Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Railway

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The Re 465 was the last locomotive procured by the BLS. Re 465 007 in Lucerne

The Berner Alpenbahn-Gesellschaft Bern – Lötschberg – Simplon or briefly Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon-Bahn (BLS) was a railway company in Switzerland that operated the Lötschberg line in the cantons of Bern and Valais . BLS, founded in 1906, bought the Spiez-Frutigen-Bahn (SFB) in 1907 . In 1913 the Thunerseebahn (TSB) merged, which in turn had merged a year earlier with the United Steamship Company for Lake Thun and Brienz (VDG). In June 1997, the BLS merged retroactively to January 1, 1997 with the co-operated railways Spiez-Erlenbach-Zweisimmen-Bahn (SEZ), the Gürbetal-Bern-Schwarzenburg-Bahn (GBS), and the Bern-Neuenburg-Bahn (BN) to the BLS Lötschbergbahn (BLS).

history

prehistory

Obligation of CHF 500 from the Bernese Alpine Railway Company Berne-Loetschberg-Simplon dated November 1, 1906

After the Gotthard Railway started operating in 1882, the canton of Bern tried to create its own north-south axis. The necessary financial resources did not come from the Swiss Confederation , but unexpectedly from France. Because of the loss of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany in 1871, business circles from Paris were interested in an international transit railway via Delle to Italy. Years of disputes about the route preceded the construction. In the end, the Lötschberg line projected by former Bernese government councilor Wilhelm Teuscher prevailed.

Foundation and construction

A few months before the start of construction, the Bernese Alpine Railway Company Bern – Lötschberg – Simplon (BLS) was founded on July 27, 1906 for the construction of the Lötschberg line. The name BLS is somewhat misleading insofar as its own network only reached from Thun to Brig. The Spiez-Frutigen Railway has been running from Spiez to Frutigen since July 24, 1901 ; this train was on January 1st, 1907 for SFr. 3'558'680.67 taken over by BLS. The first explosive shots on October 15, 1906 announced the start of construction on the Lötschberg tunnel . In the same year the Simplon tunnel of the SBB was completed. In 1911 the Lötschberg tunnel (length 14,612 m) between Kandersteg and Goppenstein was pierced. When the access ramps were completed on both sides, continuous operation from Spiez to Brig could begin on July 15, 1913 .

Pioneering achievement: The Be 5/7 were the most powerful electric locomotives in the world when they were delivered.

The Lötschberg axis, electrified with 15,000 V and 16 ⅔ Hz since the opening and consisting of 33 tunnels, 3 avalanche protection galleries and 22 bridges, has become an important railway line in international traffic, especially between Alsace and Italy ( Domodossola ). The Spiez – Frutigen line, which has been electrically operated since November 1, 1910, as a test route and forerunner to electrical operation, was initially built for 15 Hz. The system was adjusted to 16 ⅔ Hz after the administrations of Prussia, Bavaria and Baden decided to use 16 ⅔ Hz as the railway frequency in early 1913. This change could be carried out without major structural changes; only the speed controllers of the generators had to be adjusted.

First years of operation

Train in the early days of the Lötschbergbahn in the Blausee-Mitholz station.

On January 1, 1913, the Berner Alpenbahn-Gesellschaft merged with the Thunerseebahn (TSB). In addition to the Lötschberg route (Spiez – Brig), from then on it also included the Scherzligen ( Thun ) –Spiez– Interlaken - Bönigen route, as well as shipping on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. With the takeover of the Thunerseebahn in 1913, BLS became the operating company of the so-called BLS Group with the following railway companies:

In 1915, the Grenchenberg line of the Münster-Lengnau Railway (MLB) was added, but it was legally part of the BLS from the start. The route via Delle through the 8.5-kilometer Grenchenberg tunnel to Grenchen and Biel was intended to bring France closer to the Lötschberg and thus Italy. The Moutier-Lengnau route was operated by the SBB , the station and construction services were in the hands of BLS.

The international transit trains only crossed the Lötschberg for a short time. Since the outbreak of World War I, the income has not been enough to bear the interest.

Development after the First World War

Car loading in Kandersteg
The Ae 4/4 was the world's first high-performance locomotive without running axles for use in express train services. It served as a model for the four-axle bogie locomotive that established itself throughout Europe after the Second World War.

After Alsace and Lorraine passed to France in 1918, the originally planned transit traffic shifted from France via the Grenchenberg tunnel to the Basel border crossing. But thanks to the growing freight traffic between Germany and Italy and the travel traffic to Valais, the BLS has not lacked in traffic. In spite of this, the income fell short of expectations and in 1923 the BLS balance sheet had to be restructured.

BLS has been operating a car loader through the Lötschberg tunnel since the 1950s . Thus the long detour by car across the Lake Geneva region could be avoided. In 1969, rail operations between Interlaken Ost and Bönigen were replaced by bus operations.

The Lötschbergbahn has been continuously double-tracked since 1992. Work on this began in 1977. At the request of the federal government, which had been asked for co-financing in 1906, the Lötschberg tunnel was built with two lanes and the access roads for the double lane were prepared during construction.

Railway lines

route Length
km		 opening electric
since		 comment
Spiez-Brig 73.3 1901-1913 1910-1913 Lötschberg mountain route
Thun – Spiez – Interlaken Ost 83.0 1872-1893 1915-1920 Thunerseebahn
Interlaken Ost – Bönigen  2.2 1874 1920 1969 Operation ceased, partially preserved as a siding to the Bönigen workshop
Moutier-Lengnau 13.0 1915 1928 Grenchenberg tunnel

Rolling stock (selection)

Two Re 4/4 in front of a freight train in Lalden . In 1968 the BLS had the Re 4/4 161 converted into the first thyristor locomotive in Switzerland.

Locomotives

  • BLS Fb 2 × 2/3 101 (test vehicle not taken over)
  • BLS F 2 × 3/3 121 (1910), later Ce 6/6 121
  • Fb 5/7 151-163 (1913), later e.g. T. Ae 5/7 161-164 / 171
  • Be 6/8 201–204 (1926/31), later Ae 6/8 (Breda locomotives)
  • Ae 6/8 205-208 (1939-1943)
  • Ae 4/4 251-258 (1944-1955), new Ae 415; four of them converted to Ae 8/8 274–275 in 1966
  • Ae 8/8 271-273 (1959-1963)
  • Re 4/4 161-195 (1964-1983), new Re 425
  • Re 420 501-512, ex SBB Re 4/4 II
  • Re 465 001-018 (1994-1997), locomotive 2000

Multiple units / multiple units

BLS blue arrow ABDe 4/8, today in the Kerzers Railway Museum. In addition to planned traffic, the blue arrows were also used for excursions throughout Switzerland and occasionally abroad.

literature

  • The Lötschbergbahn. In: Newspaper of the Association of German Railway Administrations, Volume 54, No. 7 (January 24, 1914), pp. 105–109 and No. 8 (January 28, 1914), pp. 122–125.
  • Claude Jeanmaire: With coal, steam and paddle wheels. Publishing house for railway and streetcar literature, Basel 1971, ISBN 3-85649-009-7 .
  • W. Brügger: The railways. In: The Freigbuch. Local history for the Frutigen landscape. Paul Haupt, Bern 1977, pp. 419–437.
  • Florian Inäbnit, Jürg Aeschlimann: Bern – Neuchâtel Railway. The BLS line from Bern to Neuchâtel. Prellbock Druck & Verlag, Leissigen 2001, ISBN 3-907579-18-6 .
  • Kilian T. Elsasser, Stephan Appenzeller (eds.): Pioneer Railway on the Lötschberg. The history of the Lötschbergbahn. AS-Verlag, Zurich 2013. ISBN 978-3-906055-06-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The history of BLS shipping. Company portrait. In: Website is BLS AG. Retrieved April 15, 2017 .
  2. ^ Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network and Swiss rail profile CH + . AS Verlag, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-909111-74-9 .
  3. ↑ The history of BLS AG. Company portrait. In: Website is BLS AG. Retrieved April 15, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Bern – Lötschberg – Simplon. In: Via Storia, Center for Transport History. University of Bern, accessed on April 15, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Railway icon restored: BLS's “Blue Arrow” is back on the road. Bahnonline.ch, August 5, 2014, accessed on October 19, 2018 .
  6. ^ Kilian T. Elsasser, Theo Weiss, Thomas Hurschler: The Blue Arrow. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 960, Series 96). Ed.  Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2014, ISBN 978-3-03797-164-2 .