c. 1875 , opened in 1857 • 1829: Austrian railway pioneer
Franz Xaver Riepl proposed a railway connection from Vienna to the
Adriatic Sea, bypassing the
Eastern Alps and running via
Bruck an der Leitha,
Magyaróvár and
Szombathely through the west edge of
Hungary, and then via
Maribor and Ljubljana to Trieste. His plans were adopted by entrepreneur
Georgios Sinas. At the same time plans for a direct connection through the Alps were developed and promoted by
Archduke John of Austria to open up the
Styrian lands beyond
Semmering Pass. • 1839: Departing from the original plans of a connection via Hungary, construction works started on the initial section which ran southwards between
Baden,
Lower Austria and
Wiener Neustadt. • 1841:
Carl Ritter von Ghega started to survey the terrain of the
Semmering Pass. • 5 May 1842: The line from
Wien Südbahnhof (Southern Station) was completed to
Gloggnitz at the northern foot of the Semmering Pass. • 21 October 1844: South of the Semmering Pass, the line from
Graz northward to
Mürzzuschlag (decided on by the Austrian government)) opened; its construction was led by von Ghega. • 2 June 1846: The southern continuation to
Celje was inaugurated. • 1849: The line was extended to
Ljubljana. • 1848 to 1854: The section over the
Semmering Pass was built. • 17 July 1854: The direct railway connection from Vienna to Ljubljana was inaugurated. • 1854 to 1857: The final section across the
Karst Plateau was built. • 12 July 1857: The first
through train from Vienna to
Trieste ran. • 23 May 1858: The railway was sold to the newly established
Austrian Southern Railway Company. • 1919: In the
Treaty of Saint-Germain after
World War I, Austria-Hungary was
dissolved. Austria lost all of the Southern Railway south of the station at
Spielfeld (Špilje), which became the new
border station to the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929, present-day Slovenia). • 1923: The
Austrian Federal Railways took over the
Austrian section. • 1966: The tracks from Vienna to Graz and
Slovenia were completely electrified. • 2007: Border controls were abolished with Slovenia's accession to the
Schengen Area.
Borovnica viaduct The 561 m long and 38 m high
Borovnica railway viaduct (also known as Franzdorfer viadukt in German) in
Borovnica, Slovenia, was completed in 1856. The viaduct was badly damaged during
World War II and demolished completely a few years after. ==Current==