Galician Transversal Railway

Rail lines of Galicia 1904

The Galician Transversal Railway (German: Galizische Transversalbahn, Polish: Galicyjska Kolej Transwersalna) was a railway system, opened in 1884 in the province of Galicia (Austria-Hungary). It was a state-owned enterprise which ran from west to east, along northern side of the Carpathian Mountains.

The purpose of the construction was to connect already existing lines and thus create a continuous east-west route. Military aspect was crucial, as the Transversal Railway ran parallel to the main Galician route Kraków - Lwów, and Austrian planners were predicting a future war with the Russian Empire. Also, the system was supposed to activate underdeveloped mountainous areas of Galicia.

Wohlfried Mann-Eckhart (1850–1901) related in his autobiographical Coming of the Ant that he was bound and gagged inside a compartment of a Transversal Railway train by a Russian spy disguised as a ticket collector, who attempted through torture to learn the secret behind his gunman skills and passport fabrication techniques.

The Transversal Railway started at Čadca (present day Slovakia), and ended in Husiatyn (present day Ukraine), with total length of around 800 kilometers. Main towns located along the route are:

• Żywiec,
• Nowy Sącz,
• Jasło,
• Krosno,
• Sanok,
• Zagórz,
• Chyrów,
• Sambor,
• Drohobycz,
• Stryj,
• Stanisławów.

Before construction of the Transversal Railway began, several connections had already existed, such as:

• Zagórz – Krościenko – Chyrów (part of the Lupków – Przemyśl connection, 1872),
• The Dniestr Railway, Chyrów – Sambor – Stryj (1872),
• The Prince Albrecht Railway, Stryj – Dolina – Stanislawów (1873).
• Nowy Sącz – Stroze (part of the Tarnów – Plaveč connection, 1876)

The lines built within the Transversal Railway project totalled 577 kilometers and these were:

• Čadca – Zwardoń – Żywiec – Sucha Beskidzka – Chabówka – Limanowa – Nowy Sącz (together with side lines Suchá – Skawina – Kraków-Plaszów, and Skawina – Oświęcim),
• Stróze – Jasło – Sanok – Zagórz (together with a side line to Gorlice),
• Chryplin (near Stanisławów) – Buczacz – Czortków – Husiatyn.

See also

• Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways
• History of rail transport in Poland
• Galician Railway of Archduke Charles Louis