{"id":1678,"date":"2023-04-22T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-04-22T07:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/borovniski-viadukt.si\/viadukt-in-njegov-cas\/"},"modified":"2023-07-03T11:49:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T10:49:44","slug":"viadukt-in-njegov-cas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/borovniski-viadukt.si\/en\/viadukt-in-njegov-cas\/","title":{"rendered":"Viaduct and its time"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Borovni\u0161ki viadukt 1850 – 1944<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1680708750189{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-right: 5% !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 5% !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1682327391498{margin-top: 0% !important;padding-top: 1% !important;padding-bottom: 1% !important;}”]<\/p>\n

THE BOROVNICA VIADUCT AND ITS TIME<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

By Andrej Klemenc<\/strong><\/span>orovni\u0161ki viadukt 1850 – 1944<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1688381380728{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]INTRODUCTION: NEW REVIVAL OF RAILWAYS AFTER THEY NEARLY STOPPED THEIR OPERATIONS <\/strong><\/p>\n

Shortly after the Second World War, road traffic began replacing rail traffic in the developed world. The century of railways that had symbolically began in\u00a01825 with the first successful train ride between two nearby English cities, began coming to an end. The railway, with its rigid rolling stock that have to run on specific timetables and cannot be used for door-to-door transport, cannot be compared to the modern (motorway) road network in terms of time and space flexibility, neither can the train be compared to personal cars and trucks.<\/p>\n

Although the train can still carry more freight than a few dozen tugtrucks (and long-distance railway transport can still be significantly faster than the one on overcrowded roads), in the second half of the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century, the railway gradually gained a touch of something obsolete. As the railway had to build and maintain its own infrastructure in most countries (while the construction and maintenance of roads were taken care of by governments) and since the cost of destroyed environment and global warming is (was) not included in the price of fuels, railways have been loosing their competitive advantage even in transports at longer distances where otherwise they would have still been competitive.<\/p>\n

However, car traffic has become a victim to its success; therefore, it gets stuck in severe congestions much too frequently. For this reason, on the one hand, and for the environmental concerns (especially concerns about devastating consequences of global warming originating from human activity), on the other hand, the railway started regaining its momentum at the beginning of 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century. More and more passengers take trains to overcrowded major cities (and continue there on foot), use city or own bicycles, (electric) scooters and\/or public transport. The European Union encourages countries to modernise their rail networks and rolling stock to enable them to be competitive to air transport, including in terms of time, at distances of up to 500\u00a0km and more. China has been investing heavily in modernising and expanding its rail connections to largest urban agglomerations in Europe, in order to enable exports of its products to be faster than by ship and significantly cheaper than by plane. After decades of neglecting, Slovenia has been also investing a lot of own and European funds in the railway network modernisation and the purchase of modern train compositions and locomotives.<\/p>\n

Although railways will never again be the \u201clocomotive of modernisation\u201d, their modernisation and integration with other transport modes into modern inter- and intramodal transport networks is one of the key areas of environmental modernisation. Therefore, the time is right to remember railway beginnings and heroic pioneering achievements, which includes at both European and global levels the construction of the railway line that connected Vienna and Trieste, the first \u201cmountain line\u201d in the Continental Europe. It included the largest, most attractive, and the most beautiful facility, the Borovnica Viaduct.<\/p>\n

In the following chapters you can learn more about its planning, construction, operation, maintenance problems, impact on the municipal development, and its sad collapse and the construction of the line that replaced it. But before that, we will briefly and in a popular manner present the construction of the Southern Railway in the context of a general political and economic development of the Austrian Empire or the later Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. We will learn about political and financial challenges of the railway network construction at that time, in the territory with a majority of Slovenian population. We will also try to briefly present and explain why the railway network construction in our territory failed to meet most of the expectations, and what we are actually saying when talking about the Southern Railway.<\/p>\n

WHAT WE ARE SAYING WHEN TALKING ABOUT THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

In technical terms, the Southern Railway is the line built by the Austrian Empire<\/strong> or respectively, by the Imperial-Royal Southern State Railway Company<\/strong> (Kaiser-k\u00f6niglicher S\u00fcdliche Staatsbahn \u2013 SSsB<\/em>, in short: Southern State Railway) between Gloggnitz below Semmering and Trieste, between\u00a01842 and\u00a01857<\/strong>. Construction of the line began in M\u00fcrzzuglsag, on the south side of Semmering. In\u00a01844, it reached Graz, two years later Celje, and in\u00a01849 Ljubljana, from where it headed further to Trieste through Brezovica, Notranje Gorice, Preserje, Borovnica, Verd, Logatec, Rakek, Postojna, Pivka, Se\u017eana, Op\u010dine, and Nabre\u017eine.<\/p>\n

In 1843, the Southern State Railways<\/em> took over the section between Vienna and Gloggnitz completed in 1842<\/strong> (by the private company Wien \u2013 Raaber Bahn<\/strong><\/em>). Between\u00a01848 and\u00a01854, a 42\u00a0km long section was built across the Semmering Mountains<\/strong> between Gloggnitz (459\u00a0m above sea level) and M\u00fcrzzuslag (271\u00a0m above sea level). These places are only 21\u00a0km away from each other, but the line ascends and descends as a serpentine, run through numerous tunnels and across high bridges and viaducts. It reaches its highest point at 898\u00a0m above sea level. This is why the line is considered to be the first normal-track mountain line in Europe<\/strong>. The line section across Semmering is recorded in the UNESCO World Heritage List<\/strong><\/em>.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

When considering that, we should not overlook the fact that the construction of the so-called Karst Line<\/strong>, i.e. the Southern Railway section between Ljubljana and Trieste<\/strong><\/em>, was also as demanding or even more demanding construction undertaking as the construction of the line across Semmering, due to the very demanding embankment across the Ljubljana Moors between Notranje Gorice and the foothills of \u017dalostna gora, the bridging between Gori\u010dica and Verd (of which the mighty Borovnica Viaduct was part), the slopes between Borovnica and Postojna and from Trieste to Diva\u010da, the construction of water supply systems to provide water supply in the Karst terrain poor in surface water, and the protection of trains against the Karst bora (which required the construction of tens of kilometres of stone-made protective walls). If we knew how to appreciate this heritage (to the extent it can be restored and properly presented), the Karst Line could have also become an official part of the world’s cultural heritage. Unfortunately, our attitude towards it is neglectful.<\/p>\n

The original length<\/strong> of the Southern Railway route was 577.2\u00a0km<\/strong>. Today, the line still runs entirely along the original route. An exception is the line built in the municipality of Borovnica, which replaced the Borovnica Viaduct destroyed during World War\u00a0II. Therefore, the current line is more than 5\u00a0km longer, of which 3.2\u00a0km due to the new line between Preserje and the Old Borovnica Station, and the remaining part due to the construction of the station and relocation of tracks in Op\u010dine, including some minor changes on the route from Op\u010dine to Trieste.<\/p>\n

In terms of its ownership and administration, the Southern Railway may be a synonym for:<\/p>\n

The state owned<\/em> Imperial-Royal Southern State Railway<\/strong> <\/em>(Kaiser-k\u00f6nigliche S\u00fcdliche Staatsbahn \u2013 SSsB<\/em>) Company, which had built most of the line between\u00a01842 and\u00a01857<\/strong><\/em>, and owned and operated it between\u00a01842 and\u00a01858<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The private company<\/em> called Imperial-Royal Privileged Company of the Southern State, Lombardo-Venetian and Central Italian Railways<\/em><\/strong> (Kaiser-k\u00f6niglicher priviligirter S\u00fcdliche Staats \u2013 Lombardisch-Venezianische und Central-Italienische Eisenbahngeselschaft<\/em>), founded in\u00a01859 as an international public limited company, with its registered office in Vienna, and a majority interest owned by shareholders from France. In order to connect the Southern Railway with the Company’s railway network in Italy, the Company built the Nabre\u017eina\u2013Tr\u017ei\u010d (Monfalcone)\u2013Gorica\u2013Krmin\u2013Videm (Udine)\u2013Casara line in\u00a01860<\/em>. A year later, the Company completed the Nagykanisza\u2013Kotoriba\u2013\u010cakovec\u2013Ormo\u017e\u2013Ptuj\u2013Pragersko line<\/em>, and thus connected Budapest with Trieste. The Company also undertook to complete the construction of already started and the construction of the missing railway lines between Milan and the Papal State<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The private\u00a0 ltd. company<\/em> called Imperial-Royal Privileged Southern Railway<\/em><\/strong> (Kaiser-k\u00f6niglicher priviligirte S\u00fcdbahn Gesellschaft<\/em>, for which we use the shorter name of Southern Railway Company)<\/em> as it was the name of one of the two independent company parts above that had taken over operations of the Austrian part of the Company’s network<\/strong> and the ownership function in 1862, after Austria lost Lombardy<\/strong><\/em>. After Austria lost Venice in 1866<\/strong><\/em>; however, the state was also forced to sell its lines in Veneto<\/strong>. In 18<\/em>62<\/em><\/strong>, the Company took over and completed the construction of the Zidani Most\u2013Zagreb<\/em> lin<\/em>e<\/em><\/strong> and took over the Zagreb\u2013Sisak<\/em> line<\/em><\/strong>. It also took over and completed the Maribor\u2013Klagenfurt line<\/strong><\/em>, and established a large company in Maribor<\/strong> to maintain its rolling stock, lines, and equipment. With the construction of the lines between Villach and Innsbruck<\/strong> <\/em>and from there to Bolzano<\/strong><\/em>, the Company also had a completed railway network with South Tyrol. With the construction of the Sv. Peter na Krasu (Pivka)\u2013Rijeka line<\/strong><\/em>, the railway had reached the port of Rijeka <\/strong>(Fiume) on 25 June 1873<\/strong>, namely four months before the Hungarian State Railways<\/em> managed to reach this important port by their Karlovac\u2013Rijeka line<\/em>. The company built fashionable hotel facilities<\/strong> in Semmering<\/em><\/strong> and Tyrol<\/strong><\/em>, and transformed the fishing village of Opatija<\/strong><\/em> into a world-famous fashionable seaside resort<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After the First World War, by the Treaty of Rome<\/strong>, and with significant difficulties, the Company’s rolling stock and obligations were divided among the countries that succeeded Austria-Hungary and its territory or parts thereof, where the Company had its railway network and rolling stock: Republic of Austria, Hungary, Kingdom of Italy, and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (SHS). In\u00a01923, the Company in Austria was transformed into the Danube-Sava-Adriatic Railway Company<\/strong><\/em> (Donau-Save-Adria Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft \u2013 DOSAG<\/em>), which was taken over in Austria by Austrian State Railways<\/em>. It existed as a legal entity until the concession expired in\u00a01968, and was deleted from the Austrian business register only at the end of December\u00a01982. In Hungary, the Company existed as Duna\u2013Sz\u00e1va\u2013Adria\u2013Vas\u00fatt\u00e1rsas\u00e1g<\/em> until 30\u00a0June\u00a01932, and was then merged with the Hungarian State Railways<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The agreement, dictated by the Kingdom of Italy, was very unfavourable for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes regarding the payment of annuities; consequently, requests for its revision were more and more frequent. However, there was no revision, as World War\u00a0II had broken out earlier. After the collapse, Nazi Germany imposed a new agreement on the Company, the parties to which also included the puppet Independent State of Croatia, and fascist Italy and Hungary.<\/p>\n

The so-called Brioni Agreemen<\/strong>t was annulled after the war at the request of France under the peace agreement with the defeated Germany. The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia was supposed to pay additionally 40\u00a0million US\u00a0dollars to the Company for unpaid instalments for its railway network in the Yugoslav territory (in addition to the \u0160entilj\u2013Se\u017eana line, also the Sisak\u2013Zidani Most, Kotoriba\u2013\u010cakovec\u2013Pragersko and Pivka\u2013Rijeka lines). Yugoslavia, however, opposed the payment, arguing that the amount was too high considering the destruction of lines during the war, and that an exact amount could not be determined. In\u00a01962, Yugoslavia agreed with shareholders on a lump sum compensation, the last instalment of which was paid in\u00a01967. Therefore, a year before the 90-year concession granted by Austria-Hungary ended<\/strong><\/em>, the rights of the successor to the Imperial-Royal Privileged Southern Railway Company<\/em> in Yugoslavia expired<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> When the tunnel under Semmering is completed, as expected, in\u00a02025, all freight and most of passenger traffic in this section will run on the new line.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1680099659236{margin-top: 50px !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]LONG 19th<\/sup> CENTURY \u2013 THE CENTURY OF RAILWAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n

In historiography, the phrase \u201clong 19th<\/sup> century\u201c<\/strong> describes the period of time between respectively the end of the Napoleonic Wars<\/strong><\/em> or the Congress of Vienna that followed, and the end of World War\u00a0I<\/strong><\/em>. Therefore, the time between\u00a01814 respectively\u00a01815 and\u00a01918. The railway era began in the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century approximately one decade and a half after the great powers at the said Congress set up the foundations for territorial division, and security and political architecture in Europe. Despite some wars and major changes, such as the unification of Germany and Italy, this architecture maintained political stability and predictability until the outbreak of war following the assassination of Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. As already mentioned, railways played a leading role in land transport until the end of the first decade after World War\u00a0II, i.e. until the mid-1950s. In terms of transport, however, we can say without hesitation that the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century was the century of remarkable expansion and technological development of railways<\/strong>, including the construction of lines, design and construction of locomotives, railway stations, warehouses, signalling devices, and everything else that belongs to the railway system. Large railway stations built in second half of the era are not called \u201c19th<\/sup>\u00a0century cathedrals\u201d in vain. Contribution of railways to popular music is somewhat less known; however, they contributed not only to the occurrence and expansion of brass bands, but also to the spread of accordions as folk instruments that fostered the emergence of popular (folk) music.<\/p>\n

On 27\u00a0September\u00a01825<\/strong><\/em>, in Stockton, England<\/strong>, a small \u201cLocomotive\u201d<\/strong><\/em> (this was the name of a simple steam locomotive made according to the George Stephenson\u2019s<\/em> designs), surrounded by a double line of gapers, and in the atmosphere of expected fiasco, pulled off in panting, and much to a general surprise, it pulled the train composition with 450\u00a0passengers and some cargo<\/strong><\/em> in total weigh of approximately 70\u00a0tonnes. In slightly over an hour, it transported them to Darlington<\/strong>, 12.7\u00a0km away. That was the beginning of a new era<\/strong>; of course, looking from today\u2019s perspective. It was the era of railways, mass production and laying railway tracks, construction of locomotives and wagons, and rapid expansion of coal mines, mines, and smelters of iron and other metals. First in England and Britain, then in France, Belgium, Germany, Russia, and also in the Austrian Empire, part of which were then the countries where our ancestors used to live.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe railway as a revolutionary discovery changed the people\u2019s mind; it awoke from the Biedermeier’s introspection; \u2018vertical\u2019 thoughtfulness shifted to \u2018horizontal\u2019 expansion of thinking; the railway network has proved to be a realisation of a network intertwining and connectivity; it was only the railway industry that revived the industrialisation and set it in motion\u201d.[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What is the construction of Internet networks today, it was the construction of railway networks more than a century and a half ago. Most people guessed that it was bringing significant change and had great potential to improve their lives, although at first, only few imagined how radical and painful these changes would be for many. And no one had even guessed that a massive use of coal, both required and made possible by railways, will be an introduction to the drama of human-induced climate change that we are witnessing now. Already first locomotives (slow and incapable if measured by today\u2019s standards) were able to transport several tens of times more cargo almost ten times faster than horse-drawn carriages. Hence, it was quickly clear to all craftsmen, entrepreneurs, merchants, city and provincial authorities that without railways they would become non-competitive and doomed to live in the middle of nowhere, as it was once said.<\/p>\n

Just as they are striving for the fastest possible Internet network today, villages, squares, towns and countries were once frantically striving to have at least side, sometimes even narrow-gauge lines built to their locations. Even more, of course, was preferred a main railway network, which would have connected the largest cities as soon as possible, primarily industrial centres with riverports and especially seaports. In this movement for railways, new networks of interest emerged, where a common interest in railways prevailed over class, ethical, religious, and other differences. Alliances<\/strong> were formed between the aristocracy, experts, high officials, and bankers both in the Empire and beyond<\/em><\/strong>, where the latter led to the establishment of large supranational corporations<\/strong>, which, as we will see, formed an empire stronger than the Empire itself, based on the construction and operation of railways.<\/p>\n

It turned out quickly that the need to build railways exceeded the capacity<\/em> of even the richest state treasuries and large individual banks<\/strong>. In order to keep up with the requirements to build railways, at least to some extent, it was necessary to raise funds through public limited companies<\/strong> from almost everyone who had some wealth. Although many of such companies were originally established to fund the construction of railways, their basic purpose, however, soon turned into investing in the most profitable businesses<\/em> and creating speculative financial transactions<\/em><\/strong>, promising fabulous profits for certain businesses. But too excessive expectations had broken all too often. Consequently, in Austria-Hungary in\u00a01873<\/strong><\/em>, they caused not only the collapse of a single public limited company, but the crash of the stock market<\/strong>, from which the whole economy had not recovered for a long time. Many had to go abroad to find a job. Expansion of railways therefore coincided with the birth of financial capitalism, the consequences of which from the most recent crisis are still being felt today.<\/p>\n

In less than a century, railroads crossed all continents, and in the decade after World War\u00a0II, they still carried most of cargo and passengers. In order to turn a technical invention of steam traction of rolling stock into a massively desirable innovation, it was necessary not only to make strong propaganda, but also to have a growing general belief that the development of science and technology would create a paradise on earth and be a major innovation in infrastructure financing.<\/p>\n

Rulers had long been aware of the importance of good roads for the development of trade and economy in general, and for the fastest possible movement of armies. Therefore, a large part of tax inflows into the state treasury was earmarked for the construction of roads, while their maintenance was left to local feudal landlords. Feudal landlords forced their villeins to carry out this work, and they performed part of their work duties to landlords by repairing roads after each major rain using simple picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. If or because there was never enough money in the state treasury, rulers borrowed it from the largest merchants and bankers.<\/p>\n

In the Austrian Empire<\/em><\/strong>, the development of railway infrastructure was initially financed by the state treasury<\/strong>. But the need for railways, however, quickly exceeded capacities of the treasury and the banks of that time<\/strong> also in Habsburg Monarchy. To fund such an epoch-making undertake as was the idea to cover the entire Empire by a network of railways (for which the first systematic plan was prepared as early as in 1828 by Franz Xavier Riepl, professor at Vienna’s Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institution, with a generous help of banker Salomon Mayer von Rotschild), it was necessary to attract savings of wider social strata of the population. Over a quarter of a century later, this method proved to be the right one.<\/p>\n

Interest-bearing bank deposits were not sufficiently attractive for this idea. Namely, bank funding was a necessary, but not sufficient condition for rapid development of railway infrastructure. Public limited companies promised investors to increase their money faster and better if they invested in \u201cbitcoins\u201d of the time. Therefore, it was better to invest in \u201csteam horses\u201d or railways than in deposits in banks. Without public limited companies, such a rapid and impetuous construction of railway infrastructure would not be possible.<\/p>\n

Max Weber<\/em><\/strong>, one of the classics of sociological thought, wrote of the railways and said that railways were \u201cthe most revolutionary means that marked history not only in terms of transport, but the economy as a whole. Railways paved the way for industrialisation; they were the \u2018engine\u2019 of extensive social change (an opposite force to the feudal, pre-industrial social, authority, and economic system)\u201d.[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The condition<\/strong>, however, that part of well-off people invested (sometimes not only their only savings, but also borrowed money) in seemingly low-risk railway businesses were the imaginations of travel and related business and personal opportunities that were believed to lead to a better life<\/strong>. Only when popular speech and images spread through the mass press, the emergence and spread of contemporary popular music of various genres created a representation, based on which investing personal savings (own or of others) in public limited railway companies seemed to be preferably self-evident. The representation, in which space is either just a cost in time or the subject of contemplative aesthetic pleasure of seeing the greatness of Nature, and no longer basically unsurpassed physical reality, is one of the immanent conditions of modern society.<\/p>\n

The railway would not succeed without participation in a complete transformation of images<\/em> of what a good life is supposed to be<\/strong>, what it is supposed to look like, and how it is supposed to be reached. This is why the locomotive became a metaphor for modern progress in developed countries, and for a revolution in those that lagged behind. Even today, politicians use somewhat outdated \u201crailway allegories\u201d, such as the one about the \u201cFrench-German train\u201d, which we have to jump on if we want to be (become) part of the \u201ccore Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, these new imaginations about that it is possible to travel anywhere and succeed everywhere with the help of railways, if only you are diligent, persistent, and have a touch of creative spirit, and that family ties, patronage of local magnates or the Church are comparable less important, struggled at political level with the notions that the only legitimate source of power was God, that the Emperor rules by the grace of God, that high representatives of authorities and government officials can only come from the nobility, and that peasants are still obliged to do soccage for their landlords. The spirit of people\u2019s capitalism<\/em><\/strong> that started blowing simultaneously with the railway network expansion based on a private initiative and actually enabled this expansion, was in sharp contrast to the political culture of obedience<\/em><\/strong>, where the main guide was to serve faithfully and diligently and keep the mouth shut. It was also in contrast with the spirit of the Constitution of\u00a01811, which had basically already recognised that all people were equal before the law.<\/p>\n

The ubiquitous denunciative state created with ingenious patience by Prince Metternich<\/strong><\/em> (a man who, better than the \u201cenlightened\u201d Emperor, knew all about everyone who was anyone in the country, and much about everyone who aspired to become anyone) was by its spirit in irreconcilable contrast to the Austrian Empire as an emerging railway empire. That state was the state governed by the rule of law in terms of equality before the law, and since Empress Maria Theresa, it had increasingly becoming the state of public servants faithful to the ruler, and the Emperor no longer considered himself the incarnation of God on earth but the first servant of the Empire. But the state defended the privileges gained by birth and\/or inherited wealth<\/strong>, and kept a majority of the population in shackles of villeinage. Those who were willing to invest in the lucrative yet risky business of building railways<\/strong>, however, wanted and legitimately demanded to be ruled<\/strong> <\/em>not only by the grace of God and the interests and whims of the high nobility, but at least within a constitutional monarchy<\/strong>, if not a republic<\/strong>. In such an arrangement, people or the part of the male population that was not dependent on anyone and paid sufficiently high taxes, were supposed to have the first and the last word through their representatives elected by free elections.<\/p>\n

But when the construction of railways started expanding in the Continent in the early 1930s, even the most conservative magnates clearly understood soon that without railways, the Empire was doomed to collapse. If for no other reason, it was due to the threat that the mighty Prussia (with its ambitions to become the leading state in the German-speaking area) and France (as a Habsburg rival for centuries) would be able to develop faster with the help of railways. Later, however, a fear occurred that both countries would move their troops from the hinterland to the border much faster. If an infantry regiment was able to cover a distance of 50\u00a0km a day during a several-day march at best, with the help of a train, it could have moved by 300\u00a0km and more in the same time already in the early era of railways.<\/p>\n

TOPOGRAPHIC & GEOGRAPHICAL AND POLITICAL CHALLENGES OF RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION IN THE HABSBURG MONARCHY<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Austrian Empire needed railways for its economic development at least as much as for its military power. With a faster development and growing significance of trade, crafts, and industry, a generally inappropriate topography of its territory became even more obvious<\/em><\/strong>. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, its territory expanded to northern Italy and Dalmatia, with a growing importance of its north-south transport connections and vice versa, where its territory was intersected by high Alpine and Dinaric mountain chains. Before the railway era, traffic mainly ran on rivers, and most of rivers suitable for navigation were located in the east-west direction of the Empire. The main mining and industrial centres were located north of the Alps<\/em><\/strong>, in the areas of today\u2019s Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Lower Austria, and the most important ports, Trieste and Venice<\/strong>, were south of the Alps<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

At the time when it was believed<\/strong>, even in professional circles, that normal railway lines<\/strong> could not be built across the hills<\/strong><\/em>, the mountainous topography of the terrain posed a technical, financial and political challenge to the Austrian Empire or its \u201cAustrian part\u201d. First, with the construction of the line between the capital Vienna and the largest port of Trieste, which are separated by several Alpine ridges was a huge technical challenge<\/strong>, because the locomotives of that time were not able to pull cargo even on gentle slopes<\/em><\/strong>, where they would have ascended by a few meters per one\u00a0km. Financial challenge<\/strong>, because it was necessary to build much longer lines with many tunnels, viaducts, and bridges<\/strong><\/em> accros the hills. And finally, a political challenge<\/strong>, because any line between Vienna and Trieste that did not cross the mountains would have to run at least in the immediate vicinity of Hungary, if not directly through its territory, while relations between the Hungarian and Austrian parts of the then still unified Empire were very tense<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It should be remembered that in March\u00a01848<\/strong>, not only a revolutionary upheaval occurred in Vienna<\/strong><\/em> and other, especially occupied Italian cities<\/em><\/strong>, where rebels demanded the abolition of censorship, extension of voting rights, introduction of a constitutional monarchy, and resignation of the hated Prince Metternich. Namely, in Lombardy, Venice, and Hungar<\/strong>y, a national uprising against Habsburg supremacy<\/strong> <\/em>and demands for independence<\/strong><\/em> also occurred that year. In Hungary, it resulted from the gesture made by the newly crowned eighteen-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph<\/em><\/strong> who, with no legal basis, abolished the recognition of the package of laws by which Hungary in March established its guard and state budget and abolished the villeinage. These freedoms had been acknowledged to Hungarian citizens by the Emperor\u2019s abdicated predecessor, the benevolent but weak-minded Emperor Ferdinand\u00a0I of Habsburg-Lorraine<\/strong><\/em>, otherwise the Emperor\u2019s uncle.<\/p>\n

This was the reason why in Hungary, under the leadership of Lajos Kossuth<\/strong><\/em>, a general national-democratic uprising broke out<\/strong> in June of the same year, which introduced a representative parliamentary form of government. The uprising was suppressed as late as in\u00a01849, with the help of 200,000 regular and 80,000\u00a0auxiliary soldiers of the Russian Emperor Nicholas\u00a0I. In political terms, the situation stabilised as late as in\u00a01867, with the Treaty on the basis of which the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was established<\/em><\/strong>. In this Treaty, Hungary strived<\/strong> for the maximum economic independence and the development of its own railway system<\/strong>, as little connected with the Austrian system as possible, which had negative consequences for the development of the railways in our country. But this will be discussed later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GEOGRAPHICAL\u00a0&\u00a0GEOLOGICAL, TECHNOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS OF ROUTING AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY AND THE BOROVNICA VIADUCT<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the enthronement of Franz Joseph<\/strong> as Emperor, the Austrian Empire urgently needed a railway connection between the capital and the main port<\/strong>, which, however, could not run through the Hungarian territory or its immediate vicinity<\/strong><\/em>. The young Emperor decided on a bold move. Regardless of the professional circles arguing that a normal railway line could not be built across the Semmering Mountains, and these could only be crossed by cog railway or cable cars, the Emperor supported the plan<\/strong> that had been prepared already in\u00a01844 by engineer Carlo von Ghega<\/strong> who designed the line <\/strong>boldly and elegantly across the Semmering mountains<\/strong><\/em>. Ghega who was 46 years old at that time, already had extensive experience in both mountain road and railway construction and was considered one of the leading experts of the Empire in this field. He knew that in the United States, a line had been built between Chicago and Baltimore across smaller hills. During the construction of the line across Semmering, Ghega and his team of mechanical engineers travelled to the United States to study the then state-of-the art locomotives, and brought three different types of dismantled locomotives on their return.<\/p>\n

In\u00a01854<\/strong><\/em>, based on a thorough study of uphill traction properties of those locomotives, engineer Wilhelm von Engerth<\/strong> built a locomotive that was able to tow over Semmering<\/strong><\/em> and almost twice exceeded the required tow speed, thus refuting the Imperial-Royal Chamber of Engineers. He integrated the tender or coal storage into the locomotive, thereby slightly reducing the total weight of the locomotive and tender. With this extra weight, he provided additional pressure on the wheels, thereby increasing their grip. Such a locomotive with a built-in tender was also shorter, which made it easier to manoeuvre along winding lines that had to be built on long ascents and descents through the mountains.<\/p>\n

When deciding to build a normal line across Semmering, the<\/strong><\/em> Emperor<\/strong> could count on the support of<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 his\u00a0 grand uncle, Archduke John<\/strong>, who ruled Styria and was well aware of the economic and general importance of the railway. He was also largely responsible for the course of the Southern Railway route from Graz in the direction of Celje<\/em><\/strong>, i.e. through Lower Styria and not through Carinthia.<\/p>\n

The construction of the line across Semmering<\/strong> was also politically important, as it enabled jobs for a large number of unemployed workers from Vienna<\/strong> <\/em>and its surroundings. At the beginning, they were able to reach the construction site by train travelling along the already built line from Vienna to Gloggnitz, which is located at the very foot of Semmering. To strengthen his personal power and prestige, the young Emperor, of course, could make use of the great construction undertaking (construction of the world’s first mountain line).<\/p>\n

Giving this railway the name of \u201csouthern\u201d was quite logical considering the fact that it was supposed to connect the symbolic, political, administrative, and to a large extent, also financial centre of the Monarchy with its largest port in the south. Given that it had not yet been proven that locomotives with sufficient capacity could tow trains through the hilly sections<\/strong><\/em> of the line, and considering generally high constructing costs<\/strong><\/em> of the line in such a demanding route, it was logical that even the largest private company with the greatest privileges would not be willing to take all the risks and build the line. Therefore, it was built by the state<\/strong>, with a significant intervention in the state treasury and large loans taken from the then largest European banks. During planning the line, heated discussions took place about its course through the Slovenian provinces, and especially the route from Ljubljana to Trieste.<\/p>\n

If the railway was supposed to run as close as possible to ironworks, blast furnaces, and other industries in Gorenjska, the most developed part of the Slovenian territory at that time, then the route would have run from Ljubljana through \u0160kofja Loka and Poljanska dolina, to the Idrijca Valley (and in the vicinity of the then economically very important mercury mine in Idrija) and further, at Sv. Lucija or today’s Most na So\u010di, along the So\u010da Valley in the direction of Trieste. Nevertheless, according to calculations, the route across Karst would not be only about 50\u00a0km shorter<\/em>, but also over 9.5\u00a0million florins cheaper<\/em><\/strong>. During the construction, however, it turned out that the assumptions<\/strong> of building the line through the poorly examined Ljubljana Moors and the Karst World were too optimistic<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

When detailing the Karst Line route<\/strong>, they had not opted for a shorter and less demanding construction from Ljubljana along the northern margins of the Ljubljana Moors to Vrhnika and further to Logatec, but for the route that crossed the Ljubljana Moors<\/strong><\/em>, only partially reclaimed at that time, from Brezovica through Notranje Gorice to the foot of \u017dalostna gora or Preserje, and then ran along the slopes of the Rakitnica plateau to Borovnica<\/strong><\/em>. Here the line crossed the valley across the mighty Borovnica Viaduc<\/strong><\/em>t, and further across the Jelenova dolina Viaduct or Dolina bridge, which is still used for railway traffic at present, and ascended further towards Verd and Logatec.<\/strong><\/em> It remained unclear until today why they had chosen this variant of the route between Ljubljana and Logatec<\/strong>. Protests of freight carriers and carters of Vrhnika who knew that the railway would make them jobless, could hardly be considered an explanation, as such protests took place elsewhere, but did not prevent the railway construction. Did Ghega, the self-confident master line planner, as a Venetian believed that swampy terrain could not pose any major problems to the construction? Did he find an opportunity to erect a monument for himself and the Emperor by bridging the Borovnica Valley with a mighty viaduct? Did even banking circles drop a hint that a seemingly cheaper, but in fact more expensive option should be chosen, because it would require even larger amounts of high interest-bringing money to be borrowed?<\/p>\n

It turned out that the construction from Logatec onwards was also much more expensive than planned. To supply locomotives in the Karst terrain, it was necessary to build a long and expensive water supply system, and to fill in and harden numerous sinkholes. From Postojna onwards, and especially between Pivka and Nabre\u017eina, it was necessary to provide protection against bora and snowdrifts made by bora in winter, in addition to adequate water supply. However, the line ran through the forests owned by the powerful and politically influential Baron Windishgr\u00e4tz. Yet another fact that trigger speculations about the dominance of political over professional decision-making on the route?<\/p>\n

The line was officially opened<\/strong> with a great celebration at the Trieste railway station, in the presence of the Emperor, whose train had stopped at all major stations between Vienna and Trieste on\u00a026 and 27\u00a0July\u00a01857<\/strong><\/em>, with all the ceremonial tumult. Including in Borovnica due to its mighty Viaduct. Only one track had been in place, and not all the work had been completed. The final invoic<\/strong>e, however, instead of the originally planned 16,828,413\u00a0florins, amounted to as much as 129.6\u00a0million florin<\/strong><\/em>s, or 8\u00a0times more<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Herman Glaser, 1994, p.\u00a08, quoted according to Janez Cvirn\/Andrej Studen; 2001, p.\u00a04<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Quoted according to Cvirn,\u00a0J.; 2001, p. 4[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]PERIOD OF PRIVATE RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION AND SELLING OFF STATE LINES<\/strong><\/p>\n

It turned out already during the Southern Railway construction that the state simply was not be able to construct all the necessary lines in a foreseeable future<\/em><\/strong>. If the state were building the planned railway network at the same pace as the railways until\u00a01854, it would have taken four decades to complete it.<\/p>\n

On 14\u00a0September\u00a01854<\/strong> <\/em>(i.e. still during the construction of the Karst Line), by passing the law on granting concessions for railway constructions<\/strong>, the state made a turn, and under its own conditions, entrusted the construction of railway lines to private capital<\/em><\/strong>. By obtaining a concession, the concessionaire acquired an exclusive right to build between the line starting and ending points, to all connections to the line, except in the event of connecting strategically military or economically important places. According to the provisions of the law, such a concession was in effect for 90\u00a0years, and afterwards, the concessionaire was supposed to transfer the line to the state free of charge, where the line had to be in the condition to operate. In order to facilitate and accelerate establishment of companies capable of building longer lines, concess<\/strong><\/em>ionaires were allowed to issue railway shares and bonds<\/strong>upon prior approval of the Ministry of Finance.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thereby, the state<\/strong> \u2013 after being the only railway builder \u2013 completely withdrew from the construction of railways<\/strong><\/em>, and reserved only the rights to guide the traffic and railway policy in general terms<\/em><\/strong>, to withdraw concessions in case of exceeded deadlines or non-compliance with the conditions on which they were granted, and to approve transport tariffs. The state also published its general railway network construction plan comprising 32\u00a0lines throughout the country. These included the following routes partly or entirely running through the today’s Slovenian territory: Velika Kani\u017ea\u2013\u010cakovec\u2013Ormo\u017e\u2013Ptuj\u2013Maribor; Maribor\u2013Klagenfurt (and further through Villach to Udine in Friuli), and \u0160t. Peter na Krasu (Pivka)\u2013Rijeka.<\/p>\n

Public liability railway companies<\/strong> were being established and prepared so quickly that concessions for all the 32\u00a0lines were granted already within two years after the law was published<\/strong><\/em>. The liberalisation of railways pulled off, like a locomotive, a general liberalisation of the economy<\/strong> (but not politics in terms of universal voting rights for adult citizens, and the decisive role of parliament in drafting legislation), which l<\/strong>asted until the Vienna Stock Exchange crash in\u00a01873<\/strong><\/em>. This period is known as the period of “Austrian liberalism”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The state went even further<\/strong> than building new lines exclusively with private capital, whereby granting credit guarantees for the lines that were considered most interesting for the state. Namely, it also began selling off its own already completed lines very quickly<\/strong><\/em>. In\u00a01854, the length of the state-owned lines was 994\u00a0km or just under two-thirds of the entire railway network of the Austrian Empire. Only four years later, the network length was already 2,401\u00a0km, and only 13\u00a0km of them were state-owned.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons for the sale of state lines were growing needs for military funding<\/strong><\/em> due to military conflicts with the Kingdom of Sardinia<\/strong> for supremacy in northern Italy, on the one hand, and conflicts with Prussia<\/strong> for supremacy in German area, and growing appetites for Bosnia and Herzegovina,<\/strong> on the other hand.<\/p>\n

By selling the main state lines, the state wanted to agree with representatives of large financial companies<\/strong> to commit<\/strong><\/em>, in exchange for favourable purchases or long-term lease of profitable lines, to build new strategically important (but less profitable) lines, thereby help establishing a comprehensive railway network<\/strong><\/em>. However, for influential industrialists and financiers <\/strong>originating from senior aristocracy or having good connections with the state, this was an excuse to enter into very favourable deals with the state<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The sale<\/strong> of the Northern and Southern-Eastern Railways was followed, already during the Karst Line construction, by the sale of the northern Lombardy and Veneto lines (with the exception of the military and strategically important line between South Tyrol and Verona) to an international financial consortium dominated by French banks<\/strong><\/em>. The consortium had to undertake to build the lines from Bergamo to Monza, from Milan to Piacenza and Pavia, and to Udine, Krmin and Nabre\u017eine (the connection to the Southern Railway). When building railways through Veneto towards Trieste, the Lombard-Venetian and Central Italian Railways Privileged Public Limited Company had to comply with the Emperor’s explicit wish to move the planned route from the seaside further inland, as he was concerned about its exposure to military attacks from the sea, and to provide a connection to the Austrian railway network also through Gorizia. The Company<\/strong> also arranged for the right to import necessary materials for the construction of new lines without paying customs duties<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

At the opening of the Southern Railway in the summer of\u00a01857, Vienna was connected with Trieste, which was not the case for Budapest (or Buda and Pest) and Zagreb or Carinthia. Tired of waiting for the state, politicians and industrialists of Klagenfurt took the initiative and started building a line along the Drava Valley towards Maribor, but they soon realised that the undertaking was too demanding in terms of funding. Due to the lack of funds, the General Railway Directorate had to terminate the construction of the line Zidani Most\u2013Zagreb in Brestanica. As a result of the growing anti-Austrian mood in northern Italy, the strategically increasingly important Tyrolean line remained uncompleted. The Oriental Railway Company <\/em>planned to build a railway line from Budapest through Ptuj, which would have connected to the Southern Railway somewhere between Pragersko and Polj\u010dane, but it had no funds to buy the Southern Railway<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CONDITIONS FOR THE BIRTH OF THE LARGEST RAILWAY GROUP IN THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ambitious Minister of Finance, Karel Ludwig von Bruck<\/strong>, who had assumed his position in\u00a01855, intended to combine all existing and planned new railway<\/strong><\/em> lines between the Danubian part of the Empire and the Adriatic Sea into a mighty central European railway group under a single concession<\/strong>, and merge it with the Lombard-Venetian<\/em> and Central Italian Railways Privileged Public Limited Company<\/em><\/strong>, which was already established, thereby establishing the largest railway company in Europe. To achieve this, he had to be a persistent and skilled negotiator, and provide all the involved with benefits that would make it difficult for them to reject his plan.<\/p>\n

More than one year after the official opening of the Southern Railway, following several rounds of secret and strenuous negotiations<\/strong>, on 23\u00a0September\u00a01858<\/em>, the Minister Bruck and the Minister of Trade, Knight of Toggenburg, signed four minutes with representatives of a powerful international financial group<\/strong><\/em>. The representatives of various branches of the Rotschild family<\/strong> that together form the instruments of incorporation of the Southern Railway Company had a great influence in that group. As a concessionaire, the Company had to take over the Carinthian Railway, pay back already paid-up funds to concessionaires of Croatian Railways, and to assume outstanding government obligations in the construction of railway lines, which were transferred to the Company’s concession. Already on 10\u00a0November of the same year, the Company acquired the Oriental Railways Company<\/em>, which had earlier asked the Ministry of Finance to change the concession conditions, but the Minister Bruck had not approved it, and thereby forced it to merge with the Southern Railway Company, in accordance with his plan. Only eight days later, also shareholders of the Lombardo-Venetian<\/em> and Central-Italian Railway Company<\/em> took a decision at their extraordinary general meeting to join the Southern Railway Company<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Following all these combinations, the network of the<\/em><\/strong> Imperial-Royal Privileged Company of the Southern State, Lombardo-Venetian and Central Italian Railways extended from Danube at Vienna and Buda to the Adriatic Sea, and to the border with Switzerland and Bavaria<\/em><\/strong>. At the time of its establishment, the Company operated 1,396\u00a0km of lines, 1,105\u00a0km of lines were already under the construction, and the plans were confirmed for additional 632\u00a0km of lines.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Minister Bruck managed to establish the largest railway company in the Continent<\/strong>; however, in exchange for significant benefits obtained by the Company<\/strong><\/em>, including:<\/p>\n