The study is a comprehensive survey of the complex and interrelated effects of the railway lines around Kecskemét on local population from the building of the first lines in the mid-nineteenth century to the present. By the beginning of the twentieth century, rail had become the most important and most economical mode of regional travel and transport. Rail transport began to dominate long-distance freight and international travel and transport, and so it did among the economically productive public too; so much so that they volunteered their own financial resources and work to support the building and further development of the railways. From the 1960s, however, the public’s preferred travel and transport means were replaced or complemented by organised road transport (lorries, buses). From the 1970s, the boom of private car transport did the same. As a result of the hub structure of modern railway lines, the catchment area of these traffic hubs also expanded, while the importance of smaller, traditional, subregional centres was waning. The intensity of travel and transport to and from big towns increased. The growing speed and increasingly dense transport network had a complex and fundamental impact on the life of local society. Alongside further innovation, it affected and accelerated the expansion of civic acquis in the town and the surrounding areas in an extremely complex way. The study summarises the impact of rail transport on the economy, as well as cultural and social life of an originally market-town/farmstead society, the relationship between town and country, and the development of public mobility. In addition to secondary sources in the field of the history and sociology of transport, history of techno- logy, and local history, the primary sources of the study are documents from the Archives of Bács-Kiskun County, the collections of the Transport Museum, railway archives and collections, daily press from Kecskemét and interviews with local people and transport employees.