The GySEV or ROEE links the places named in its title: Gyor / Raab, Sopron / Odenburg, and Ebenfurt. Baron Viktor Erlanger applied for and gained the licence for the establishment of the Gyor - Sopron - Ebenfurt Railway in 1872. The company has done since 1879, with a 90-year concession that was renewed in 1966. The prolonged concession, valid until the year 2007. The most crucial moment in its history came in the years after World War I, with the break up of the Austro - Hungarian monarchy. The new borders created by the Treaty of Trianon divided the railway into two parts. Its headquarters was in Sopron, Hungary. In 1923 The Hungarian and Austrian governments felt obliged to sustain the railway as an integrated operation which have continued to do so to this day. After the World War II the railway had a little significant transit freight traffic. In 1970's the internal passenger traffic grew, but travellers were controlled by frontier guards. This section of the national border was part of the Iron Curtain. Corridor trains which does not stopped in Hungary, but went through in Hungarian territory had an armed escort. This strictly control was stopped in the end 1980's. Today GySEV is an alternative transfer route between Austria (OBB) and Hungary (MAV). Recently this became a frontier between the EU and the post-communist economies of Eastern Europe. The main activity of GySEV Corp. is the management of railway passenger and goods traffic between the stations Gyor and Ebenfurth
The railway is not large. It has about 200 km long, largely single track. 75 km of them is in Austria. GySEV has two lines one from Gyor via Sopron to Ebenfurth, Austria, and a branch line from Fertoszentmiklos, Hungary to Neusiedl am See, Austria. The ownership of GySEV are 61% the Hungarian state, 33% the Austrian state and 6% smaller shareholders.
GySEV employs just 1800 staff, about 10% of who are Austrians working in Austria. Interesting that Austrian station staff earning more than the senior managers in Sopron because of the difference between the two countries' wage-scales. The official languages are Hungarian and German, but Hungarians have to speak German and Austrians do not have to speak Hungarian.
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