History of rail transport in Switzerland
From 1970, the Federal Government has become more involved in upgrading the railways, especially in urban areas and on trunk routes under the Rail 2000 project.
In addition, two major trans-alpine routes—the Gotthard Railway and the Lötschberg approach to the Simplon Tunnel—are being rebuilt under the NRLA project.
In 1833 the Grand Duchy of Baden developed plans for a railway connecting the cities Mainz and Frankfurt with Basel and onwards to Chur and Northern Italy.
[6] Although the Constitution of 1848 gave the federal government powers in relation to railways, it initially decided to decentralise rail policy.
Railways were to be built by private limited-liability companies, with contributions to be provided by the municipalities and cantons that stood to benefit from projects.
[4] In 1853 the Swiss Central Railway (German: Schweizerische Centralbahn, SCB) began to build the Basel-Olten line through the Hauenstein pass, with branches from Olten to Aarau, Lucerne, Bern and Thun and from Herzogenbuchsee to Solothurn and Biel.
The United Swiss Railways (VSB) built lines from Winterthur to Rorschach and from Wallisellen to Rapperswil, Sargans and Chur.
[4] The Canton of Fribourg delayed the construction of the line from Bern to Lausanne in a bid to have it run through the city of Fribourg rather than on flatter land further west; in 1857, the Swiss government, the canton of Vaud and the West Switzerland Company gave in, allowing construction to commence on the line, which opened in 1862.
At the initiative of its Federal politician Jakob Stämpfli the Swiss East–West Railway ( German: Schweizerische Ostwestbahn, OWB) started building a line in 1857—to compete with the Swiss Central Railway—between La Neuveville (on Lake Biel) and Zürich via Bern, Langnau im Emmental, Luzern and Zug, but without raising sufficient finance to guarantee its completion.
Connections to the networks of neighboring countries occurred at Romanshorn (by train ferries to Lindau and Friedrichshafen), at Basel by rail to the Baden Mainline and to the French Chemins de fer de l'Est, at Schaffhausen to the Baden Mainline and at Les Verrières to the line to Pontarlier and Paris.
It planned to build a line from Lake Constance and Singen to Lausanne via Winterthur, Aargau, Solothurn, Lyss, Murten and Payerne.
In 1913 a western Alps was completed, the Lötschberg railway line, but it was not a federal project, but instead it was an initiative of the canton of Bern.
In the Graubünden, the Rhaetian Railway (RhB), founded in 1889, had developed lines by the outbreak of World War I along the valleys of the Hinterrhein, Vorderrhein, the Albula, the Engadine and the Poschiavo.
A referendum in 1898 was strongly contested, obtaining the highest level of voting participation to that date and won a two-thirds majority.
In 1903 the SBB network took over the metre gauge Brünig Railway (German: Brünigbahn) opened in 1888 and the Swiss shipping line on Lake Constance.
[10] The negotiated purchase price of more than Swiss Francs 1 billion was criticised, especially as the owners had stopped investing when the debate over nationalisation started.
[10] The majority of the railway network was single track and its equipment and rolling stock was mostly in poor condition and unable to cope with increasing traffic.
At the beginning of World War II, 77% of the Swiss rail network had been electrified, while other European railways had a level of electrification of 5%.
The Mont-d'Or tunnel was opened between Vallorbe and Frasne, France, in 1915 and formed part of the route of the Orient Express between Paris and Istanbul from 1919 to 1962.
The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the private railways hard, leading to operating deficits which prevented the renewal of equipment and rolling stock.
In 1977, after almost six years work, the GVK submitted a 400-page report, which recommended the construction of a new railway between Geneva and Lake Constance and between Basel and Olten.
[14][15] A Federal Government committee supported SFR's proposal but considered that investment should be initially concentrated on the sections of route between Basel, Olten and Bern.
This proposal was widely seen as too narrow in its benefits and in mid 1984 the SFR established an expert group under the name Rail 2000 to develop a broader approach.
[14][15] This group developed a plan to improve rail transport throughout Switzerland based on the approach of co-ordinated regular interval trains.
The Gotthard Base Tunnel was finally opened in 2016, after nearly two decades of work, making high-speed travel below the Alps a reality.
