Karst railway - the Transalpina route
After leaving the village, the circular route takes us to the bridge that crosses the Bohinj route. The Jesenice–Trieste route was built between 1900 and 1906 and is the last leg of the Transalpina route (Alpenbahnen Program). It was named after the alpine valley that lies between the Bohinj Lake and Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia. The German name for the Bohinj Valley is Wochein and that is how the route was named. Because there is no name for this route in Italian, it was named Transalpina. However, this name is not the best because the Transalpina railway connected the Czech lands with Trieste and the Bohinj route is only its last leg. For the section between Gorica and Trieste, the name Karst railway is also used, but it refers only to a certain section of the Bohinj route and is not official. The route crosses 37 tunnels, 27 viaducts, 39 bridges and 5 galleries.
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When standing on the bridge, we can see a stone house on the right, which is now used for residential purposes but was used as a checkpoint in the past. In the last decades, the use of the railway declined significantly. In the past, this route was very often used. The regulations allowed for several trains driving on sections between two stations, which led to the introduction of checkpoints on sections. They were used to notify the neighbouring station that a train has just passed and that the next train can leave the station, even though the first train did not yet arrive at the next station.
The Jesenice–Sežana route boasts with a number of interesting facts. The steepest section (26.7%) is between Prvačina and Štanjel . The railway goes through the longest railway tunnel in Slovenia – the Bohinj Tunnel (6327.3 m). The trains climb over the Solkan Bridge, which has the longest stone arch in the world among railway bridges, and continues over Idrijca at Most na Soči, which is 30 m high and is the highest railway bridge in Slovenia. This route is known as the most scenic in Slovenia. Despite crossing the Alps, it is not the highest railway in Slovenia. It reaches the highest point in Blejska Dobrava at 576 m (the Vintgar stop), but the railway station in Postojna stands at an elevation of 582 m. |
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Sources:
PETRONJO P.,Transalpina Bohinjska proga, Slovenske železnice, Ljubljana, 2000
Volnik, M. Stankovič 2012
The Bohinj route
The Bohinj Tunnel
Route map
Photograph: Miloš Stankovič
PETRONJO P.,Transalpina Bohinjska proga, Slovenske železnice, Ljubljana, 2000
Volnik, M. Stankovič 2012
The Bohinj route
The Bohinj Tunnel
Route map
Photograph: Miloš Stankovič