After the war and the independence of most parts of Austria-Hungary, the whole of Istria became part of the Kingdom of Italy. The railway was taken over by Italians, its headquarters were moved from Vienna to Pula, locomotives and personnel were brought from other parts of Italy. For about a decade the railway was still profitable, then the Great Depression arose and the railway could no longer compete with developing maritime, bus and automobile transport. The fascist regime found an excellent opportunity to further persecution of Slovene and Croatian population, forming majority of Istrian hinterland population. From Rome the order to abandon the railroad arrived and the last train was operated on August 31, 1935. This deteriorated the economic situation and forced many people to emigrate. The rolling stock was sold to other Italian railways, mainly to Sicily, and a legend tells that tracks were dismounted to be transported to Abyssinia, then an Italian colony, but never reached Africa as the ship sunk somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea.