Wettingen – Effretikon railway line

Wettingen – Effretikon
Timetable field :	703 Wettingen – Zurich Seebach 750, 800 S7 Opfikon – Effretikon
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Dual track :	Otelfingen – Otelfingen Industry Buchs-Dällikon Industry – Buchs-Dällikon Regensdorf-Watt – Zurich Seebach Opfikon – Abzw Riet Kloten – Effretikon
Legend from Othmarsingen from Basel 42.7 Wettingen 386  m above sea level M. to Zurich Tägerfeld (planned) from Killwangen-Spreitenbach 39.1 Würenlos 393  m above sea level M. 36.5 Otelfingen 427  m above sea level M. Sidings, formerly from Niederglatt 35.6 Otelfingen industry 35.4 Otelfingen Golf Park 34.1 Buchs-Dällikon Industry 32.9 Buchs - Dällikon 424  m above sea level M. 29.5 Regensdorf - Watt 442  m above sea level M. 26.3 Zurich Affoltern 456  m above sea level M. 23.3 / 6.0 Zurich Seebach 442  m above sea level M. from Zurich Oerlikon to Bülach 7.2 Opfikon 427  m above sea level M. to Zurich Airport 8.2 Riet single-track to Kloten 8.8 Kloten Balsberg Zurich airport line 10.0 / 11.3 Balls 13.4 Village nest at Zurich Airport old route until 1980 14.8 Bassersdorf 455  m above sea level M. from Oerlikon via Wallisellen 16.8 Effretikon 511  m above sea level M. to Hinwil to Winterthur

The Wettingen – Effretikon line was opened on October 15, 1877 by the Swiss National Railways (SNB). The trains ran north past Zurich , which meant that this important industrial center was not connected. This fact was one of the reasons for the bankruptcy of the company in 1878. As a result, the route was taken over by the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB). It has been part of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) route network since 1902 .

history

The original plan was to open the connecting section Wettingen - Baden Oberstadt on September 6, 1877, along with the line towards Zofingen . However, there were delays in the construction of the bridges over the Limmat and the NOB line, which were necessary for the connection with the Limmattal line of the NOB, so that this section could only be opened with a one-and-a-half month delay on the same day as this line .

The first experiments with high-voltage single-phase alternating current took place between Zurich-Seebach and Wettingen between 1905 and 1909 . Then the contact line was dismantled again.

→ Main article : Single-phase alternating current test operation Seebach – Wettingen

The Opfikon – Wettingen line was electrified again on February 13, 1942 . The Zurich-Oerlikon-Kloten-Effretikon route was electrified on August 6, 1925. Between May 25, 1909 and November 15, 1939, the section between Zurich-Seebach and Schärenmoos (now Opfikon ), the so-called bankruptcy curve, was closed (The subsequently built route Oerlikon-Schärenmoos- (Kloten) remained open).

The Wettingen – Effretikon line is the continuation of the Zofingen – Suhr - Lenzburg –Wettingen line. The track between Effretikon and Winterthur was laid parallel to the existing double-track line of the NOB. This third track on the Effretikon – Winterthur section was dismantled by the NOB around 1880, with the substructure remaining. Between Wettingen and Otelfingen , next to the main track of the SNB, the main track of the Bülach-Baden Railway operated by the NOB was located . Here, too, the second track was dismantled by the NOB after the two lines merged in 1882.

On March 8, 1994, a freight train consisting of tank cars with gasoline derailed at Affoltern station. There was a serious accident with explosions.
→ Main article: Zurich-Affoltern railway accident

Route description

The route begins in Wettingen, where there was a connection to the Baden – Zurich route (Spanish-Brötli-Bahn) operated by the NOB. There was also a depot here. The route is on the eastern side of the Limmat and leads to Würenlos , where it branches off from the Limmattal into the Furttal . The multi-purpose hall Tägerhard is located between the two villages in Tägerfeld. The construction of a stop has so far failed due to funding. In Würenlos there has been a junction to Killwangen-Spreitenbach since 1980 , which enables freight trains to reach the Limmattal marshalling yard through the Furt valley . In Otelfingen, the Schwenkelbergbahn branched off the route, the route to Bülach was closed in 1969. This track remnant was used for a long time as a driveway to part of the Otelfingen industrial quarter, but was finally shut down in 2007. The Jelmoli Otelfingen stop was built at the level of the industrial quarter in the 1960s . After the eponymous central warehouse was closed, the stop was renamed Otelfingen Industrie and later Otelfingen Riedholz and since the opening of the golf course it has been called Otelfingen Golfpark .

Between the Otelfingen and Buchs - Dällikon stations, the construction of a express freight station was planned until the 1970s, but this was never carried out. After the Buchs-Dällikon train station, the route continues on the plain between the two villages to the Regensdorf- Watt train station . At that time this was also outside the actual village; today the settlement area has expanded towards the train station. Between 1996 and 1997, the section between Regensdorf-Watt and Zurich-Seebach was expanded to double-track. This is followed by the so-called bankruptcy curve, which bypasses the Oerlikon train station and leads north, where the Zurich-Bülach route is crossed with the dam and viaduct. The curve that connects Seebach station with Oerlikon station was not built by the SBB until 1909. The rail link between Schärenmoos and Zurich-Oerlikon was also built by the NOB after the bankruptcy of the SNB and opened on June 1, 1881. In the Schärenmoos, a number of modifications and extensions were carried out on the occasion of the construction of the airport line. The line has had a double-track island here since 1978, which leads from the confluence of the line from Zurich Oerlikon (Schärenmoos service station) to the Ried service station. This additional track leads with the existing viaduct over the line to Bülach and is used for the intersection-free unbundling of the trains, as there is a switch connection to the airport line after crossing the Bülach line (in the area of ​​the SBB Oerlikon substation, three double-lane lines have been side by side since 1979) . After this switch connection, both lines were laid in a covered incision. The Opfikon stop has also been redesigned in this area. The only tunnel on this route has been located here since 1978, the 257-meter-long Opfikon Tunnel. This tunnel is actually just an overburden, which was completed in November 1977 together with the adjacent covering of the airport route. The Opfikon station is in exactly the same place. The tunnel thus serves as weather protection for almost the entire length of the 300 meter long central platform.

On the western side, in front of the Opfikon stop, there is the connection to the line to Bülach, which allows direct travel from Bülach into the Furttal to Wettingen. It was built in connection with the construction of the airport line in 1979 and opened on September 30, 1979. After Opfikon station, the airport line has been crossing under the line since 1980, shortly before it joins the airport tunnel. Between the Riet service station and the Opfikon train station, the line to Kloten is single-lane. It is to be expanded to double track by 2027, on the one hand to enable the S-Bahn to run every quarter of an hour and on the other hand to provide more routes for freight trains. The single-lane route from Kloten to the Dorfnest junction was not connected to the airport line without crossing . This deficiency has been remedied with the new Dorfnest flyover. The preparatory work began in November 2015, and the actual construction work began in 2016. An approximately 200 meter long bridge was built over the airport line. The new route went into operation with the timetable change in December 2018. From here, the line has been double-lane since the airport line was built to Effretikon . However, for the construction of the airport line, the line in the area of ​​the Bassersdorf train station was relocated and expanded to double lanes. The route was stretched and the station was moved from the center to the edge of the village. Shortly before Effretikon, directly in front of the Hürlistein office, the route crosses the A1 motorway . At the Hürlistein office, this line meets the Zurich-Wallisellen-Winterthur line, which was opened by the NOB in 1855. Since it was built, it has led from here with three tracks to the Effretikon train station (initially as a single-track line next to the NOB double track), where the Effretikon – Hinwil railway line began in 1876 . Together with the construction of the Hürlistein overpass, the section between the Hürlistein service station and Effretikon was expanded to four tracks in 2015.

The SNB also built a third track between Effretikon and Winterthur, which was laid out parallel to the NOB line. This track was dismantled again in 1880 after the forced liquidation of the SNB and the takeover of the SNB lines by the NOB.

literature

• Hans G. Wägli, General Secretariat SBB (Ed.): Swiss Rail Network . AS-Verlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-905111-21-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ railway amateur 1/78 page 17
2. ↑ Double track expansion Opfikon - Kloten by 2027 . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 1 . Minirex, 2020, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 5 .
3. ↑ Bridge structure overpass village nest. SBB, accessed on February 29, 2020 .