ABSTRACT

The reopening of the Murska Sobota-Hodos-Zalalv railway axis proposes a reading of several paradoxes in the context of the enlargement of the European Union (EU) to Central Europe. The reopened axis is, indeed, parallel to the present border with Croatia. Reopening a railway axis is not only a technical choice. It can be seen as a spatial event, due to its important political signification. Transport axes do not present structuring effects by their own being. Their appropriations by political sphere offer more than a technical event, particularly when it takes place in a border changing context. From a historical point of view, the railway carries a political speech. A present illustration of it is the reopening of the Murska Sobota-Hodos-Zalalv-railway axis between Slovenia and Hungary. The reopening did not lead to more traffic. The quantity of cargo transported by rail between Slovenia and Hungary has decreased since 2001.