Regional Effects of the Szekler Circle Railway

Abstract

Some six years after the opening of the first railway line in England, the first Hungarian railway plan was being drawn up. The law stated that a national railway network must be built in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. The first lines were opened up in 1848 (e.g. Wien–Bratislava–Budapest) but these didn't reach Transylvania not to mentioned Székelyföld (the Hungarian minority populated region in Transylvania). Székelyföld is situated in the eastern or south-eastern part of Transylvania and was always a peripheral region in its history in geography, culture, economics and ethnicity. Ön the other hand it was a connecting link between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Principality of Moldavia and afterwards the Kingdom of Romania. The building of the Transylvanian railway covers the period of 1870-1915, which was also the term of the building of the Szekler circle railway. The Szekler circle railway created a connection between the Szekler counties and to the Transylvanian main lines. The gradual building of it changed the existing situation in many ways. It contributed to the formation of the background industry (logging industry, quarry operation, coal mining, iron industry, and transportation engineering industry) and the development of the internal labour market through the joining of the region to the circulation of commodities.

The expanding internal market, the improvement of access to external markets and the connection between the agricultural and industrial areas are owed to the appearance and development of the railway. Despite the spatial differences it determined the formation of the common national market. Goods could reach the markets of Turkey and Greece through Moldavia and Havasalföld.