Altstätten – Gais railway line
| Altstätten – Gais | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Shuttle train on the rack section above Altstätten
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| Route length: | 7.65 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power system : | 1000-1500 volts = | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : |
Adhesion 52 ‰ rack 160 ‰ |
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| Rack system : | Strub | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Coordinates: 47 ° 21 '41 " N , 9 ° 29' 53" E ; CH1903: 755 565 / 247652
The Altstätten – Gais railway line is a meter- gauge narrow - gauge railway in Switzerland . The 7.65-kilometer route was opened in 1911 by Altstätten-Gais-Bahn (AG) and has been operated by Appenzeller Bahnen (AB) since 2006 . Three sections of the track are equipped with a rack according to the Strub system.
history
On November 18, 1911, the line from Altstätten Stadt via Stoss to Gais was opened with three CFe 3/3 railcars , where there was a connection to the line operated by the Appenzeller tramway company (ASt) to St. Gallen . The three rack sections with a total length of 3264 meters are located between Altstätten and Stoss, the rest of the route to Gais is purely an adhesion route . Right from the start, the railway was operated electrically with 1000 volts direct current.
Another short section in the old town of Altstätten was opened on June 26, 1912 between the city and the town hall . The short link on Marktgasse provided the connection to the Rathaus – Bahnhof SBB line, opened in 1897, on the Altstätten – Berneck tram operated by the Altstätten-Berneck-Bahn (ABB) , which in turn was replaced in 1940 by the Altstätten – Berneck trolleybus . The management of the Altstätten – Gais line was also taken care of by ABB, which let the trains run continuously between Gais and the Altstätter SBB station.
As a result of the merger in 1949, the St. Gallen – Gais – Appenzell Electric Railway (SGA) took over operations between Altstätten and Gais. In 1953, the overhead line voltage was increased to 1500 volts so that the new ABDeh 4/4 6 to 8 multiple units could run freely on the entire SGA network.
On June 2, 1973 the tram operation was stopped on the remaining section in Altstätten. Until the Altstätten SBB – Altstätten Stadt section was finally closed on May 31, 1975, SGA continued to run trains on this section.
Due to declining frequencies and a cost recovery rate of less than 30 percent, the cantons of Appenzell Ausserrhoden and St. Gallen have an engineering office checked in 2019 whether for the three cogwheel railways of the Appenzeller Bahnen, from Altstätten Stadt to Gais, from Rorschach Hafen to Heiden and from Rheineck to Walzenhausen "More customer-friendly and cheaper alternatives" would be feasible. A switch to bus operation or fully automatic operation is under discussion.
gallery
End of the route in Altstätten Stadt, 2009
End station Altstätten 1986 with ABDeh 4/4 6
Altstätten City, 1988
BDeh 4/4 shuttle train above Altstätten
Kreuzstrasse - end of the rack section Warmesberg
Railcar 17 at the Kreuzstrasse level crossing
Rietli
Gais: left train to Altstätten, right train from Appenzell to St. Gallen
Gais AR train station
literature
- Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network and Swiss rail profile CH + , in slipcase, AS Verlag, Zurich 2010 ISBN 978-3-909111-74-9
- Emil Leuthold: Electric Railway Altstätten – Gais. Self-published by the author, 1981
Web links
- Hans Rudi Lüthy-Pavan: The Appenzell tram 2nd part , on: www.strassenbahn-europa.at
- History of the Appenzeller Bahnen , on: Homepage of the Appenzeller Bahnen
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tobias Gafafer: Eastern Switzerland cog railways are on the red list In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from February 28, 2019