The Journal of Transport History

This study investigates the determining factors of railway expansion in nineteenth-century Spain, a period characterised by limited political interference in route planning but substantial public subsidies for construction. For the analysis, we developed a new dataset on municipal railway access from 1848 to 1910 and used Cox regression to assess the key factors influencing network development. The results show that economic criteria prevailed until 1877. From then on, the focus shifted to political and administrative interests, but without abandoning the economic interest. This finding nuances the interpretation of railway expansion in Spain as primarily driven by political and nation-building goals, showing instead a dynamic interaction between economic and administrative priorities over time.

The purpose of this paper is to use the historical example of the Midland Railway Company of Western Australia (Midland Railway) to answer the question of what private rail lines in Australia would have been organized and managed like if they had operated in the first half of the twentieth century. In addition, the question of whether the privately owned Midland Railway operated at a comparable or higher level of efficiency than its government-owned counterpart in Western Australia will be addressed. The paper finds that it was possible for private interests to organize the raising of financial capital to construct and equip a large-scale, long-distance railway in Australia, and once built it was possible for a private managed line to generate a financial surplus, unlike many of its government counterparts, at least up until the 1950s when road transport finally began to threaten its viability.

This article investigates Italian transport policy between 1945 and 1960, with a particular focus on secondary railways. Through an analysis of political debates, institutional interventions, and legislative measures enacted during this period, the study examines the effects of these policies on the secondary railway network – most of which was progressively dismantled. The contribution seeks to address a significant gap in Italian transport historiography, which has traditionally prioritised major routes while overlooking the so-called “minor” lines. These secondary railways, however, played a crucial role in supporting both local economies and the mobility needs of peripheral populations. By shedding light on the mechanisms and rationales behind their decline, this study aims to answer the following question: how and why did postwar Italian transport policies, implemented between the end of the Second World War and the early 1960s, contribute to the systematic dismantling of the secondary railway system?

This article examines the Bolivian State Railway Company (ENFE) from its inception in 1965 to its privatisation in 1995, focusing on its structural evolution, growth, and modernisation in the context of Bolivian state capitalism. It underscores ENFE's substantial contribution to Bolivia's economy, particularly in freight and passenger transport. By comparing ENFE’s labour productivity and financial ratios with other Latin American state railways, this study reveals ENFE's distinct capability for revenue generation due to limited road competition. Key primary sources include ENFE annual reports, World Bank loan documents, archival correspondence, transport studies, and the local press. This article argues that ENFE successfully addressed transportation challenges and contributed to Bolivian economic development. These findings provide valuable insights into Bolivian economic history and Latin American railway historiography through a case study of a strategic state-owned enterprise, illustrating the potential of leveraging World Bank sources for future comparative research on Latin American railways.

This article analyses nearly 500 amateur photographs taken by Finnish and Swedish Interrail travellers between 1972 and 1993, using them as primary sources to examine how social encounters were visually performed and remembered on an Interrail trip. The photographs show that travellers often turned their cameras towards people, constructing interpersonal connections through photography of encounters. The analysis identifies three recurring visual themes: encounters in transit, food and drink encounters and posed encounters in diverse European settings. These images were not merely commemorative; the act of photographing shaped the travel experience and contributed to a shared sense of youth community. The study argues that photography was a performative tool that helped to define the Interrail trip as a transnational youth space. By focusing on visual encounters, the article contributes to the cultural history of transport, showing how mobile amateur photography constructed meanings of Interrail across Cold War borders.

This paper examines the impact of political and geographic polarisation on high-speed rail (HSR) projects in the United States. Drawing from opinion polls, newspaper articles and election results, this paper demonstrates that sub-urbanisation and the construction of the interstate highways have fostered a geographically polarised political climate that serves as a barrier to the implementation of HSR in the United States. In examining these factors, this paper contributes a more comprehensive look at how the American built environment has impacted its political discourse and attitudes towards intercity rail. This analysis is particularly necessary as prior research on HSR in the United States has primarily focused on economic or technical impediments, and discussions of its politics have been focused on projects in specific states.

This article examines the cultural significance of the Barreiro Railway Complex in Portugal, a historically overlooked site of transport and industrial heritage. Based on original doctoral research, it analyses key infrastructures - such as the rail-river station, workshops, and workers' housing - and their role in shaping technical innovation and community identity. Using a heritage assessment framework grounded in authenticity and integrity, the article identifies both tangible and intangible values. Informed by critical heritage theory, particularly Edensor's and Smith's concepts of “heritage from below”, it advocates for the site's national recognition and interpretive reuse as a strategy for inclusive and sustainable preservation.