This study aims to review the socio-political and economic preconditions of creation and beginning of operation of main railways in Bukovina. The analysis of scientific and memoir literature, recollections, review of archival sources allowed establishing the fact that the problem of formation and beginning of operation of the network of railways in Bukovina of the Austro-Hungarian period was not a subject of systematic and integral investigation. It was shown that the idea of building railways in Bukovina was also in the political and socio-economic interests of Austria in the south-eastern region of Europe because by laying railways, the imperial government provided itself with a favourable strategic position in the region. Based on the results of the study, it was established that with the construction of the Lviv-Chernivtsi-Iași railway, railway communications came to first place in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in terms of material, technical, defense and economic potential.