej. Die Geschichte der slowenischer Eisenbahnen auf Ansichtkarten, Celjska Mohorjeva družba, Celje. 2013.