Zurich – Baden railway line

Zurich – Dietikon – Baden
Limmattal marshalling yard
Timetable field :	650, 700, 710
Route length:	22.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Legend 0.07 Zurich main station 407  m above sea level M. 4.17 Zurich Altstetten 398  m above sea level M. Line to Affoltern am Albis – Zug S 5 S 14 6.32 Access to the Schnellgutbahnhof Zürich Mülligen 7.51 Streaks 392  m above sea level M. 9.55 Glanzenberg 390  m above sea level M. 11.07 Dietikon end point S 19 388  m above sea level M. Connection to BD to Wohlen Branch to the RBL East 13.01 Silberen planned stop 13.30 Exit from RBL East Separation structure for long-distance traffic / S-Bahn Branch from the RBL West 16.11 Killwangen-Spreitenbach 393  m above sea level M. Freight link to Oerlikon - Otelfingen Heitersberg route to Aarau - Mellingen S 11 18.79 Neuenhof 388  m above sea level M. A1 -Bridge Neuenhof (104 m) Furttal route from Otelfingen - Oerlikon S 6 Upper Limmat Bridge Wettingen (137 m) 20.33 Wettingen 388  m above sea level M. Lower Limmat Bridge Wettingen (129 m) Line to Othmarsingen ( freight traffic only ) Schoolhouse Square Kreuzlibergtunnel (988 m) / Schlossberg tunnel (80 m) 22.53 Baden end point S 6 385  m above sea level M. Baden – Aarau railway line

The Zurich – Baden railway line is a standard-gauge , double-track railway line in northern Switzerland . It belongs to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and runs from Zurich via Altstetten , Dietikon and Wettingen to Baden .

history

First Lower Limmattal Bridge during construction in 1875

In 1836 the project for a railway line from Zurich to Basel via Laufenburg failed due to a lack of finances and resistance from the Aarau Grand Council. The section between Zurich and Baden is the first railway line in Switzerland to lie entirely on Swiss soil. It was opened on August 9, 1847 by the Swiss Northern Railway. It quickly became apparent that this relatively short route could hardly generate any profit. For passenger transport, it quickly became known far beyond its catchment area as the Spanish Brötli Railway and was accordingly popular, but the reloading times in the more lucrative freight transport ate up the time saved by the new means of transport. As early as 1853, the company was merged with the Zurich-Bodenseebahn . Plans to continue the route to Basel and Aarau were reserved for her successor.

The almost entirely level route was built in just 16 months and did not require any major bridges or tunnels to the immediately south of the Baden train station located Schlossbergtunnel . This originally 80 meter long engineering structure was replaced by a longer tunnel at the beginning of the 1960s, because the crossing of the school building square in Baden led to unacceptable traffic jams due to the increased individual traffic.

After the original route south of the Schlossberg tunnel proved unsuitable due to severe landslides, the Swiss Northeast Railway considered double crossing the Limmat north and south of Wettingen with the Lower and Upper Limmat Bridge . From 1877 the new line and the Wettingen station could be put into operation. Wettingen is the only stop on the route east of the Limmat.

Route description

The trains, which originally departed and entered from the Zurich terminus, have been running under the Limmat since the Museumstrasse underground station was completed in 1990 and continue to run south and east.

With the exception of a two-kilometer stretch near Wettingen , the railway line runs parallel-west of the Limmat in the elongated, space-delimiting Limmat Valley. The greater area belongs to the northern foothills of the agglomeration of Zurich. It is densely populated and interspersed with many traffic routes. The Zurich – Baden railway line is one of the most important modes of transport. To the east are the motorways 1 and 3, each with three lanes .

According to the volume of trade, the railway has a corresponding number of adjacent tracks . North of Dietikon is the Limmattal marshalling yard, Switzerland's largest marshalling yard. In Altstetten there is the Cargo Center Müllingen, a large mail distribution center with a rail connection.

In addition to the Interregios from Basel, the S 12 Brugg - Altstetten - Zurich HB - Stadelhofen - Winterthur - Schaffhausen / Wil runs on the entire route , from Dietikon, since the 2015/16 timetable change, the S 19 ( Koblenz - Baden -) Dietikon - Zurich HB - Wallisellen - Effretikon (- Pfäffikon ZH ) with a few additional trips via Baden to Koblenz . With the merging of the Heitersberg line from Zurich and Bern north of Killwangen , the number of tracks has increased to four. This section is the longest four-lane route in Switzerland. In rush hour , the train sequence is reduced to a few minutes. With regard to the entire Swiss rail network, this section is one of the most important and busiest sections of the standard gauge network and forms the backbone of the east-west transversal line of the SBB through the Swiss plateau . From Killwangen, the route is also served by the S 11 Aarau - Lenzburg - Dietikon - Zurich HB - Stettbach - Winterthur - Seuzach / Sennhof-Kyburg (- Wila ), from Altstetten also by the S 5 Zug - Affoltern a. A. - Zurich HB - Uster - Pfäffikon SZ and S 14 Affoltern a. A. - Altstetten - Zurich HB - Oerlikon - Wallisellen - Hinwil .

Accidents

On August 17, 1915, an express train ran into a stationary passenger train in Dietikon because the entry signal had been opened too early. Six people were killed and 26 others injured, some seriously.

On September 8, 1976, a locomotive ran over a group of track workers near Dietikon, and six employees died.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The first attempts to build a railway in Aargau . Archive werft22. Retrieved August 28, 2015
2. ↑ Spanish Brötli Bahn ( Memento from July 22, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
3. ↑ Transport Rehabilitation Baden: Construction begins in 1957 on Werft22
4. ↑ Information board at the Lower Limmattal Bridge
5. ↑ ZVV S-Bahn, buses and ships ( Memento from February 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
6. ^ Report of the Federal Council to the Federal Assembly on its management in 1915. (PDF, 6.4 MB) Post and Railway Department. In: Swiss Federal Gazette. March 29, 1916, p. 38 , accessed October 20, 2013 . 
7. ↑ Marcel Manhart: List of the most serious rail accidents in Switzerland up to May 2006 from SBB Historic. Retrieved October 26, 2013 .