Northern Railway (Austria)

The Northern Railway (German Nordbahn, KFNB; Czech Severní dráha císaře Ferdinanda, SDCF) was the name of a former railway company during the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Its main line was supposed to connect Vienna with salt mines in Bochnia near Kraków. Today, the term is still used to describe certain railway lines which were formerly operated by that company.

The Nordbahn, or Kaiser-Ferdinands-Nordbahn, was Austria's first steam railway company and financed by Salomon Mayer von Rothschild (1774-1855). The first track was built between Floridsdorf and Deutsch Wagram in 1837. The extension to Vienna was built in 1838, and the track through Břeclav (Lundenburg) to Brno in 1839. In 1841 it reached Přerov and Olomouc and in 1842 Lipník nad Bečvou. Extension to Ostrava and Bohumín was finished in 1847. Nordbahn never directly reached Kraków or Bochnia. It was connected to Prussian rail network in Oświęcim instead. The company was nationalized in 1907. It also owned a lot of coal mines and other industry enterprises in Ostrava region. After the nationalization of its railway network, it continued its coal and industry businesses.

Vienna North Station was destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in 1962 along with the bridge across the Danube. Today, the express trains going from Vienna to Brno leave from Vienna Südbahnhof. North Station is only used for suburban and regional train lines.

Lines built by Nordbahn lying in today's Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland up to 1856

• Floridsdorf-Deutsch Wagram (1837). First steam powered rail in Austria
• Vienna (Wien Nordbahnhof)-Gänserndorf (1838)
• Gänserndorf- Břeclav (1839), the oldest steam powered railway on Czech territory
• Břeclav - Brno (1839)
• Břeclav - Hodonín - Staré Město u Uherského Hradiště - Přerov (1841)
• Přerov - Olomouc (1841)
• Přerov - Lipník nad Bečvou (1842)
• Lipník nad Bečvou - Hranice na Moravě - Ostrava - Bohumín (1847)
• Bohumín - Czech Republic/Poland border (1848)
• Ostrava - Opava (1855)
• Bohumín - Petrovice u Karviné - Oświęcim; Czechowice-Dziedice-Bielsko (1855)
• Oświęcim - Kraków (1856 ???)