Most conventional histories that address the creation and development of railway networks start from national developments. Recent scholarship on this topic, however, has stressed the importance of formulating a transnational perspective on technological developments and infrastructural developments in particular. In this book I deal with railway developments in interwar Europe from a transnational perspective. My aim is to identify the actors that drove the internationalization of railways in interwar Europe and to examine their motivations. The materials used for writing this book were collected from archives of international organizations that played an important role in promoting international co-operation in railway affairs during the interwar years, as well as from railway journals of the period and secondary literature.

In the first chapter I discuss the various proposals for the construction of transnational railway arteries in interwar Europe. As early as world war one, engineers and politicians began to formulate projects for the construction of Trans European railway arteries. Even if these projects were not realized, I argue here, they are highly important for understanding the historical and political dynamics of Europe. Among other things they show how in the interwar years railways were pushed to serve the goal of Europe's socio-political reorganization and to consolidate transnational alliances.

In the second chapter I consider the various trajectories of international cooperation involved. A number of international bodies were geared to promoting the integration of Europe's railway network. They worked on establishing international regulation and international standards that would facilitate railway traffic across borders. After presenting the most important of these bodies I look more closely at two developments. First I concentrate on the attempt to establish a convention on the International Regime of Railways (1923) within the context of the newly created League of Nations, whereby I assess the historical importance of this League's attempt to put railways at the service of realizing its envisioned, global community. Second, I discuss the attempts of the allied nations to counterbalance the German influence in international railway affairs in the years preceding World War One. A specific result of this effort was the establishment of the International Union of Railways (1922).