Rail transport in Austria is mainly owned by the national rail company
ÖBB. The
railway network consists of 6,123 km, its gauge is 1,435 mm (
Standard gauge) and 3,523 km are electrified.
Austria is a member of the
International Union of Railways (UIC). The
UIC Country Code for Austria is 81.
History
The history of Austrian rail transport starts with the
Reisszug, a private funicular serving the
Fortress of
Salzburg. Built at the end of the 15th century and first documented in 1515, it is the oldest known funicular in the world, and possibly the oldest existing
railway line.
In the 19th century, after a building of several
horse tramways, it opened in 1837 the
Nordbahn line
Vienna-
Břeclav. The
Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways, a company serving Austrian side of
Austria-Hungary, was created in 1884 and in 1923, some years after the
dissolution of the empire, it was founded the national company "ÖBB".
Network
Austrian network, out of the principal rail system, also counts some
funiculars,
rack railways and lot of
heritage railways mainly derived from part of disused...
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