Track 2000
Bahn 2000 ( French Rail 2000 , Italian Ferrovia 2000 ) is a large-scale Swiss railway project of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) that has been ongoing since 1987 to improve the quality of its rail network. It includes measures to be implemented in stages to accelerate and densify existing connections and to modernize the rolling stock . After the federal resolution passed in 1987 was adopted by a referendum, around 130 construction projects with a budget of around CHF 5.9 billion were implemented in the first stage, which was completed in 2004.
history
prehistory
Similar to many Western European countries, Switzerland was characterized by the steadily growing popularity of the automobile after the end of the Second World War . The increased congestion in the centers, through town passages and bottlenecks caused by mass motorization meant that the railroad was the fastest and most efficient means of transport for a long time. In 1950, according to the information service for public transport LITRA, 52 percent of travelers took the train, and 70 percent of goods.
In order to deal with the prevailing permanent overload, the Swiss men approved the "road construction plan" in 1958. This template decided to build the highways. Two years later, Parliament passed the National Road Act . This envisaged a road network of 1770 kilometers in length and was implemented in the following years. Investments by the municipalities and the federal government amounted to 2,054 million francs in 1970 (for comparison: in 1950 it was 154 million francs). As a result of this shift towards individual transport, the Swiss Federal Railways lost market share year on year in the 1960s. While road construction flourished throughout Switzerland, in 1965 the railway was just able to finance the maintenance of equipment and rolling stock , in 1970 the federal government provided only CHF 368 million for the construction of rail systems. In addition, many less frequented railway lines had to be shut down.
At the beginning of the 1970s, the first consequences of this reorientation in transport policy became apparent. The economic upturn caused mobility needs to rise. While the capacities of the rail network were no longer sufficient, especially on the transit routes across the Alps and in agglomeration traffic in the Central Plateau, bottlenecks also increased in individual traffic . The Swiss population took more notice of the downside of increased individual mobility, especially traffic jams and the reduction in air quality. At the same time, surface sealing continued to increase due to road construction, which is given the highest priority in transport policy.
In order to counteract this trend, rapid measures were introduced: With more powerful locomotives and a denser timetable, between 1971 and 1983 a 75% increase in passengers was recorded on the Bern - Zurich route . The upward trend was felt generally in public transport during the 1970s. The traffic jams could not be resolved with the expansion of the roads, they were only relocated to new places. However, the railways were able to handle the transport of people and goods more safely with less space and energy consumption and less pollutant emissions . During this time, ideas came up to fundamentally improve rail transport. In 1982, the clock timetable was introduced under the leadership of Samuel Stähli . This regular schedule stipulated that a train should arrive or depart at the same minute every hour. At the center of the clock timetable system was Zurich's main train station , where trains arrived and departed every hour or half an hour. This symmetrical retraction and extension was called "connecting spinning" and was the forerunner of the basic idea of the later Bahn 2000 .
New Main Transversal (NHT)
Another idea came from the side of the SBB at the end of the 1960s , which was considering a New Main Transversal (NHT) in a west-east direction. This flowed into the work of the large Swiss General Transport Commission GVK. After almost six years, the GVK was able to submit its 400-page report to the Federal Council in 1977 , in which it recommended “building a“ new main railway transversal ”between Lake Geneva and Lake Constance and between Basel and Olten ”. The new main transversal, or NHT for short, provided for the fastest possible journeys between the cities of Lausanne and St. Gallen and between Basel and Olten. A total of 120 kilometers of new line were planned on these routes , on which the trains should run at up to 200 kilometers per hour. The approach of the New Main Transversal was based on the idea of increasing the quality of the rail network through fast intercity connections similar to the TGV that emerged at the time. However, these high-speed connections always required the construction of new lines.
The Federal Transport and Energy Department EVED (now DETEC) hired a group of experts to examine the suitability of the NHT. In their 1983 report they admitted that although the NHT would serve its purpose, one should first deal with the expansion of the Basel – Olten – Bern line . After the federal government had sent the report for consultation, the Federal Council wrote in 1985 that “the railways should take over a significantly larger share of future traffic; on the question of whether the railway network should be supplemented by the NHT for this purpose, however, opinions are divided ”. The canton of Solothurn also criticized the fact that the NHT only benefits the large centers and that medium-sized centers and rural regions are disadvantaged. The “Action Committee against the NHT” threatened a referendum if Parliament approved the concept.
The threatened referendum did not take place, however, because the Federal Council was of the opinion that the project was "too narrowly defined" and "too much geared towards the west-east transversal and its feeder lines and that the Swiss rail system had not achieved enough network-wide upgrading" . In mid-1984, the SBB's general management commissioned a group of experts called “Bahn 2000” to develop a new concept that was not limited to the main axes, but was to provide a medium to long-term solution for the whole of Switzerland.
Track 2000
On March 27, 1985, the EVED transport department presented the new design. There was a positive response from parties and associations; the Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote that the concept was attractive, flexible and capable of development. The aim of the concept was to connect large hub stations in less than an hour: trains should arrive before half an hour / full hour and leave shortly afterwards. The trains should run “not as fast as possible, but as quickly as necessary”, as the advertising slogan described the project.
The Federal Council approved the Bahn 2000 in May 1986. They supplemented the new Mattstetten – Rothrist (Olten – Bern) line with the Herzogenbuchsee – Solothurn connection . A loan of 5.4 billion francs was granted for the construction.
In the Wasseramt region , where a new line was to be built, an opposition formed which also held larger demonstrations. She provided the most signatures for the referendum against the bill and the credit. The resistance was not directed against the railway project, but against the new line and the loss of cultivated land . The referendum came about and the voters had to decide on the bill and the credit on December 6, 1987. All ruling parties had issued slogans in the advertising campaign. With a majority of 57.0%, the electorate finally approved the loan and rejected the referendum.
Development and implementation
As early as 1991 it became clear that the costs were massively underestimated. A full implementation of the 1985 project would have a credit limit of 16 billion SFr. required (price status 1991). The Federal Council thereupon (1992) decreed that the project should be redimensioned and staged, whereby the cost framework for the first stage was a maximum of 7.4 billion SFr. was established.
This revision had the following consequences:
- Complete abandonment of the new Zurich Airport - Winterthur line ( Brüttenertunnel )
- Only partial implementation of the new Siviriez - Villars-sur-Glâne and Muttenz - Olten lines (i.e. reduction to Vauderens Tunnel and Adlertunnel )
- Use of tilting trains instead of expanding the route on the Jura Südfuss line
- Avoiding platform extensions by using double-deck cars with a correspondingly higher seat density
Another change to the project was the new double-lane Zurich - Thalwil instead of expanding the existing line in view of the capacities required by S-Bahn and long-distance traffic (connections to Lucerne and Gotthard).
This revised project was called Bahn 2000, 1st stage and was put into operation on December 12, 2004. With final costs of 5.9 billion SFr. (Price level 1994) the target set in the course of the resizing in 1992 could still be clearly undercut.
Implementation of the first stage
During the implementation of the Bahn 2000 project, sub-projects were put into operation every two years from 1997. The biggest innovation, the commissioning of the new line, did not take place until December 12, 2004. The travelers noticed the implemented innovations among other things:
- Mostly every half hour in long-distance traffic
- The same travel times between Geneva and Zurich when traveling via Bern as that via Neuchâtel .
- Travel time between Zurich and Bern reduced by 13 minutes.
Due to the delayed introduction of the new train protection system ETCS , the new line (NBS) and upgraded line (ABS) were supplemented with conventional signaling technology, which initially resulted in a top speed of only 160 km / h. Therefore, the travel time on the frog was reduced by only 11 minutes instead of the planned 13 minutes. The entire NBS has been operated with ETCS since March 2007, with the maximum speed being increased to 200 km / h in December 2007. The resulting reduction in travel time makes the regular timetable more stable in the event of delays.
In the course of the Bahn 2000 project, the earlier regional trains were renamed Regio (abbreviation R ) and the express trains were renamed RegioExpress (abbreviation RE ) or InterRegio 
in order to maintain language neutrality (e.g. instead of express train , train direct and treno diretto ).
Goal setting
The main motive for the Bahn 2000 concept was to cover the population's increasing mobility needs as well as possible with the train. Transport services in passenger and freight traffic should be carried out as far as possible by rail instead of by road . The relocation policy has been enshrined in the federal constitution since 1994 .
The motto “Faster, more frequently and more conveniently” was the target idea in development and implementation.
More direct and faster train connections throughout Switzerland have been combined under the principle of speed. In addition, they wanted to reduce the transfer times at the major train stations and better coordinate the connections.
The term “speed” in the Bahn 2000 concept does not only stand for connections between two large train stations, but for a higher speed in the overall network, which also includes connections between two smaller train stations at greater distances. This represents a major difference compared to the construction of high-speed roads, which is being forced in other countries , the task of which was mainly to create fast connections between large cities.
In addition, more frequent connections, especially between large cities and urban traffic , should make public transport more attractive.
The third catchphrase, “convenience”, encompassed more direct connections without the need to change or with as few changes as possible. In addition, a renewed fleet of vehicles should make trains more comfortable.
Subprojects
The following sub-projects belong to Bahn 2000:
- Modernization of the rolling stock
- Denser timetables , main routes every half hour
- Better direct connections
- Increased supply on routes with high demand
- Increase in line capacities by closing double or four-lane gaps
- Unbundling of traffic flows in branching points and junction stations
- Offer improvements in urban and regional traffic
- Conversions and extensions in the Zurich hub
- The new Mattstetten – Rothrist line and the resulting reduction in travel time between Zurich and Bern from 69 minutes to 58 minutes (56 minutes from the end of 2007).
Railway 2000 was introduced in stages.
Main motives
«Faster, more frequently and more conveniently» - this motto was at the center of the development and implementation of Bahn 2000. The aim was to cover the growing mobility needs of the population as well as possible by rail.
More quickly
One of the main goals of Bahn 2000 (1st stage) was to offer faster and more direct train connections throughout Switzerland. In addition, they wanted to reduce the transfer times at the major train stations and better coordinate the connections. This resulted in the knot principle on which Bahn 2000 is based. In the transfer stations, the trains and local transport meet shortly before the whole and / or half an hour and leave the stations shortly after the whole and / or half an hour. In this way, short transfer times can be achieved, as the trains from all directions are at the station at the same time.
Therefore, the focus had to be placed on the fact that the travel times between the nodes take just under 30 or 60 minutes. Among other things, this was not the case on the Zurich – Bern route. Therefore, a new line had to be built here to reduce travel times to less than 60 minutes. In addition, some major modifications were necessary at the stations so that the trains could enter and exit simultaneously and without crossing.
Due to the limited financial resources, however, the motto “electronics before concrete”, i.e. faster rolling stock instead of new lines, was implemented wherever possible.
Another goal of Bahn 2000 was that the Zurich – Geneva route via the southern Jura foot line ( Biel - Neuchâtel - Yverdon ) should take the same length as via Bern. This was solved on the south foot of the Jura with tilting trains of the type SBB RABDe 500 .
More often
Another main goal of Bahn 2000 was to connect the cities with each other every half hour using the node principle . This was implemented by expanding the capacities and adding additional rolling stock.
More comfortable
The aim was to make rail travel more convenient for travelers with more direct rail connections, but also with a new fleet of trains. For this reason, new double-decker compositions ( IC2000 ) were procured for the Bahn 2000 project, 1st stage, for routes with high demand . Intercity tilting trains ( ICN ) have been procured for faster travel times for winding sections . In addition, many stations have been rebuilt and all domestic long-distance trains are only operated with air-conditioned trains.
First stage projects
The framework of the first stage “Bahn 2000” comprises 136 individual projects that were implemented in stages. The project volume is almost 6 billion Swiss francs . Due to the maximum budget of 7.4 billion francs imposed in 1991, eight heavily scaled-down large-scale projects (4,352 million CHF) were implemented, from which the expansion of the Zurich hub stood out - due to the complexity and the need to maintain the Zurich hub at all times the work is divided into individual projects that are segmented in terms of time and space. The other individual projects spread across the whole of Switzerland and, in addition line and station extensions (CHF 1,427 million) in particular profile adjustments for IC2000 - double-deck coaches (CHF 110 million) and infrastructure adjustments for IC-tilting trains and for the benefit of shortening Zugsfolgezeiten ( 61 million CHF). Around CHF 149 million was spent on expanding the energy supply.
- Major projects
- New Mattstetten – Rothrist line , double track, 44.5 km
- Commissioning December 2004; Costs: CHF 1,679 million
- Derendingen – Inkwil upgraded line , single-track, 9.1 km
- Commissioning May 2003; Cost: CHF 107 million
- New Zimmerberg Base Tunnel line , 1st stage ( Zurich - Thalwil ), second double lane, 10.8 km
- Commissioning May 2003; Cost: CHF 945 million
- New line Adlertunnel ( Muttenz - Liestal ), double lane, 7.9 km
- Commissioning December 2000; Cost: CHF 387 million
- New construction of the Vauderens tunnel ( Vauderens - Siviriez ), double lane, 3.0 km
- Commissioning April 2001; Cost: CHF 71 million
- New track construction Onnens - Bonvillars - Gorgier - St-Aubin , double track expansion , 10.4 km
- Commissioning March 2001; Cost: CHF 363 million
- Commissioning October 2004; Cost: CHF 285 million
- New Salgesch – Leuk line , double track, 6.5 km
- Expansion of the Zurich main station hub (total costs: CHF 544 million)
- Platform extension for tracks 3–9 to 420 meters
- Sihlpost wing station (tracks 51-54), platform length 320 meters
- Signal box fore station
- Zurich substation «coal triangle»
- Maintenance and storage facility in Herdern
- "Coal triangle" unbundling structure
- New construction of the Vorbahnhofbrücke Zurich (HB– Wipkingen )
- Crossing under the track field for the station (HB– Altstetten )
- New construction of the four-lane HB– Wiedikon / Zimmerberg base tunnel (unbundling S-Bahn / long-distance traffic)
- Provisional services through station Löwenstrasse (tracks 31-34)
- Individual projects (extract)
- New construction of the Aarburg loop ( Rothrist - Zofingen ), former “war loop ”, single-track, 0.4 km
- Extension of the route for the Wankdorf - Ostermundigen - Gümligen junction , third track, 0.5 km
- Expansion of the Basel SBB platform (passenger station)
- Extension of the Basel - Muttenz line , third track, 1.8 km
- Expansion of Olten station
- Roadway Support Olten -Olten East Dulliken , third, respectively fourth track, 4.1 km
- Expansion of Aarau station
- New construction of Aarau City Tunnel II, third and fourth track, 1.4 km
- Extension of the Aarau - Rupperswil line , third and fourth track, 5.9 km
- Expansion of train station in Zug
- Extension of the Zug - Cham line , double track extension , 2.5 km
- Expansion of the Rotkreuz - Rotsee route, expansion of the double lane, 5.8 km
- New line construction Dietikon - Killwangen-Spreitenbach , second double lane and overpass structure, 4.3 km
- Extension of the line ( Kemptthal -) Tössmühle– Winterthur , third track, 3.2 km
- Extension of the Goldach - Mörschwil line , extension of the double track, 4.5 km
- Expansion of Landquart station
- Extension of the Bad Ragaz - Landquart route , double-track extension , 6.5 km
Travel times
The main pillar of Bahn 2000 is the 37 km long new Mattstetten – Rothrist line (between Bern and Olten ), which was opened in December 2004. This results in the following reductions in travel times (based on 2005/2008 timetable):
- Olten – Bern from 40 minutes to 26 minutes
- Zurich- Bern from 69 min to 56 min
- Basel- Bern from 67 min to 55 min
- Lucerne - Bern from 81 min (via Wolhusen - Langnau ) to 60 min (via Sursee - Zofingen -NBS)
- Olten – Biel / Bienne from 41 min to 32 min (via NBS and upgraded Inkwil-Derendingen line )
- Zurich – Bern– Geneva from 2:56 to 2:43
- Zurich – Biel / Bienne – Geneva from 3:09 h to 2:42 h
Current status
The opening of the Lötschberg base tunnel in 2007 reduced the travel time between Visp and Bern to less than an hour, which made it possible to set up a full junction in Visp; at the same time, the travel time for a trip from Zurich to the Valais fell to less than two hours. In addition, a full node was set up in Interlaken .
Follow-up projects
Bahn 2000 is supplemented by several follow-up projects :
The second major project besides Bahn 2000 is the NEAT with the base tunnels through the Gotthard and Lötschberg . It shortens travel times between German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino and Central Valais by one hour, and that between Bern and Brig (Italy) by around a quarter of an hour. The Lötschberg base tunnel went into operation in 2007.
The current HGV connection project aims to improve connections to France and Germany . At the same time, it is used to introduce the node system in Eastern Switzerland. The total costs amount to CHF 1.3 billion.
The future development of the railway infrastructure project , which was originally called "Bahn 2000, 2nd stage", is intended to create additional nodes, reduce travel times between the existing ones and expand capacities. The project has been approved by parliament and the first construction work will begin in 2014.
The expansion to ZEB was planned in the Railway 2030 project. However, this was discontinued in favor of the more extensive and long-term planning of the STEP project .
See also
literature
- Christian Kräuchi, Ueli Stöckli: More pull for Switzerland. The Bahn 2000 story . AS-Verlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-909111-06-8 .
- Hans-Jürg Spillmann: 160 kilometers of lane for the expansion of the range . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 12/2004, Minirex AG, Lucerne 2004, ISSN 1022-7113 , pp. 537-548.
- Paul Moser: Long story with a happy ending . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 12/2004, ISSN 1421-2811 , pp. 577-582.
- Aspects of the offer in the first stage Bahn 2000 . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 12/2004, ISSN 1421-2811 , pp. 583-587.
- Werner Stohler: From Bahn 2000 to the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel . Three-part series of articles. Swiss Railway Review 11/2015, 12/2015 and 1/2016.
Web links
- SBB
- BLS AlpTransit (Lötschberg Base Tunnel) ( Memento from October 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- AlpTransit (Gotthard Base Tunnel)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Christian Kräuchi, Ueli Stöckli: More train for Switzerland . Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-909111-06-8 , page 10
- ↑ a b Kräuchi, Stöckli: More train for Switzerland . Zurich 2004, page 11
- ↑ a b Kräuchi, Stöckli: More train for Switzerland . Zurich 2004, page 14
- ↑ Gisela Hürlimann: "The Railway of the Future" Modernization, automation and express transport at SBB in the context of crises and change (1965 - 2000); March 2006
- ↑ Kräuchi, Stöckli: More train for Switzerland . Zurich 2004, page 12
- ↑ a b c d Kräuchi, Stöckli: More train for Switzerland . Zurich 2004, page 13
- ↑ a b Kräuchi, Stöckli: More train for Switzerland . Zurich 2004, page 15
- ^ Admin.ch: Results of the referendum on the “Federal Decree of December 19, 1986 on the BAHN 2000 concept”. December 6, 1987, accessed August 24, 2020 .
- ↑ Questions to Dr. Benedikt Weibel . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 3 , 2013, p. 146-149 .