Editing Central Europe (section)

====Rail====
[[File:Rail density map.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Rail network density]]

Central Europe contains the continent's earliest railway systems, whose greatest expansion was recorded in Austrian, Czech, [[German Empire|German]], Hungarian and Swiss territories between 1860-1870s.{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|p=1758}} By the mid-19th century Berlin, Vienna, [[Zurich]], [[Pest, Hungary|Pest]] and [[Prague]] were focal points for network lines connecting industrial areas of [[Saxony]], [[Silesia]], Bohemia, Moravia and Lower Austria with the Baltic ([[Kiel]], [[Szczecin]]) and Adriatic ([[Rijeka]], Trieste).{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|p={{page needed|date=October 2023}}}} By 1913, the combined length of the railway tracks of Austria and Hungary reached {{convert|43280|km|abbr=off}}. By 1936, 70% of the [[Swiss Federal Railways|Swiss Federal Railway]] network had undergone electrification.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elsasser |first=Kilian |date=2020 |title=All electricity is not the same |url=https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2020/05/electrifying-the-sbb/ |website=Swiss National Museum}}</ref>

Rail infrastructure in Central Europe remains the densest in the world. Railway density as of 2022, with total length of lines operated (km) per 1,000 km2, from highest to lowest is Switzerland (129.2), the Czech Republic (120.7), Germany (108.8), Hungary (85.0), Slovakia (74.0), Austria (66.5), Poland (61.9), Slovenia (59.6), Serbia (49.2), Croatia (46.3) and Lithuania (29.4).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Railway density - Data Portal - United Nations Economic Commission for Europe |url=https://w3.unece.org/PXWeb/en/Table?IndicatorCode=47 |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=UNECE}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Inland_transport_infrastructure_at_regional_level|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508143341/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Inland_transport_infrastructure_at_regional_level|archive-date=8 May 2013|title=Inland transport infrastructure at regional level – Statistics Explained|publisher=European Commission|access-date=4 August 2014}}</ref>