Ziegelbrücke – Sargans railway line

Brick Bridge - Sargans

Legend SBB - Zürichseebahn from Zürich S 2 SBB route from Rapperswil S 4 33.6 Brick bridge Route to Linthal Beaver liqueur tunnel (305 m) old route until 1969 Linth Canal 31.5 Weesen Linth Canal former route to Näfels-Mollis until 1931 30.7 Weesen (no PV since 2014 ) 29.4 Gäsi old route until 1960, from 1964 Walenseestrasse Escherkanal Kerenzberg Tunnel (3,955 m) Weisswand-Ofeneck-Tunnel (781 m) Standenhorn Tunnel (258 m) Glattwandtunnel (111 m) Hechlenhorn tunnel (86 m) 24.5 Mühlehorn Support tunnel (133 m) 23.3 Depth angle 21.2 Murg Bühl tunnel (114 m) 18.1 Unterterzen end point S 2 16.4 Mols old route until 1941 Bommerstein tunnel (453 (new) or 188 m) (old) Seez 13.5 Walenstadt 9.7 Flums 2.6 Mels SBB route from St. Margrethen 0.0 Sargans SBB east loop to St. Margrethen S 4 SBB route to Chur

The Ziegelbrücke – Sargans railway is a railway line operated by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

Lines

From the Ziegelbrücke station it is the continuation of the left bank of the Zürichseebahn . It is an important rail link in the south and east of the canton of St. Gallen and as such follows the left bank of the Walensee and the Seeztal . Except for a short, single-track section between Mühlehorn and Murg , it is double- tracked . In Sargans it unites with the Rhine Valley line . For the EuroCitys and freight trains that run directly between Zurich and Austria , there has been an additional connecting track since the 1980s so that they no longer have to go through a hairpin.

history

The Ziegelbrücke – Sargans railway line with its continuation to Chur was created from sections of different railway lines of the United Swiss Railways (VSB) that were put into operation independently of one another. First, operations between Chur and Sargans as part of the Chur – Rheineck line began on July 1, 1858. On February 15, 1859, operations began on the Sargans – Murg line and between Ziegelbrücke and Weesen as part of the Rüti – Weesen – Glarus line. The Murg – Weesen line followed on July 1 of the same year.

Until 1875, all express trains ran to and from Chur via Uster – Rapperswil , as the Thalwil – Pfäffikon SZ line of the Nordostbahn (NOB) was not yet completed.

As early as 1918, passenger traffic on the Weesen – Näfels section of the former VSB Rüti – Weesen – Glarus route was discontinued because the connection of the Glarus region via the former NOB line seemed more suitable. The disused section was canceled in 1931.

In the following years the line was straightened and expanded to double track. The first thing to do in 1941 was the Bommerstein Tunnel east of Mols. In 1961 the twin-lane Kerenzberg tunnel was opened, which replaced the single-lane route along the Walensee west of Murg. The old route was used for the construction of the Walenseestrasse , whereby the tunnels had to be widened. It is still in operation today as the northern lane (direction Zurich) of the A3 motorway . In 1969 the stretch between the west portal of the Kerenzerberg tunnel and Ziegelbrücke was straightened, for which the Weesen station was relocated from the north side of the Linth Canal to the south side, a new Linth Canal bridge and the Biberlikopf tunnel were built.

Today (2018) one or two InterCity and one RegioExpress run between Zurich and Chur every hour . While the InterCity trains mainly consist of IC2000 push-pull units with locomotives of the SBB Re 460 series , there are also shuttle trains and locomotive-hauled trains made up of standard wagons and (partly former) EuroCity wagons with a type Re 420 or Re 460 locomotive . Since 2012, the range of IC traffic has been gradually expanded, so that today (2020) there is an almost continuous half-hourly service. The InterRegios (Basel SBB - Zurich HB - Chur) were converted to Stadler double-decker trains (RABe 511) at the end of 2013 , have been running under the name RegioExpress since then and are no longer linked via Zurich to Basel, but they also stop in Siebnen-Wangen and Walenstadt . InterRegios, which had a continuation from Basel to Hamburg-Altona twice a day, also disappeared . These two train routes operated as EuroCity , but had the same stop frequency as the IR. Since December 2015, however, three ICEs from Hamburg-Altona have been running from Zurich to Chur, each running instead of an InterCity.

The regional trains were also converted at the end of 2013. Instead of an NPZ that drove from Ziegelbrücke to Chur, the S 4 of the St. Gallen S-Bahn now runs with a Stadler Flirt and serves the stations between Ziegelbrücke and Sargans. Weesen station has not been served since this changeover (the AWA's Ziegelbrücke – Amden bus service runs every half hour). Occasionally the S 2 of the Zurich S-Bahn is extended to Unterterzen (without stopping at the intermediate stations) (mostly on weekends).

business

Long-distance transport

• REChur - Landquart - Bad Ragaz - Sargans - Ziegelbrücke  - Pfäffikon  - Wädenswil  - Thalwil  - Zurich
• IC Chur - Landquart - Sargans  - Zurich  (- Basel )
• RJX Vienna  - Salzburg  - Buchs  - Sargans  - Zurich

Regional traffic

• S 4 (Uznach -) Ziegelbrücke - Sargans  - Buchs - Altstätten - St. Margrethen - Rorschach - St. Gallen - Herisau - Wattwil - Uznach-Ziegelbrücke ( circular route )

Freight transport

The volume of goods is very high here, as this is the transit route to Vorarlberg and the rest of Austria . The trains from France ( Mulhouse ) and Switzerland ( Limmattal marshalling yard ) to the Hall in Tirol marshalling yard use the route via the Buchs border crossing and not via St. Margrethen. The crossing at St. Margrethen is only used by trains to and from the Wolfurt marshalling yard . The Buchs marshalling yard, on the other hand, serves the entire Swiss Rhine Valley.

future

• In June 2010 the last remaining EuroCity Zurich – Vienna was replaced by a Railjet .
• In response to the 2013 timetable change, SBB announced extensive expansion of regional traffic. For example, the half-hourly cycle that has long been required for the Walensee region is being implemented.

Web links

• Walensee line Zurich - Chur on schienenverkehr-schweiz.ch (accessed on June 17, 2017)