The Empress Elisabeth Railway (german: Kaiserin Elisabeth-Bahn, KEB) was the name of a former

railway company A railway company is a company within the rail industry. It can be a manufacturing firm or an rail transport operations, operator. Some railway companies operate both the trains and the track, while, particularly in the European Union, operation ...

during the time of the

Austro-Hungarian monarchy Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. Its rail network was centred on the Western Railway line from

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

with a branch to Passau. The company was nationalised by the

Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways The Imperial-Royal State Railways (german: k.k. Staatsbahnen) abbr. ''kkStB'') or Imperial-Royal Austrian State Railways (''k.k. österreichische Staatsbahnen'',The name incorporating "Austrian" appears, for example, in the 1907 official state ha ...

in 1884.

History

On 21 June 1851 the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

and the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German ...

signed a treaty to build a railway line from Vienna via Salzburg to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, and also agreed upon an extension from

Rosenheim Rosenheim is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is an independent city located in the centre of the district of Rosenheim (Upper Bavaria), and is also the seat of its administration. It is located on the west bank of the Inn at the confluence of th ...

via

Kufstein Kufstein (; Central Bavarian: ''Kufstoa'') is a town in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the administrative seat of Kufstein District. With a population of about 19,600 it is the second largest Tyrolean town after the state capital Innsbruck. The grea ...

to Innsbruck as well as the continuation of the railroad from

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

via Regensburg and Passau to

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

. First plans were set up at the behest of the industrialist Hermann Dietrich Lindheim (1790–1860), who together with the German businessman Ernst Merck (1811–1863) founded the ''Kaiserin Elisabeth-Bahn'' railway company, named after Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Funded by

Salomon Mayer von Rothschild Salomon Mayer von Rothschild (9 September 1774 – 28 July 1855) was a German-born banker in the Austrian Empire and the founder of the Austrian branch of the prominent Mayer Amschel Rothschild family. Family He was born at Frankfurt am Mai ...

(1774 –1855) and his

Creditanstalt The Creditanstalt (sometimes Credit-Anstalt, abbreviated as CA), full original name k. k. priv. Österreichische Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe (), was a major Austrian bank, founded in 1855 in Vienna. From its founding until 1931, th ...

, the '' k.k. privilegierte Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Bahn'' was changed into a public limited company in 1856. A second state treaty between Austria and Bavaria fixed the line from Vienna to Linz, which was built between 1856 and 1858, and the extensions from Linz to Salzburg and Passau, opened in 1860 and 1861. The KEB was awarded a 90-year-licence to build and operate the railway The company was nationalized in 1884 and is today operated by the

Austrian Federal Railways Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

The line today

Since

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the former Gisela Railway from Salzburg via

Zell am See Zell am See is the administrative capital of the Zell am See District in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Located in the Kitzbühel Alps, the town is an important tourist destination due to its ski resorts and shoreline on Lake Zell. While Zell a ...

Wörgl Wörgl () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol, in the Kufstein district. It is from the international border with Bavaria, Germany. Population Transport Wörgl is an important railway junction between the line from Innsbruck to Munich, an ...

, the North Tyrolean Railway (

- Innsbruck, operated by the Austrian Southern Railway until 1923) and the

Arlberg railway The Arlberg Railway (german: Arlbergbahn), which connects the Austrian cities Innsbruck and Bludenz, is Austria's only ''east-west'' mountain railway. It is one of the highest standard gauge railways in Europe and the second highest in Austria, a ...

have been understood as part of the Western Railway.

Vienna West Station Wien Westbahnhof (Vienna West station) is a major Austrian railway station, the original starting point of the West railway (''Westbahn'') and a former terminus of international rail services. In 2015, its role changed with the opening of Vie ...

was heavily damaged in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and reconstructed until 1952, when the railway had been equipped with electrical power lines. Today,

ICE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...

trains and Austrian

Railjet Railjet is a high-speed rail service in Europe operated by Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and Czech Railways (ČD). Branded as ''Railjet Express (RJX)'' for the fastest services and as ''Railjet (RJ)'' for services with additional stops, it w ...

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.

In numismatics

Empress Elisabeth Western Railway was recently selected as a main motif for a high value collectors' coin: the Empress Elisabeth Western Railway commemorative coin. The obverse shows the steam locomotive kkStB 306.01 crossing a railroad bridge on the Austrian Western Railway path. The locomotive was developed by

Karl Gölsdorf Karl Gölsdorf (8 June 1861 – 18 March 1916) was an Austrian engineer and locomotive designer. Early life Karl Gölsdorf was born on 8 June 1861 in Vienna, the son of Louis Adolf Gölsdorf. Even as a schoolboy he was introduced to locomotive ...

in 1908.

References

{{Authority control

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Railway lines opened in 1858