Winterthur – Koblenz railway line

Winterthur – Koblenz
Glattbrücke near Rheinsfelden
Timetable field :	761
Route length:	48.38 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV, 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	14  ‰
Legend Route from Etzwilen , route from Romanshorn , route from St. Gallen , Tösstalbahn Rhine Falls Railway from Schaffhausen 0.00 Winterthur 438.8 m Route to Zurich 1.72 Winterthur Töss 435.2 m Töss 3.39 Siding at Nägelsee 4.68 Winterthur Wülflingen 422.0 m 7.58 Pfungen 412.2 m 12.32 Embrach - Rorbas 423.0 m Torrent (93 m) Dettenberg tunnel (1800 m) Etterbühl (125 m) Line from Zurich 16.26 Bülach wedge station 427.0 m 19.40 Glattfelden 409.8 m 22.25 Eglisau 390.1 m Route to Neuhausen (CH) Glatt (Rhine) (93 m) 26.16 Zweidlen 368.2 m 29.36 Weiach-Kaiserstuhl 368.2 m Kaiserstuhl AG Rümikon 35.33 Rümikon-Mellikon 351.2 m Mellikon 38.11 Rekingen 338.2 m 41.40 Bad Zurzach 338.8 m 43.39 Rietheim (CH) 333.3 m 46.92 Koblenz Dorf from 1997 324.0 m Route from Waldshut Route from Waldshut 48.38 Koblenz 320.3 m Route to Turgi Route to Stein-Säckingen

The Winterthur – Koblenz railway , also known as the Dettenberg line , was opened on August 1, 1876 by the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB). It leads from Winterthur via Bülach to Koblenz and is part of the direct connection to Basel .

history

Endurance test of the Töss Bridge in 1875

The route is an addition to the existing route network of the NOB. Above all, it was intended to prevent traffic from migrating to competitors' routes, because at that time freight traffic had to be calculated and transported on the shortest route. If the route of a competitor was shorter, it had to be used or the competing company had to be compensated for the traffic failure. The route was pushed ahead with the routes planned by the Swiss National Railway and currently under construction, as the route between Wettingen and Winterthur in particular would have drawn off freight traffic. In addition to this route, the plan also included the Bülach-Baden Railway , which opened on October 1, 1877. The route Wettingen-Winterthur over the NOB routes (Wettingen-Bülach-Winterthur) was shorter than the SNB route through the Furttal, which opened on September 6, 1877 .

The line begins at Winterthur station . There was a connection to the NOB line to Romanshorn, which opened on May 16, 1855, including the continuation to Zurich opened in the same year, as well as to the former NOB-owned Rhine Falls Railway to Schaffhausen . In Winterthur there was also a connection to the competing routes of the United Swiss Railways to St. Gallen and the SNB route to Stein am Rhein - Singen or Kreuzlingen . It leads to the Bülach train station , where the Bülach-Regensberg Railway ended on May 1, 1865 . From Bülach it continues via Eglisau to the first Swiss border station, the Koblenz station , where it connects to the railway line from Turgi to Waldshut , which opened on August 18, 1859 . This creates a connection to the parallel Hochrheinbahn .

Wildbachbrücke near Embrach when operations start

On August 1, 1892, the connecting line Stein-Säckingen-Koblenz was opened by the Bötzbergbahn . On June 1, 1897, the NOB opened the Eglisau – Neuhausen railway , which made the section between Bülach and Eglisau a transit route . While the rest of the line always remained a single-track branch line, the section between Bülach and Eglisau was expanded to double-track and opened together with the line to Neuhausen (CH).

This section was also the first to be electrified, and on December 15, 1928, electrical operation with 15,000 volts and 16.7 Hz could begin. On the line between Koblenz and Eglisau, electrical operation began on July 1, 1945, and between Winterthur and Bülach on July 15, 1945. The electrification of both remaining routes was part of the emergency electrification program decided during the Second World War.

In the 1990s, some train stations were closed, but new stops were also set up. The Koblenz Dorf station was built near the village center. The Weiach-Kaiserstuhl station was closed to passenger traffic on May 28, 1995, and the Kaiserstuhl stop was created to replace it. The Rümikon-Mellikon train station between the two towns was closed to passenger traffic and replaced by the Mellikon and Rümikon stops.

Engineering structures

Glattbrücke near Rheinsfelden, 1875

The line crosses between the Embrach-Rorbas and Bülach stations with the 1,800-meter-long Dattenberg tunnel, the chain of hills of the same name that separates the Töss and Glatt valleys .

SBB Re 620 048-9 “Aigle” crosses the Wildbachbrücke with a gravel train

The route also has three larger bridges. Two of them are between Embrach-Rorbas and Bülach, one is the 93-meter-long Wildbach Bridge near Embrach, which was replaced by a new building in 1950, and the 125-meter-long Etterbühl Bridge in Bülach, which was built in 1971 and replaces several level crossings. The 118-meter-long Glattbrücke is located between Eglisau and Zweidlen and was replaced by a new building in 1948.

business

The route is listed in the Swiss timetable under field 761. Today it is used every hour by the S36 between Bülach and Koblenz. The S27 also runs between Bad Zurzach and Koblenz, with which the S36 runs every half hour. There are also trains to Schaffhausen between Bülach and Eglisau. The S9 still runs between Bülach and Eglisau, which, unlike the S36, also stops in Glattfelden. In addition, there is a pair of night S-Bahn trains between Winterthur and Bülach on Fri / Sat and Sat / Sun nights.

There is also some freight traffic on the route, which is not only concentrated on the Bülach – Eglisau transit section. In Rekingen, for example, there is a container terminal in the former Holderbank cement works , the Hochrhein Terminal. Several container trains run there every day. There is also a gravel mining area in Weiach ( Weiacher Kies ), which can be accessed by train via the Zweidlen station . In addition, there are a few block trains (mainly fuel and fuel trains to Glattbrugg) that travel from Basel via Koblenz and then use this route to bypass the Zurich hub.

literature

• Swiss rail network, edition 1980.
• "When the opening takes place, God is known" . Contribution to the 125th anniversary of the Winterthur – Koblenz railway line. In: Notices for the community Weiach (MGW) July 2001.