Waterfalls railway project
The Wasserfallenbahn - not to be confused with the cable car of the same name - was a railway project in north-western Switzerland that ultimately failed due to a lack of finances. According to the plan, the Wasserfallenbahn should enable the shortest possible railway line between Basel and Bern, which is as close to the air as the crow flies, beneath the Wasserfallen ridge near the Basel area of Reigoldswil .
Project and construction history
The first such plans date from 1849, when Robert Stephenson was commissioned to plan a railway network between Basel, Bern and Zurich and he proposed a tunnel roughly at the level of the waterfalls. However, after the Federal Council demanded a concept with only one breakthrough in the Jura (the Stephenson Plan would have required a second breakthrough on the Basel-Zurich route) and finally in 1858 the Hauenstein tunnel between Trimbach and Läufelfingen was put into operation, the project was initially forgotten again.
With the Railway Act of 1873, the idea flared up again, as this law required that freight trains should have been guided on the shortest and most direct route. A water trap line could have been operated profitably despite the competing Hauenstein line. On June 4, 1873, the cantons of Basel-Landschaft and Solothurn applied for a license to build and operate the line. The day before, the Swiss Central Railway (SCB) (including the operator of the Hauenstein line) had submitted the same license application. The concession was ultimately granted to SCB, which received it through a clause in the concession of the Gäubahn . Through the Klus von Balsthal , the Wasserfallenbahn would have shared the track with the Jura-Gotthard Railway , which is also planned .
In 1873, construction work began between Reigoldswil and Mümliswil with 250 workers excavating the tunnel. As early as 1874, the construction of the line had to be stopped due to insufficient finances. The shell of the tunnel itself was only built on a short section; the north portal is still preserved today. The failure of this railway project contributed to the fact that the Waldenburgerbahn could be realized. The industry in Balsthal , which at the time hoped to find a connection to the Swiss railway network via the Wasserfallenbahn, looked for other solutions after its failure and finally built the Oensingen-Balsthal-Bahn (OeBB).
The abrupt end of the construction work was a financial disaster for the communities affected by the construction. As a result of the failure, there was an avalanche of litigation with expertise and counter-expertise. Ultimately, the SCB was sentenced to pay compensation to the communities, but at the same time relieved of the obligation to build the Wasserfallenbahn.
Reasons for failure
The reasons for failure are still controversial today. During this time, there was a general railroad bug in Switzerland . The railway committee constituted for the planning and construction of railway lines had to deal with numerous, often competing route proposals, many of which did not materialize.
One reason for the failure was that a Jura breakthrough was already in operation at that time: the Hauenstein tunnel had already been opened on May 1, 1858. The route of the route via Sissach - Läufelfingen - Olten covered a large part of the traffic needs of the time. Because the Wasserfallenbahn would have been in competition with the line through the Hauenstein, the project was not expected to generate a large return. Therefore, the procurement of the necessary funds for the construction of the Wasserfallenbahn was not successful, and the final route outside the tunnel was not yet fixed.
It is also considered possible that the SCB, as the concession holder, deliberately sabotaged the project. She was anything but eager to complete the route, as she was already in possession of the Hauenstein line and did not want to cede part of the (freight) traffic to the Wasserfallenbahn. The Centralbahn ensured that the financial risks in the event of a failure primarily remained with construction companies. She also made sure that only outside capital was used. With the acquisition of the concession and the start of construction, it was able to prevent a competing company from creating the line and later operating it in direct competition with the Hauenstein line. Olten might also have lost its position as a railway junction (which it still holds today). The SCB (and later the SBB as successor) extended the concession for the Wasserfallenbahn until 1916, when the Hauenstein base tunnel between Olten and Tecknau was built.
The argument against the thesis of deliberate sabotage can be that the SCB built the Bötzbergbahn from Pratteln to Brugg at the same time as the Wasserfallenbahn and the Schweizerische Nordostbahn.This route connected Basel with Zurich and competed directly with the SCB Basel-Zurich route via Olten. However, the conditions on the Bötzberg route were different. Because it can be assumed that the SCB simply could not prevent the Bötzbergbahn. The Bötzberg route would have had to be built by SCB one way or the other if they didn't want to leave the route to the competition. To this end, it was intended from the outset, together with the Aargau Southern Railway , as a feeder to the Gotthard Railway , the only Swiss connection through the Alps at the time. The expected return was therefore higher than that of the Wasserfallenbahn, which was primarily intended for national traffic. The financial risk could also be reduced noticeably by working with the NOB.
literature
- Gustav Adolf Frey: On the history of the Wasserfallenbahn . With map insert and appendix: Memories of the railway construction in 1874/75. Landschäftler, Liestal 1939 (special print from: Baselbieter Heimatblätter; 1938, No. 4 and 1939, No. 1 and 2).
- Peter Heim : Traffic . In: History of the Canton of Solothurn . tape 4.2 . Lehrmittelverlag Kanton Solothurn, Solothurn 2011, ISBN 978-3-905470-51-2 , p. 195–198 (section “The drama at the waterfalls”).
- Alex Capus : 13 true stories. Historical miniatures. Deuticke, Vienna 2004; dtv, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-423-13470-4 , pp. 121-134: Die Wasserfallenbahn .