Bern – Thun railway line

This article covers the route via Münsingen. For the parallel route via Belp see Gürbetalbahn .

Bern – Thun railway line
Timetable field :	301
Route length:	31 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	11  ‰
Top speed:	160 km / h
Legend from Freiburg 106.13 Bern to Solothurn Red bridge Lorraine Viaduct 1080 m 103.33 108.58 108.98 Bern Wankdorf 109.48 to Olten 110.77 Ostermundigen Quarry RBS from Bern 113.96 Gümligen RBS to Worb Dorf 115.50 to Lucerne 116.63 Allmendingen (1922–1982) 119.04 Rubigen 122.13 Münsingen 125.73 Wichtrach 128.30 Pebbles Uttigen Bridge over the Aare 131.10 Uttigen 134.10 BLS - GTB from Belp BLS - BTB from Burgdorf 137.02 Thun 559.2 m 137.59 Scherzligen 559.8 m BLS - TSB to Spiez - Interlaken

The Bern – Thun railway line is a double-track , electrified railway line through the Aare valley in the canton of Bern . It is part of the Lötschberg - Simplon axis between Germany and Italy. It was opened in 1859 by the Swiss Central Railway .

history

The line from Bern to Thun was opened on July 1, 1859 by the Swiss Central Railway. The actual route begins in Wylerfeld and uses the route from Olten, which was opened in 1857 or 1860, to Bern train station. In 1861 it was extended by a little more than a kilometer from Thun to Scherzligen, where there was a connection to the steamboats on Lake Thun . Initially, these were the only way to continue. A ferry service to Därligen station of the Bödelibahn was set up for freight wagons in 1873 , which at that time operated as an island . It was not until 1893 that the Thunerseebahn opened the connection to Därligen. With the new construction of the Thun train station (1923) between the two old Thun train stations and the construction of the shipping canal (1925), the two old train stations lost their previous function. The old Thun train station was converted into a parking facility. Scherzligen station was shut down as a tariff point and integrated into the new station as a sidings.

The Centralbahn was one of the large private railways that was nationalized in 1902. On January 1, 1902, the line therefore became the property of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

The line between Bern Wylerfeld and Ostermundigen was relocated in 1912. The new route, now built as a double lane, was put into operation on May 20, 1912. The old route led from the western turnout head of today's Wylerfeld storage facility, south of the great Allmend, to Ostermundigen.

With the opening of the Lötschberg mountain line in 1913, the line gained importance as a feeder to the Simplon line for transit traffic to Italy. It was then gradually expanded to double track until 1921 and electrified in 1918/1919. The first section of the Thun-Scherzligen route could be electrified from December 2, 1918 to enable BLS trains to enter Thun station. On July 7, 1919, the rest of the route to Bern followed. It was the first SBB route that was not only operated as a test route, but definitely with single-phase alternating current with 15,000 volts and a frequency of 16.7 Hz. The fact that the line was electrified before the Gotthard line was due to the fact that electricity could be obtained from the BLS power plant, which was completed in 1913, while the power plants on the Gotthard still had to be built.

With the construction and commissioning of the Lorraine Viaduct in 1941, the introduction of the line to Bern station along Dammstrasse / Westring and over the Red Bridge was canceled. The new route has been designed as a double double lane. Since 1941, four main tracks have been available between Bern main station and Wylerfeld.

On May 21, 1967, the Löchligut-Wankdorf connection was put into operation. It ended the re-spanning of (transit) freight trains with hairpin bends in Bern Wylerfeld, because now it was possible to drive the freight trains directly from Zollikofen to Ostermundigen.

The kilometrage was taken over from the previously opened SCB Olten – Bern line, with measurements being taken from the old Bern train station, not from the branching point in Wylerfeld. The SCB kilometer 0 was in Basel (the measuring section is Basel-old Hauenstein line-Olten-Herzogenbuchsee-Bern-Thun). When the route was relocated in 1912, measurements were made backwards from Ostermundigen, which resulted in a kilometer error at the confluence with the Wylerfeld .

When the timetable changed in 1982, the Allmendingen stop was canceled and the community was connected to the public transport network as a replacement by a bus line operated by VBW / SZB. The stop was opened on July 20, 1922.

Accidents

On May 19, 1941, when two freight trains collided in Münsingen, the Be 4/7 12502 locomotive and 22 freight wagons were seriously damaged and the locomotive driver was injured. A freight wagon of a freight train coming from Bern derailed due to a broken axle when a return train from Thun was approaching at the same time.

On September 23, 1941, between Kiesen and Wichtrach, an express train crashed at high speed in fog with a passenger train that had to wait to continue its journey due to a construction site. Eleven people were killed and 27 injured, some seriously.
→ Main article: Kiesen railway accident

business

In long-distance traffic, the route is used by the InterCity lines Interlaken – Basel and Brig – Basel / –Zürich – Romanshorn and the Eurocity line Milan – Basel. BLS AG operates the S1 line of the Bern S-Bahn and the RegioExpress Bern – Brig / –Zweisimmen ( Lötschberger ) in local transport . In freight transport, transit freight trains to Italy dominate, including those on the rolling road .

Web links

Commons : Bern – Thun railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network, Réseau Ferré suisse . Third updated and completely revised edition, 2010, AS Verlag, ISBN 978-3-909111-74-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans G. Wägli Rail Network Switzerland , page 113
2. ^ Rail network, Switzerland, p. 45
3. ↑ ^{a b} rail network, Switzerland p. 65
4. ^ Walter Trüb 100 Years of Electric Railways in Switzerland Orell Füssli 1988, page 79
5. ↑ Swiss rail network, p. 31
6. ↑ SER 3/82, page 76
7. ↑ Hanspeter Schwab: The railway accident of May 19, 1941. (PDF; 2.2 MB) In: Ortsgeschichte Münsingen. Museum Schloss Münsingen, p. 238 , accessed on November 1, 2013 .