With the march of time, however, the traffic over this railway increased, hand in hand with the expansion of Trieste, to such an extent that it proved inadequate. A more direct route between the capital and the port, as well as accelerated communication with the great centres of Europe, was demanded by the commercial community. This agitation became so insistent that at last the government was compelled to move, and the engineer of the Imperial Railways was commissioned to survey the country for the purpose of devising some scheme which would satisfy the public outcry.
THE MASSIVE STEEL BRIDGE WHICH CARRIES THE RAILWAY ACROSS THE DRAVE RIVER TO APPROACH THE TUNNEL THROUGH THE KARAWANKEN RANGE IN THE BACKGROUND.
THE NORTHERN ENTRANCE TO THE KARAWANKEN TUNNEL.
Five miles in length, through the Karawanken mountain chain.
This was no easy task. Innumerable knots of mountains break up the country between Vienna and the Adriatic, and they are compressed so tightly together that the narrow valleys between offered but slight assistance towards the solution of the problem. Then, again, those three well-known mountain ranges, the Tauern, Karawanken, and Julian Alps, stood right in the way, disputing any possibly shorter route than that already in existence.
The prospect before the surveyors was not very promising. However, they braved the elements among the inhospitable peaks, suffered extreme privations and fatigue as they toiled up and down the rugged, wild mountain slopes with their instruments, for month after month. At last they succeeded in formulating a project which was submitted to Parliament. In this it was proposed to make avail of any favourable stretches of existing railways which intersected the valleys in all directions, and to connect them together, so that in the end a tolerably direct route might be obtained. At any rate this proposal would reduce the journey between the Adriatic and Munich by at least eleven hours. The scheme was divided into four broad sections. It was discussed thoroughly in Parliament, but in the end it was decided to carry out in the first instance the most essential parts of the project, because embarkation upon the undertakings as set forth by the engineers would have entailed the expenditure of a gigantic sum of money. Even that which was sanctioned represented a total financial commitment of about £30,000,000, or $150,000,000, for 211¼ miles of line.
The accepted enterprise was memorable because it entailed the piercing of three mountain ranges by tunnels 5¼, 5, and 4 miles in length respectively. Of the total mileage only 41¼ miles were to be level! The remaining 170 miles represented banks, with grades running as high as 132 feet to the mile.
The project as sanctioned was divided into three sections for constructional purposes. The first section is that known as the Pyrhn railway, which connects the main line between Vienna and Switzerland via the Arlberg tunnel at Linz. From this point a short branch line ran directly southwards through the Krems valley to Klaus, having been built for tourist purposes. It was decided to overhaul this spur to bring it into conformity with the conditions of a main line, and to build the new line onwards from Klaus.