urban rail transport; Cisleithania; municipal self-government; 19th and 20th century; technology; modernization;j social networks

This paper is focused at interaction between individual interest groups which could have intervened and, as it was proven, they had intervened in the agena of urban rail transport. It analyzes the process from the perspective of its participants-municipal self-governments and other interested parties. Research is based on an example of selected Moravian and Silesian towns at the turn of the 19th and 20th century.