Chemins de fer Orientaux
The Chemins de fer Orientaux (English: Oriental Railway; Turkish: Rumeli Demiryolu or İstanbul-Viyana Demiryolu) (reporting mark: CO) was an Ottoman railway company operating in Rumelia (the European part of the Ottoman Empire, corresponding to the Balkan peninsula) and later European Turkey, from 1870 to 1937. The CO was one of the five pioneer railways in the Ottoman Empire and built the main trunk line in the Balkans. Between 1889 and 1937, the railway hosted the world-famous Orient Express.
CO system in 1888 | |
Karaağaç railway station, built in 1873 by the CO, but no longer used. | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Paris (1869–1878) Vienna (1878–1912) Istanbul (1912–1937) |
| Reporting mark | CO |
| Locale | European Turkey, southern Bulgaria, northern Greece, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo |
| Dates of operation | 1870–1937 |
| Successor | TCDD, SDŽ, BDZ, SEK, ÖS, CFFH |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
The railway was charted in 1870 to build a line from Istanbul to Vienna. Because of many political problems in the Balkans, construction started and stopped and ownership changed or split often. Not until 1888 did the CO complete its objective, but after the First Balkan War in 1912, the railway was limited to only Eastern Thrace. The CO continued operations as a regional railway until 1937, when the Turkish State Railways absorbed it.