Condom line

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A condominal railway is the legal form of operation of a state railway in which several states are involved.

The name derives from condominium or Kondominat (from Latin con- dominium = common ownership, dominion) from. As a constitutional form of the exercise of rule by several lords over a territory, it was widespread in Central Europe in the early modern period .

As a rule, a condominal railway is a railway that consists of a single line, but which touches the territory of several states. The states concerned have agreed in a state treaty to build and / or operate the railway together, so that there is only one railway company. The costs of construction and operation and the income from the operation are divided between the states in the underlying international treaty. As a rule, this happens proportionally to the number of route kilometers that are accounted for on the respective sovereign territory.

This legal form was chosen in Germany for early railway lines in order to secure both the state influence on the technical innovation and the technical uniformity of the railway operation in spite of small states beyond the national borders. Examples of such condominal tracks are:

Today this legal form is very rare and as a rule the result of special political circumstances at the creation or during the operation of the railway. Examples are:

literature

  • Bernhard Hager: "Absorption by Prussia" or "Benefit for Hesse"? The Prussian-Hessian Railway Community from 1896/97. In: Andreas Hedwig (Ed.): “On iron rails, as fast as lightning”. Regional and supraregional aspects of railway history (= writings of the Hessian State Archives Marburg. Vol. 19). Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-88964-196-0 , pp. 81–111.