The story
The first railway line built in the current territory of Ukraine was the Przemyśl – Lviv line, which was part of the connection from Kraków. The line was constructed by k.k. priv. Galizische Carl Ludwig-Bahn which later became nationalised by the Imperial Austrian State Railways. It was built in 1861 under the initiative of Leon Sapieha, and was 98 kilometres long. That was the first railway line on the Ukrainian territory. The first steam locomotive which departed from Przemyśl to Lwow on 4 November 1861 at 10.00 in the morning was called "Jaroslaw". In 1866, another railway was built connecting Czernowitz with Lwow (by Lemberg-Czernowitz-Jassy Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft). At that time the Kovel railway station belonged to Vistula River Railroad. In 1869, Carl Ludwig Railways built a railroad from Lviv to Brody that was opened on 12 July. In 1870, another branch reached Tarnopil. On 4 November 1871 the railroad network was connected with railroads of Russian Empire near Volochysk over the Zbruch river, ultimately connecting Odesa with Hamburg. In 1884, was created the General Directory which included six state railways. Those railways later formed the local directory of state railway transport which effectively competed with the Carl Ludwig Railways. On 1 January 1892, the government of Austria-Hungary adopted a law nationalising all railways from private companies. In the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria three railway directories were formed: Kraków, Lwow, and Stanislawow.
Before World War I, the total length of railways in the region was 2,676 kilometres.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lviv Railways, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4