Geography of Austria (German "Bodensee") on the Austrian-Swiss-German border in the west to the Neusiedler See on the Austrian-Hungarian border in the east. The contrast between these two lakes – one in the Alps and the other a typical steppe lake on the westernmost fringe of the Hungarian Plain – illustrates the diversity of Austria's landscape. Seven of Austria's nine provinces have long historical traditions predating the establishment of the Republic of Austria in 1918: Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg. The provinces of Burgenland and Vienna were established after World War I. Most of Burgenland had been part
Vorarlberg Railway locomotives, which have special pantographs for ÖBB and DB lines. Vorarlberg Railway The Vorarlberg Railway () denotes a through line running through the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. Its route is similar to the Rheintal/Walgau Autobahn from the border between Lindau and Hörbranz to Bludenz, where it connects to the Arlberg Railway. The entire route is owned and operated by the Austrian Federal Railways ("Österreichische Bundesbahnen", ÖBB). The Vorarlberg Railway is the western continuation of the Arlberg Railway (ÖBB timetable number AT 401) through the Walgau valley and the Vorarlberg section of the Rhine Valley. Already in 1847, the entrepreneur Carl