Solothurn – Herzogenbuchsee railway line
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Inkwil station after closure, shortly before demolition
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The Solothurn – Herzogenbuchsee railway was a railway line between Solothurn and Herzogenbuchsee in Switzerland . The line was opened in 1857, closed for passenger traffic in 1992, and part of it reopened in 2004 as the upgraded Solothurn – Wanzwil line . Colloquially in the local area, the railway was also known as the «Buchsibahn».
history
The railway line Herzogenbuchsee – Solothurn including the continuation Solothurn – Biel was opened on June 1, 1857 as part of the south foot of the Jura by the Swiss Central Railway (SCB). Herzogenbuchsee had had a rail connection to Aarburg-Oftringen since March 16, 1856, and on June 16, 1857, with the opening of the line to Bern Wylerfeld, the village became a railway junction that marked the beginning of significant economic development and led to the construction of a station district.
The line saw its best times between its opening and 1876, the year in which the Gäubahn between Olten and Solothurn was opened. With the Gäubahn, traffic at the southern foot of the Jura took the shorter and more direct route from the Olten railway junction to Solothurn and degraded the route from Herzogenbuchsee to Solothurn to a branch line.
The line initially had stations in Inkwil and Subingen , those in Derendingen and Etziken were added later. In 1944 the line was electrified and the thin timetable expanded a little. In the 1970s, the closure of the line was examined, but it was postponed. On May 30, 1992, passenger traffic on the route was finally stopped and replaced by a bus line. The line was de-electrified and in sections used as a siding.
Expansion of the Solothurn – Wanzwil line
With the planning of new lines as part of the Bahn 2000 project , the line repeatedly appeared as a possible variant for the course of the new line in the midland between Olten and Bern from the 1980s onwards. Specifically, four variants were recently up for discussion, whereby the choice for the new main line fell on the new Mattstetten – Rothrist line . The connection to Solothurn, which could not be implemented directly, was compensated for by the "South Plus variant", a branch from the Mattstetten – Rothrist NBS near Wanzwil , which follows the disused route. The upgraded Solothurn – Wanzwil line was implemented while maintaining the old route between Solothurn and Inkwil and demolishing the Inkwil – Herzogenbuchsee section, half of which is Wanzwil. At Inkwil, the one-lane upgraded line divides into two single-tube tunnels that are introduced into the NBS in the direction of Rothrist without crossing. The upgraded line was opened in December 2004 together with the NBS and is used exclusively for long-distance traffic; There are no longer any breakpoints at the ABS. The maximum speed from Solothurn to Subingen is 140 km / h and from there 200 km / h. The high-speed switch at the transition to the Mattstetten – Rothrist line can also be driven at 200 km / h.