Etzwilen – Singen railway line

Etzwilen singing

Route number :

4320 Singen – state border

Course book range :

formerly 304h

Route length:

13.29 km

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Legend

		from Winterthur
		from Schaffhausen
	31.81	Etzwilen
		to Constance
	32.80	Hauptstrasse 13
	33.35	Seplingstrasse
	33.60	Rhine , Hemishofen railway bridge (252 m)
	33.90	Hemishoferstrasse
	34.33	Hemishofen
	34.60	Hemishoferbach
	34.70
	34.90
	37.77	Ramsen SH
	38.23	State border between Switzerland and Germany
	40.40	Doktor-Fritz-Guth-Strasse
	40.60	Radolfzeller Aach
	40.70	Albert-ten-Brink-Strasse
	41.11	Arlen-Rielasingen
	44.40	Fitting line
		from Constance
	45.10	Singing (Hohentwiel)
		to Basel
		to Beuren-Büßlingen
		to Offenburg

The Etzwilen – Singen railway was opened on July 17, 1875 between Etzwilen and Singen by the Swiss National Railway (SNB). On the same day, the Etzwilen – Konstanz and Kreuzlingen – Kreuzlingen Hafen railway lines and the Winterthur – Etzwilen railway line opened. The railway company went bankrupt in 1878 . The route was then taken over by the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB). Between 1902 and 2004 it was part of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) network. Today it is an independent museum railway line.

history

The railway line is one of the few lines operated by SBB that has never been electrified. When it was shut down in 2004, it was the last non-electrified line operated by SBB. Passenger traffic was stopped on May 31, 1969. After that it was still used for a long time by the trains on the rolling road between Rielasingen and Lugano. The weak Rhine bridge Hemishofen , the lack of catenary and the decision to relocate the terminal to Singen led to the abandonment of freight traffic between Ramsen SH and Etzwilen on December 12, 2004; freight traffic between Singen and Ramsen had already been stopped in 1996.

The foundations Museumbahn Stein am Rhein - Etzwilen - Hemishofen - Ramsen & Rielasingen - Singen (SEHR & RS) , a federally licensed infrastructure company with the official initials SEHR, and the Hemishofen Railway Bridge took over the infrastructure for sale on January 27, 2006 . Since August 1, 2007, museum trips can be carried out between Etzwilen and Ramsen. On May 28, 2011, the Ramsen - Rielasingen section was officially reopened.

The last section from Rielasingen to Singen could not be used for a long time because a piece of track was missing in the urban area of Singen - the city of Singen removed the rails there when building a roundabout . The reconstruction of the tracks up to Singen station with a track connection to the rest of the network was completed in 2019. The section between Rielasingen and Singen was reopened for rail traffic on August 16, 2020.

Today's operation

The Etzwilen – Singen route crosses nine bridges. The rails between Hemishofen and Ramsen are not only used by the train, but also by draisines that can be used by two to five people. Various working days also take place regularly in winter. Employees of the Association for the Preservation of the Railway Line cut bushes and maintain the route and the rolling stock. Since August 16, 2020, the route has been fully passable again.