Austrian Southern Railway

The Austrian Southern Railway (German Österreichische Südbahn or just Südbahn,Slovene Južna železnica) was an Austrian private railway company established in 1859. It was the main railway company in the Austrian Empire (from 1867: Austria-Hungary) operating train services between Vienna and Trieste until 1923.

In Austria, the term Southern Railway (Südbahn) is still used to refer to the railway lines which were formerly operated by it: from Vienna via Bruck an der Mur to Graz and via Slovenia to Trieste.

Today the term "Austrian Southern Railway" is sometimes also applied today to the railway line from Bruck an der Mur via Klagenfurt and Villach to Italy (Tarvisio), but this is historically incorrect.

First plans for a railway connection from the Austrian capital Vienna to the Austrian Littoral and the busy Adriatic Port of Trieste, then bypassing the Eastern Alps via Bruck an der Leitha and Szombathely in Hungary, in order to meet trade demands in the upcoming age of industrialization were already set up by Franz Xaver Riepl in 1829. In 1838 Baron Georg Simon von Sina established the Wien-Raaber-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft to build a railway connection from Vienna via Wiener Neustadt to Győr (Raab) in Hungary. Construction began in 1839 and a first section between Baden and Wiener Neustadt was opened on 16 May 1841. Sina's engineer Matthias Schönerer had purchased a used steam locomotive from the Norris Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, which was shipped to Trieste and brought to Vienna by oxcart.

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