Evoluția rețelei de căi ferate din Transilvania în perioada 1857–1914
The Evolution of the Railway Network of Transylvania between 1857 and 1914

Summary/Abstract: A comparison of the timing of the first railway lines in Transylvania, Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș with those in the western parts of the Habsburg Empire reveals a two-decade gap. The Vienna government was firm on one thing: it wanted to build a railway network covering the entire empire. With regard to the financing of the works, the official policy oscillated between public funds and private capital, depending on the state of the national budget. Construction began in 1835 and continued until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918. The first major surge in construction began in 1867 and lasted until the fall of the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1873. During this period, the main lines in Transylvania and its neighbouring regions were completed. After that, in the 1880s, construction work began on secondary lines as part of the local railway system. The 1880 and 1888 legislation facilitated the construction of these lines by providing subsidies and incentives, thereby reducing the construction cost per kilometre of railway. Most of the lines in Transylvania, Banat, Maramureș and Crișana were built under this system. As a result of these investments, by the eve of the First World War, 99% of the railway network in the regions beyond the Carpathians had been completed. The railway opened up the world to both the travelling public and the local economy by integrating them into the dualist state’s common market. Socio-economic transformations affected every corner of the region. Zonal fares were introduced for passenger travel, enabling long-distance travel in a shorter time than in previous eras. The concept of punctuality emerged, as did tourism, making it easier to sell certain local products, but also creating competition from goods brought in from the more industrialised regions of the empire. All of this transformed the urban and rural environments through accelerated urbanisation.

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