Feldkirch – Buchs railway line

Feldkirch – Buchs SG
Route number (ÖBB) :	303 01
Course book route (ÖBB) :	401
Route length:	18.527 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	15  ‰
Minimum radius :	229 m
Top speed:	100 km / h
Legend from Bludenz 0.000 Feldkirch 457  m above sea level A. to Lindau 2.133 Altenstadt von Lindau (1940–1945) 3,595 Gisingen 4,800 Tosters Ill 6,950 Tosters-West 7.282 Tisis 8.375 State border Austria / Liechtenstein 9.386 Schaanwald 11,470 Nendeln 14.125 Hilti Forest 15.875 Schaan-Vaduz (formerly train station) 17.338 Rhine ( state border Liechtenstein / Switzerland ) A 13 18,247 Ownership limit ÖBB / SBB from Chur 18,527 Buchs SG to Rorschach

The Feldkirch – Buchs line is a single-track, electrified main line in Austria , Liechtenstein and Switzerland . The route runs from Feldkirch in the state of Vorarlberg via Schaan to Buchs SG . It is the only railway line in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The length of the railway line is 18.527 km, it runs 8.375 km on Austrian, 8.963 km on Liechtenstein and 1.189 km on Swiss territory, the common border station is Buchs SG.

The infrastructure is owned by ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG . At the end of 2019, the infrastructure assets of ÖBB in Liechtenstein and Switzerland had a book value of around EUR 23.9 million. Rail operations outside the Austrian territory are carried out on the basis of concessions from the two countries affected.

With the cross-border project S-Bahn Liechtenstein a will in future S-Bahn -like regional services to be introduced on the line.

Route

The route runs from Feldkirch train station for around one kilometer parallel to the route to Lindau in a northeastern direction and then follows an almost circular route around the Ardetzenberg . After crossing the Ill , you will cross the border to Liechtenstein after around eight kilometers . This is followed by the Nendeln train station , after which the route leads via Schaan towards the Rhine . The middle of the Rhine bridge also represents the border between Liechtenstein and Switzerland . After crossing the border, the railway line makes a sharp curve to the north and then ends at Buchs station .

history

Starting position

Schaan-Vaduz station, only one stop in operation today

The now abandoned stop Schaanwald

With the opening of the railway line between Rheineck and Sargans on July 1, 1858 and efforts to open up the Vorarlberg Rhine Valley with a railway line, the first negotiations between Switzerland and Austria began to connect the two railway networks. A state treaty concluded on August 5, 1865 between Austria-Hungary , Bavaria and Switzerland on the construction of a railway line between Feldkirch and Rüthi , among others , had not been implemented. The Liechtenstein government endeavored to run the connection across its own territory in order to enable Liechtenstein to be connected to the rail network. In a compromise solution, on January 14, 1870, approval was finally given for a route that would directly open up at least parts of Liechtenstein by rail. On August 27, 1870, a still valid state treaty between Austria-Hungary (now Republic of Austria ), Liechtenstein, Bavaria (now Federal Republic of Germany ) and Switzerland was signed in Bregenz , including the construction of a railway line between Feldkirch and Buchs.

Construction and electrification

With the approval in January 1870, the construction work was commissioned, so that the route from the k. k. The privileged Vorarlberger Bahn finally opened on October 24, 1872. On the same day, a train pulled by a steam locomotive drove the newly created railway line for the first time. Electrical operation began on December 16, 1926, and electrification took place together with the Arlbergbahn and the Lindau – Bludenz railway line.

Works agreements

Operations management was given to the Vorarlberger Bahn on January 14, 1870 (now and to this day ÖBB).

According to Art. 10 and Art. 16 of the State Treaty of August 27, 1870, transport material (in particular railway wagons and locomotives ) must be able to be used largely without hindrance in all participating states and transported from one state to the other.

With a few exceptions, the transit of goods over this railway line is exempt from transit duties.

According to the State Treaty of August 27, 1870, Art. 14, there is a legally binding ban on use on this railway line for people “who have been convicted of common crimes or misdemeanors, for surreptitious trafficking or serious offenses ”.

Rhine bridge

The Rhine bridge from 1934/1935 with the Calanda above the pillar

The construction of the Feldkirch – Buchs railway line also included the construction of a railway bridge over the Rhine. The bridge, built between 1870 and 1872, was a lattice construction made of iron with a double cross framework. In 1927 there was a flood of the Rhine in which debris accumulated on the railway bridge, so that the Rhine dam on the Liechtenstein side finally broke on September 25, 1927. The entire valley from Schaan to Bangs and Tosters was flooded. As a result, the destroyed bridge was replaced by a temporary solution.

In 1934 and 1935, a new steel bridge with a length of 190 meters was finally built on the river pillar of the destroyed bridge.

administration

In the first Austrian republic , the line belonged to the area of ​​responsibility of the Innsbruck Federal Railway Directorate . After Austria was annexed in 1938, it operated briefly as the Innsbruck Railway Directorate before it was dissolved on July 15, 1938. The line was subordinated to the Reichsbahndirektion Augsburg . After 1945 the ÖBB was re-established, the management structure from the time before 1938 was re-established, including the Innsbruck Federal Railway Directorate.

Concessions

The license granted by the Principality of Liechtenstein in 1977 expired on December 31, 2017. Since it has not yet been possible to agree on the details of a new concession, operations will be maintained with a provisionally extended concession. The negotiations on a new concession, which are strongly influenced by the Liechtenstein S-Bahn expansion project , have so far been spurred on by the fact that, on the one hand, the amended Liechtenstein Railway Act provides for free network access and, on the other hand, the Republic of Austria - analogous to domestic routes - grants for maintenance and operation demands what is rejected by the Liechtenstein side. If the license should expire due to a lack of extension or renewal, according to the government of the Principality under the State Treaty of 1870, this would mean that the railway infrastructure would become the property of the Principality of Liechtenstein. In the opinion of the ÖBB, the transfer of ownership without compensation would at least need to be legally checked, whereby a waiver of an " reversal " is also provided for in the Liechtenstein Railway Act.

The concession for the Swiss section, which was also limited to December 31, 2017, has been extended to December 31, 2022.

Today's operation

Special train ( Orient Express ) in Nendeln with the Alvier group in the background

The majority of long-distance rail transport (goods and people) between Austria and Switzerland uses this single-track route, so that it is hardly possible to expand the range of local transport services. Two ÖBB Nightjet (NJ) pairs of trains ( Budapest Keleti pu. / Graz Hbf - Zürich HB , etc. ), 7 RJX pairs of trains Budapest Keleti pu will run here in the 2020 timetable period . / Bratislava hl.st / Vienna Airport / Vienna Hbf - Innsbruck Hbf - Zurich HB and a EuroCity pair of trains as EC 163/164 Transalpin Zurich HB - Graz Hbf .

The cross-border local transport between the Werdenberg region , the Principality of Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg is poorly developed today. The Feldkirch – Buchs line is served by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) Mondays to Fridays, as far as working days in Liechtenstein, daily with nine regional train pairs, mostly consisting of Talent sets, which means that Buchs SG, Schaan and Feldkirch are only connected irregularly. Local transport is geared towards commuting times early in the morning, at noon (1 train from Buchs to Feldkirch) and in the late afternoon until around 7 p.m. The Schaan-Vaduz, Forst Hilti and Nendeln stations are served according to the timetable, but not the Schaanwald stop.

With the implementation of the Liechtenstein S-Bahn project , the prerequisites for increasing the line capacity and all-day regular traffic for local traffic are to be created.

On the Feldkirch – Buchs route, a wide variety of tariffs apply side by side ( ÖBB , LIEmobil , Ostwind , VVV ), etc. a. With the so-called "maximo" tickets of the Verkehrsverbund Vorarlberg (VVV) regional as well as long-distance trains can be used at the cheaper Austrian tariffs.

literature

• Lothar Beer: Railway. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein , accessed on April 30, 2020 .

Web links

• State treaty of August 5, 1865 for the construction of a railway from Lindau via Bregenz to St. Margarethen, and from Rüthi to Feldkirch (Austrian Law Gazette 1865, p. 423 ff).
• State treaty of August 27, 1870 on the construction of a railway from Lindau via Bregenz to St. Margarethen, and from Feldkirch to Buchs (ÖRGBl 1871, p. 23 ff).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} ÖBB Holding : Annual Report 2019 (PDF, 5.87 MB) March 24, 2020, p. 187 , accessed on April 30, 2020 .  
2. ↑ Austrian RGBl. 1865/138.
3. ↑ Austrian RGBl. 1871/13.
4. ^ Lothar Beer: Railway. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein . December 31, 2011 , accessed April 30, 2020 .
5. ↑ State Treaty of August 27, 1870, Art. 8.
6. ↑ State Treaty of August 27, 1870, Art. 17 ff.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Cornelia Herrmann: The art monuments of the Principality of Liechtenstein. 2007, p. 339 f.
8. ^ Paul Vogt: Bridges to the Past. 1990, p. 246.
9. ↑ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of August 6, 1938, No. 36. Announcement No. 488, p. 213.
10. ↑ Trains roll with a provisional license. In: St. Galler Tagblatt . December 25, 2017, accessed April 30, 2020 .  
11. ↑ State Parliament Protocol No. 127/2008. (PDF, 536 kB) October 22, 2008, p. 2285 , accessed April 30, 2020 .  
12. ↑ Timetable 401 (Fpl. Year 2020). (PDF, 142 kB) In: ÖBB course book . ÖBB , December 15, 2019, accessed on April 24, 2020 .  
13. ↑ Timetable Feldkirch – Buchs (Fpl. Year 2020). (PDF, 508 kB) In: LIEmobil timetable book . Verkehrsbetrieb LIECHTENSTEINmobil , December 15, 2019, accessed on April 24, 2020 .  
14. ↑ Timetable Feldkirch – Buchs (Fpl. Year 2020). (PDF, 1.375 MB) In: vmobil.at . Verkehrsverbund Vorarlberg , December 15, 2019, accessed on April 30, 2020 (in the printed timetable book on page 17).  
15. ↑ No train stop at the Schaanwald stop since the 2012 timetable, 2010–2011 only train 5715 stops (as of the 2020 timetable)
16. ^ Wikivoyage: Liechtenstein / Rail and bus tariffs
17. ^ VVV : Tickets and tariffs. «From domino to maximo: that's what your trip in the transport association costs». In: vmobil.at . Verkehrsverbund Vorarlberg , accessed on April 29, 2020 .  
18. ↑ Timetable Vorarlberg 2020 (overview of tariff zones in the back cover), published by: Verkehrsverbund Vorarlberg, Herrengasse 12, 6800 Feldkirch