The
Royal Bavarian Eastern Railway Company (
Königlich privilegirte Actiengesellschaft der bayerischen Ostbahnen) or
Bavarian Ostbahn was founded in 1856. Within just two decades it built an extensive railway network in the eastern Bavarian provinces of
Upper Palatinate (
Oberpfalz) and
Lower Bavaria (
Niederbayern) that had previously been largely undisturbed by the railway. Much of this network is still important for local and long distance rail traffic operated by the
Deutsche Bahn today.