Thalwil – Arth-Goldau railway line

Thalwil – Zug – Arth-Goldau
Section (Zurich–) Thalwil – Zug (red) Section Zug – Arth-Goldau unmarked
Timetable field :	600
Route length:	32.89 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	16  ‰
Legend Zimmerberg Base Tunnel and Zurich Seebahn 12.09 Thalwil Route to Ziegelbrücke 14.52 Oberrieden village 16.82 Horgen Oberdorf Zimmerberg tunnel 1985 m Sihl Sihlbrugg (l / r) 65/66 m Sihltalbahn from Zurich 19.92 Sihlbrugg (served until 2013) Albis tunnel 3359 m 04/24 Litti Lorze 108 m 26.61 Baar Baar Neufeld Baar Lindenpark former turning loop towards Steinhausen 29.24 0.00 Train wedge station Routes to Lucerne and Zurich Zug Viaduct 255 m Postplatz Zug city tunnel 585 m Train casino Train Friedbach 3.14 Zug Oberwil Lotenbach tunnel 36 m Walchwil Hörndli Bühl tunnel 90 m 9.45 Walchwil Rossplatte tunnel 48 m St. Adrian 94 m St. Adrian 65 m Rufibach 70 m Rufibach 40 m Lime kiln 69 m Mühleflueh 192m 14.55 Goldau Mühlefluh SBB- GB from Immensee 15.77 Arth-Goldau 498  m above sea level M. SBB- GB to Erstfeld and SOB to Pfäffikon SZ

The Thalwil – Arth-Goldau railway is a feeder line to the Gotthard Railway . It was opened for this purpose on June 1, 1897, with the Thalwil - Zug section of the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB) and the Zug - Arth-Goldau section of the Gotthard Railway (GB). Since the nationalization of GB in 1909, the entire route has belonged to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

The route is still single-lane in parts and therefore very susceptible to delays. There is also the risk of natural hazards, especially on the Zug – Arth-Goldau section, which has therefore often had to be closed for several days.

route

The route begins in Thalwil, where it branches off from the Zurichseebahn on the left bank . The section, which has been expanded to two lanes since the 1960s, leads steadily upwards to Horgen Oberdorf . Then it drives under the Horgenberg with the 1985 meter long, single-lane Zimmerberg tunnel. After the tunnel, the Sihl is crossed in two lanes - a separate bridge for each track - and the Sihlbrugg station is reached. Here created the Sihltalbahn of Sihlwald from a distance extension, which opened on June 1, also the 1897th This is followed by the 3,359 meter long single-lane Albis Tunnel and then the Litti service station, from where the double-lane line to Baar station has been running since 1979 . It is crossed by the A4a motorway. The Lorze is crossed before Baar ; the old, 96-meter-long bridge was replaced by a new 110-meter bridge on the occasion of the double-lane construction. The newly built bridge was subjected to a load test with 8 Ae 4/7 on the night of March 28th to 29th, 1981. The line between Baar and Zug has been expanded to two lanes since 1931.

In Zug, the line was connected to the existing Zug train station of the Zurich-Zug-Lucerne Railway , which was operated by the NOB, and the station had to be rebuilt. This created a connection to the Zurich – Zug railway and the Zug – Lucerne railway .

The Zug – Arth-Goldau line is still completely single-track, which severely restricts the operation of the Zug urban railway and the Gotthard express trains . To do this, it leads through geologically unstable terrain, which makes double-track expansion almost impossible. In addition, the route is endangered by possible landslides and crevices in every major storm .

Immediately after Zug train station there is the 255 meter long viaduct over Gotthardstrasse, Baarerstrasse and Poststrasse and the 585 meter long city tunnel. The Zug Oberwil stop was expanded into a train station in 2010 in order to have a second crossing point on the route. Before Walchwil , the 36 meter long Lotenbach tunnel and the 90 meter long Bühl tunnel are passed. The Walchwil Station has long been the only place where trains could cross. This is where the regional train (now the S2 of the Stadtbahn Zug) crosses with the oncoming Gotthard express train. This is followed at short intervals by the 48 meter long Rossplatte tunnel, the 94 meter long St. Adrian Bridge, the 65 meter long St. Adrian Tunnel, the 70 meter long Rufibach Bridge and the 40 meter long Rufibach Tunnel. Later the 69 meter long lime kiln tunnel and shortly before Arth-Goldau the 192 meter long Mühlefluhtunnel. At the Goldau Mühlefluh service station that follows, the double-track section begins in front of the Arth-Goldau train station. At Arth-Goldau station there is a connection to the Gotthard line of the SBB and the Pfäffikon SZ – Arth-Goldau line of the SOB, as well as to the Arth-Rigi-Bahn .

expansion

A second track will be built near Walchwil from mid-2019 to enable express trains to run every half hour on the connection from Zurich to Ticino. During the two-year construction work, the route between Zug-Oberwil and Arth-Goldau will be completely closed. During this time, regional traffic is served by buses, while long-distance trains are diverted via the west side of Lake Zug.

literature

• Swiss Rail Network , published in 1980 by the SBB General Secretariat, Bern
• Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network and Swiss rail profile CH + . AS Verlag, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-909111-74-9 .
• Dietler: Swiss Northeast Railway. In: Röll: Encyclopedia of the Railway System. 1917, accessed February 1, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Newspaper article from 1897 about the Thalwil-Zug railway line
2. ↑ EA 5/81 page 288
3. ^ Zug - Arth-Goldau: route expansion for half-hourly service from Zurich to Ticino. bahnonline.ch, May 3, 2013, accessed on October 16, 2018 .