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The International Association for Railway History defends the rail’s historical and cultural legacy worldwide.

IRHA increases and diffuses the knowledge and conservation of the historical, cultural, industrial and social heritage of rail transportation all over the world.

Founded in 2002, the association brings together members from 18 countries. They are historians and academics, railway history societies and foundations, railway companies and organizations, curators of railway archives… The association goes beyond the boundaries of Europe, where it was born, and aims at encompassing all continents with oncoming projects of research, conferences, seminars and books.

IRHA assumes that the rail’s historical and cultural legacy will contribute to the prospects of railway transport in the age of ecological transition.

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The International Association for Railway History defends the rail’s historical and cultural legacy worldwide

Our international conferences

7-10. November 2024 Siena (Italy). Railways and Environmental Sustainability. – Final program!

2018 Budapest (Hungary). “Railways and the First World War”.

2016 Istanbul (Turkey). ‘Rail routes from the ‘Bagdad-Bahn’ to the New Silk Roads’. 

2013 Santiago (Chile). ‘Railways in Latin America, history and legacy in the 19th and 20th centuries’. 

2011 Lviv (Ukraine). ‘The great longing for railways. How the periphery became connected with the centers of industrialization’. 

2010 Mechelen (Belgium). ‘Cities, users and their railways’. 

2009 Bratislava (Slovakia). ‘Railways in Transition: Eastern Europe Railways, past, present and future in the 20th and 21st centuries’. 

2006 Lisbon (Portugal). ‘Railway Modernization: the 19th and 20th centuries, an historical perspective’. 

2004 Semmering (Austria). ‘Across the Borders: Financing the World’s Railways in the 19th and 20th centuries’. 

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President´s Corner

President’s Corner – Summer 2023

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I am very glad and honored for being elected president. I thank my entire Board. I am sure that I will work very well with my colleagues. It will be a great challenge, that I will face in a spirit of collaboration and harmony, proceeding on the road paved by…

President´s Corner – Summer 2022

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A remarkable teamwork During the last two years marked by the worldwide pandemics, the International Railway History Association IRHA, as many international associations and organisations, had to restrict its social activities to virtual exchanges and remote cooperation with its members. Most events – or participation of our members at external…

President´s Corner – Spring 2022

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Spring 2022 Several railway foundations, historic associations and academic institutions with a leading role in the field of railway history and heritage were represented at this founding meeting together with a number of European railway companies and UIC. A second meeting held in November 2001 provided the opportunity to discuss…

Andrea Giuntini
IRHA President.