St. Margrethen – Lauterach railway line

St. Margrethen – Lauterach North
Route number (ÖBB) :	304 01
Course book route (ÖBB) :	401
Route length:	9.580 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Legend from Rorschach 0.000 St. Margrethen according to Buchs 0.749 SBB / ÖBB ownership limit Autobahn 13 1.604 Rhine ( state border A / CH ) Service of the International Rhine Regulation 1,838 Lustenau Market (until June 12, 2011) Connection to OMV 2,620 Lustenau Dornbirn Oh 6.483 Hard - Fussach 8.424 Lauterach West Route 304 11 to Lauterach Süd from Bludenz 9,580 Lauterach north to Lindau

The St. Margrethen – Lauterach railway is a 9.580 km long, continuously single-track, electrified railway line in the Lake Constance area . It connects the St. Margrethen train station in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen with the Lauterach Nord junction in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg , where it joins the Lindau – Bludenz railway line . The entire route is owned by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and is also operated and mainly used by them, the common border station is St. Margrethen.

history

Multiple unit of the ÖBB series 4024 in St. Margrethen station

The cross connection between the Chur – Rorschach railway and the Lindau – Bludenz railway was established on November 23, 1872 by the private corporation k. k. Priv. Vorarlberger Bahn opened, a first continuous express train between Zurich and Munich ran the route from November 1, 1873. With the connection of the Vorarlberg routes to the rest of the Austrian rail network, the route to St. Margrethen was also nationalized.

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.

On January 2, 1949 finally was electrified, today the route is in the rail transport every half hour from the line S3 of the S-Bahn Vorarlberg and in the long-distance passenger traffic every two hours of EUR City operated trains on between Zurich and Munich. This international trains will be supported by locomotives of the Swiss Federal Railways drawn (SBB), the additional pantographs for ÖBB and DB - catenary feature. By 2023, the line will be modernized and in some cases double-tracked, with travel times shortened, noise protection for residents and flood protection improved, the Lauterach West stop reopening and the Lustenau and Hard-Fussach stops being converted to be barrier-free.

Web links

• State of Vorarlberg: "Consistent expansion of rail services in Vorarlberg" Press foyer of the state of Vorarlberg on April 25, 2017, p. 6

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of August 6, 1938, No. 36. Announcement No. 488, p. 213.
2. ↑ Expansion of St. Margrethen – Lauterach on infrastructure.oebb.at, accessed on February 24, 2020