It was written for the Association of Industrial Societies' Ball held in the Redoutensaal on 19 January 1864 and was inspired by the opening of the Austrian Southern Railway – the Südbahn – which operated many 'pleasure trains' offering trips from Vienna to the countryside.
Eduard Strauss, too, wrote his famous quick polka Bahn Frei (Track Clear) op.
Although many of Strauss's works commemorate travel and other forms of transport, neither he nor his brother eagerly undertook extensive journeys.
One anecdote states that Johann himself was terrified at the mere mention of the overhanging precipices at the Semmering Pass and later during a railway trip he made to Boston in the 1870s as part of a concert tour of the United States, his wife Henrietta Treffz noted that Strauss confessed he would rather die than be forced take another trip on the American railroad.
Many (unsubstantiated) stories suggest that Strauss was so terrified of rail travel that he spent train journeys huddled on the carriage floor.