Koblenz train station (CH)

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Koblenz (CH)
Koblenz train station before the renovation in 2013
Koblenz train station before the renovation in 2013
Data
Location in the network Crossing station
Platform tracks 3
abbreviation XSKO ( DB )
KB ( SBB )
IBNR 8500329
opening August 18, 1859
Profile on SBB.ch No. 329
Architectural data
architect Jakob Friedrich Wanner
location
City / municipality Koblenz
Canton Aargau
Country Switzerland
Coordinates 659 285  /  272 475 coordinates: 47 ° 36 '1 "  N , 8 ° 13' 37"  O ; CH1903:  659285  /  272 475
Height ( SO ) 320  m
Railway lines
List of train stations in Switzerland
i16

The Koblenz (CH) station is just south of the Swiss town of Koblenz . It was opened together with the Turgi – Koblenz – Waldshut line by the Swiss Northeastern Railway (NOB) on August 18, 1859. With the commissioning of the Winterthur – Koblenz railway on August 1, 1876 and the Koblenz – Stein-Säckingen railway on August 1, 1892, it developed into a crossing station . In 2013 it was extensively renovated with a modernization of the railway systems.

history

Uerdinger rail bus in Koblenz (CH)

The Swiss Northern Railway , which opened the first railway line on Swiss soil between Zurich and Baden on August 7, 1847 , was planning to continue in the direction of Basel before it was completed . The Grand Duchy of Baden approved on June 18, 1846 construction and operation of the route Koblenz- Waldshut , the canton of Aargau on July 3 of that year, the intermediate section of Baden Turgi -Koblenz. However, the Sonderbund War and the political changes that occurred after the adoption of the Federal Constitution led to delays. The national railway concept submitted by the Federal Council in 1852 did not provide for a connection between Turgi and Koblenz. On the initiative of Alfred Escher , the Northern Railway merged with the Zurich-Bodensee Railway in 1853 to form the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB). This continued the project in 1857 and opened the Turgi – Koblenz – Waldshut route, including the Rhine bridge , on August 18, 1859 .

With the commissioning of this line there was for the first time ever a connection between the Swiss and German railway networks. This Rhine bridge was also the first to allow the Rhine to be crossed by rail below Lake Constance (the cathedral bridge in Cologne was opened six weeks later on October 3, 1859). In response to impending competition from the Swiss National Railway, the NOB began planning a railway line from Winterthur via Eglisau to Koblenz in 1869 . With a view to its opening on August 1, 1876, the NOB expanded the Koblenz train station. A two-part depot was built next to the reception building , consisting of an elongated shed and a two-track locomotive shed with a turntable .

Due to financial bottlenecks at the NOB, the further construction of this route along the Rhine to Stein-Säckingen was delayed by over a decade. Work could not start until 1887. With the opening of the Koblenz – Stein-Säckingen railway along with the Aare Bridge on August 1, 1892, Koblenz became a fully developed crossing station. The suspension of border traffic between Koblenz and Waldshut during the two world wars led to a significant volume of traffic. The years after the Second World War were marked by a marked increase in freight traffic. In 1970 Max Vogt built a modern office building. The peak was reached in 1971 when 45,000 freight wagons crossed the Rhine near Koblenz due to the renovation of the freight stations in Basel and Schaffhausen . The commissioning of the Limmattal marshalling yard in 1978 resulted in a drastic decline; By 1988, the volume of goods handled in Koblenz had shrunk by 16 times. The station suffered a further loss of importance with the cessation of passenger traffic on the route to Stein-Säckingen on May 28, 1994.

investment

North end of the station with the multiple unit leaving for Waldshut

Track system

Because an uphill section was required to cross the Rhine and climb to the Waldshut train station, the train station was built about one kilometer southwest of the center of the village of Koblenz. In order to be able to cross the Rhine with a bridge at a right angle, the tracks had to be raised slightly to the east from the station and then led in a left curve to the bridgehead. Most of the access ramp is located in the valley of the Apelööbach and therefore requires a short tunnel under the Hinterbuck. From the northern tunnel portal to the cantonal road lies on a six-arched stone viaduct , whose crenellated design is based on historicism . From the Rhine bridge , the tracks lead in a straight direction to the Hochrheinbahn line and to Waldshut station . To improve the development of the village, in 1997 the SBB set up the Koblenz Dorf stop on the Koblenz – Eglisau line, which crosses under the Waldshut line embankment .

Koblenz train station seen from the north

The station has four main tracks - three of them on a platform - and several shunting tracks. The main tracks run almost exactly in a north-south direction, with the station building on the west side of the facility. From the southeast, the line from Turgi leads in a curve into the train station, on the west side of which there is a pull-out track and the connecting track of the Klingnau power plant . The route from Stein-Säckingen ends in a curve shortly after the Aare bridge in the southern area. The route to Waldshut turns east at the station to climb the slope to the tunnel and the Rhine bridge. It separates from the two extended station tracks in the direction of Eglisau, which initially lead north. The former depot is located in the north between these two routes . The goods shed with a stump track is located south of the reception building . To the north of this there is a loading ramp where both front and side loading is possible.

Security technology

In terms of security, the station had a few peculiarities that were partially eliminated by the last renovation. So the travelers still had to cross some of the tracks until June 2013 and the completion of an underpass on the way to the train. Also, until then a Domino67 - interlocking in use, the prototype was one of the first of its kind in Switzerland and had no track locks in the station area. A newer version was later installed in the signal box. The section between Koblenz and Döttingen was one of the few remaining in the Swiss railway network on which the section block did not provide automatic feedback. Every train that traveled this section had to be reported back by the dispatcher by pressing a button after arriving at the neighboring station. With the modernization of the interlockings in Koblenz and Döttingen (replacement of the electromechanical switch interlocking “Integra” with a “Domino67”), the section block now reports back automatically.

As a result of these modernizations, it was now possible to monitor the station by remote control. Therefore, there has been no dispatcher on site since November 2013. Remote control is now carried out from SBB's Eastern Operations Center at Zurich Airport . Furthermore, platform 5 in Waldshut station , on which the trains of the Zurich S-Bahn (S41) and Aargau S-Bahn (S27) arrive and leave, will be secured by the Koblenz signal box. A trip from track 5 to the other tracks at Waldshut station is only possible via a switch connection, which can only be changed after key approval by the responsible dispatchers on the Swiss and German sides.

The 16 km long section between Koblenz and Laufenburg with the former Leibstadt, Full and Felsenau stations is also controlled from the Koblenz signal box. Here too, analogous to Waldshut, all points that connect to sidings from the route can only be reversed by releasing a key. A special feature here is that the key release is only possible if the so-called delivery operation has been activated from the Koblenz signal box. Then only shunting runs but no train runs are possible on the route. For this reason, train crossings in the former Leibstadt station are no longer possible today.

Reception building

The architect of the reception building was Jakob Friedrich Wanner , who was also the site manager. He took over the basic type for NOB train stations, which the German engineer August von Beckh had realized in 1857 in Schinznach-Bad, Wildegg and Rupperswil, and adapted it to local conditions. The reception building in Koblenz was originally identical to those in Döttingen and Siggenthal: a gable- independent head building, which is symmetrically structured on the square with a central arched portal and the two main floors of which are divided by a continuous cornice . In 1876 there was a significant expansion to a two-storey, gable-facing central building, which is flanked by two-storey annex buildings. The central building is rustified , and pilasters also frame the corners of the annex buildings.

The goods shed adjoining it to the south is an elongated timber-framed building that stands at the eaves on the railway line and has loading ramps on both sides of the eaves. Two large rectangular gates emphasize the entrances on both long sides.

depot

Locomotive depot

The half-timbered building of the depot , built in 1859, is the oldest remaining locomotive depot in Switzerland and is now a federal monument . Initially, the depot consisted only of the two western tracks, one of which had a cleaning pit. Later, three more covered depot tracks were built east of it in two stages.

The building was nearly demolished after it was damaged during Hurricane Lothar in 1999 . Since it was unused at the time, there was no need for repairs. In 2004, the SBB submitted a demolition request, which the Canton of Aargau also complied with. The termination date was set for autumn 2005. When the dismantling work on the roof had already started in the summer, the SBB's internal specialist group for monument preservation vetoed at the last moment. With the Draisinen Sammlung Fricktal (today the depot and rail vehicles association Koblenz ) a user could be found who took over the building complex in its original form. In this way the buildings could be preserved and professionally renovated in cooperation with the preservation authorities. After this work was completed, the canton placed the facility under protection on February 19, 2007. In the same year, the Aargauer Heimatschutz awarded the project the Aargauer Heimatschutzpreis .

offer

Aargau S-Bahn
Zurich S-Bahn
Postbus

literature

  • Essay 150 years Turgi – Koblenz – Aarau , by Ruedi Wanner and Stephan Frei, Eisenbahn Amateur Edition 7/2009 pp. 257–358, ISSN  0013-2764
  • Werner Stutz: Railway Stations in Switzerland - From the Beginnings to the First World War . Orell Füssli, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-280-01405-0 , p. 142 .
  • Claudio Affolter: Koblenz station. First border station in Switzerland. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 853, Series 86). Ed.  Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2009, ISBN 978-3-85782-853-9 .

Web links

Commons : Bahnhof Koblenz (AG)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Affolter: Station Koblenz - Switzerland's first border station. P. 9.
  2. ^ Affolter: Station Koblenz - Switzerland's first border station. P. 4.
  3. ^ Affolter: Station Koblenz - Switzerland's first border station. Pp. 17-18.
  4. ^ Affolter: Station Koblenz - Switzerland's first border station. Pp. 19-20.
  5. ^ Affolter: Station Koblenz - Switzerland's first border station. P. 5.
  6. ^ Railway line Stein-Säckingen - Koblenz. Rail transport in Switzerland, accessed on November 24, 2018 .
  7. ^ Affolter: Station Koblenz - Switzerland's first border station. P. 11.
  8. ^ Affolter: Station Koblenz - Switzerland's first border station. Pp. 13-15.
  9. ^ Affolter: Station Koblenz - Switzerland's first border station. Pp. 15-16.
  10. ↑ Bahnhofstrasse, deposit facility, 1859- in conservation inventory of the canton of Aargau
  11. ↑ Heimatschutzpreis 2007. Heimatschutzpreis 2007, 2007, accessed on November 24, 2018 .