The Franz Josef Railway is an Austrian railway line originally named after Emperor Franz Joseph.

It was built after the War of 1866 as a connection between Prague and Vienna. In 1872, Vienna Franz Josef Station was built as the first terminal station inside the former Linienwall in the district of Alsergrund, inside the Gürtel . It crosses the Danube at Tulln and extends from there to Krems and to the border at Gmünd . Various district capitals are only connected to it by bylines. A new station at Gmünd had to be built in 1919, after part of the town had become part of Czechoslovakia (České Velenice ). After World War II, the line lost a lot of importance because of the Iron Curtain. However, trains to Prague and Berlin used it through the mid-90s. Today, the Franz Josef Railway is only used for regional trains, as trains to Prague leave at Vienna South Station .