The first railway line in Slovenia and the most important transport route in the Habsburg Monarchy was the railway line Vienna-Trieste. Built between 1839 and 1857, it was managed by a private company called Južne železnice (South Railway Company, in German Südbahn-Gesellschaft). Due to high construction costs and uncertainty involved in financing, the government in Vienna decided the state would no longer build railways but would leave construction to private capital. The railway lines built were leased to private or public limited companies through concessions, usually for a period of 90 years, after which time they were to become state property. The line Vienna­-Triste was followed by the construction of Pragarsko-Čakovec-Kotoriba (1860), Zidani Most-Zagreb-Sisak (1862) and Maribor-Klagenfurt (1863) lines. The ambitious railway plan of the then Austrian Minister of Commerce, Admiral Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair, anticipated also the building of the line in Lower Carniola with Tarvisio-Ljubljana-Novo mesto-Karlovac link, which would be included in a transport corridor leading from Central Germany through the Austrian Empire to Istanbul in Turkey. The Upper Carniola line was completed by 1870. Following the efforts of then Chamber of Commerce, Crafts and Industry, the Lower Carniola Railway Line was also included in the construction plans in 1869. Its construction attracted the interest of the consortium of the Wilkens company, the consortium of the advocate Dr. Costa, and the consortium of Prince Auersperg, all of whom advocated different routes, corresponding to their business interests.

Construction plans for the Lower Carniola railway line suffered a heavy blow by the collapse of the Vienna stock exchange in 1873 and the severe economic crisis that followed it. Railway companies could no longer secure loans to finance their constructions, and the government in Vienna declared all concessions granted for constructions that had not started yet null and void. However, the construction of the lines Šempeter (Pivka)-Rijeka (1873), Karlovac-Rijeka (1873) and Divača-Pula (1876) continued, which caused the dissatisfaction of the entrepreneurs in Lower Carniola. In response, the Chamber of Commerce in Ljubljana and the Carniolan Provincial Diet increased their efforts to secure the continuation of the building of the Lower Carniola railway as well, and appealed not only to the government in Vienna, but also to the Emperor Franz Joseph himself. The Emperor first received the delegation consisting of the provincial governor, a group of Lower Carniola mayors, and their representatives on November 6, 1874. He again met with the delegation led by the then provincial delegate Fran Šuklje in 1883, during his stay in Ljubljana for the celebration of the 600^th anniversary of the Habsburg’s rule in Carniola. Despite the Emperor’s “consent”, their request was not approved by the ministries in Vienna due to limited financial resources.

In 1884, the Carniolan Provincial Diet allocated 5000 Gulden and the Provincial Bank in Ljubljana 3000 Gulden to initiate preparatory work and the laying out of the Lower Carniola railway line. After that, the committee for the construction of the Lower Carniola railway was set up. In addition to Grosuplje-Kočevje line, two other lines were suggested, one along the valley of the river Krka and the other along the valley of the river Temenica. The provincial diet finally decided on the latter, mostly due to the fact that its towns were more densely populated. Fran Šuklje managed to bring in an experienced diplomat and financier Jožef von Schwegel, to join the committee. Schwegel took over the leadership of the committee, arranging its financial construction according to which the financial guarantee burden was formally assumed by the Land of Carniola. He also enabled the funding using combined contracts with the state, province and the Trbovlje Coal Mining Company. The latter had since 1886 been the owner of the mine in Kočevje and was very interested in supplying its coal to railways. Baron Schwegel took up the initiative together with Princ Auersperg, ensuring that the interests of both Novo mesto and Kočevje were equally represented. In October 1890, a contract was signed between the General Direction of State Railways, Trbovlje Coal Mining Company, and the Auersperg consortium. In his memoire, Baron Schwegel wrote this about the Lower Carniola railway: “This railway may have a bright future ahead of it as one of the most direct connections to the Balkans, and I was very careful about this from the very beginning, in our concession negotiations and otherwise.”

The basis for the granting of the concession was the “Act of June 6, 1890 on the permits and conditions for the building of the Lower Carniola railways”. When all the conditions, especially the financial ones, were met, Prince Karel Auersperg and Baron Josip Schwegel applied for the granting of the concession for the building of the Lower Carniola railways. Concession signed by the Emperor Franz Joseph, Minister-President Count Eduard Taaffe, the Minister of Commerce Marquis Olivier de Bacquehem, and the Minister of Finance Emil Steinbach was thus issued in their names on December 16, 1891. Both holders of concession were obligated to build the railway line Ljubljana-Grosuplje-Trebnje-Novo mesto-Straža with the branch line Grosuplje-Kočevje no later than two and a half years after the issuing of the concession. The contract also stipulated that they need to maintain the railway line for the entire duration of the concession, i. e. for 90 years or until 1981 (§. 1, §. 3, and §. 11). They were also granted the right to exemption from duties on stamps and fees for all applications, contracts, documents and registrations, as well as the right to expropriate land in accordance with legal regulations (§. 2, and §. 4). The operation of the railway was taken over by the state (§. 9), and the Austro-Hungarian army secured the transportation of its military personnel and equipment at reduced tariff rates (§. 8)

The concession holders were granted the right to obtain the permission of the state administration and establish a public limited company, which would take over all the rights and obligations of the concession holders (§. 7, and §. 14). For this reason, a public limited company Dolenjske železnice (Lower Carniola Railways) was established at the founding assembly in Vienna on May 4, 1892, and, at Prince Auersperg’s suggestion, Baron Schwegel was elected as its president. The building of the line Ljubljana-Grosuplje-Novo mesto-Straža (84 km) and Grosuplje-Kočevje (49 km) cost 18,200,000 krone, for which Dolenjske železnice secured a loan of 14,000,000 krone (7,000,000 gulden). The work for the individual sections was granted to the following companies: Redlich and Berger, Anton Kis and Henrik Rabas, Emil Malberg, G. Cecconi, J. Gajšek and J. Radel, F. Hofmann and Fr. Ricoletti.

The building of the line Ljubljana-Grosuplje-Kočevje (70 km) started on May 22, 1892, while the building of the lines to Novo mesto and Straža began on September 29, 1892. Along this section, the railway line crossed 38 cadastral municipalities, 1133 landowners were required to sell their land, 97,000 railway sleepers were used, along with 250 m³ of bridge timber and 76,000 m³ of gravel. Also constructed along the line were four tunnels. A total of 4058 of unskilled workers, 575 skilled workers and 198 head of cattle were employed in the process. Despite the initial momentum, the work seemed to progress more slowly than expected, prompting the decision to also enlist the workforce of convicts from prisons and forced labour workshops. The first section completed was the branch line from Grosuplje to Kočevje. Its ceremonious opening was held on September 27, 1893, followed by the opening of the line to Novo mesto or Straža, which took place on May 31, 1894. The economic branches that the railway line benefited the most were the trade in agricultural produce, livestock, and especially the trade in timber and wooden products. Meanwhile, the old industries in the valley of the Krka River, such as Bamberg’s paper factory in Žužemberk and Auersperg’s foundry and mechanical workshop in Dvor ceased to operate.

Based on the concession document, the state administration reserved the right to buy out the Lower Carniola railway lines at any time during the duration of the concession (§. 12) On the basis of the contract signed in 1913, the concession period was shortened for 15 years, i. e. until 1966. After WW1, in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, there was some serious consideration about nationalizing the railway lines owned by public limited companies. By means of a purchase contract signed on January 23, 1936, the public limited company Dolenjske železnice sold all its railway lines to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for 43,000,000 dinars, placing them into the hands of the state 45 years after the issuing of the concession.

Igor Gardelin