Delémont – Delle railway line

Delémont – Boncourt – Delle
Stone arch viaduct Combe Maran near Saint-Ursanne with a Flirt multiple unit
Timetable field :	240
Route length:	39.93 km / 0.38 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	16  ‰
Legend SBB routes from Basel and Moutier 84.61 Delémont 413  m above sea level M. 87.87 Courtételle 437  m above sea level M. 90.11 Courfaivre 451  m above sea level M. 93.50 Bassecourt 478  m above sea level M. 96.40 Glovelier 505  m above sea level M. Connection to CJ - RSG 96.68 Roller bolster system 508  m above sea level M. Glovelier 2012 m 98.10 Culminating point 520  m above sea level M. Montmelon 223 m Malvie 68 m Malvie 213 m Combe Maran 237 m 101.66 St-Ursanne 492  m above sea level M. Château 228 m Croix 2966 m 107.82 Courgenay 488  m above sea level M. Noir-Bois 198 m 112.54 CJ - RPB by Bonfol 426  m above sea level M. 112.87 Porrentruy 423  m above sea level M. Courchavon 194 m 116.13 Courchavon 406  m above sea level M. 117.99 Courtemaîche 397  m above sea level M. Route to Bure (CH- VBS ) 119.66 Grandgourt 391  m above sea level M. 121.45 Buix 382  m above sea level M. 123.35 Boncourt 374  m above sea level M. 124.53 464.57 State border CH – F 369  m above sea level M. SBB – RFF ownership limit 464.19 Dent 367  m RFF route to Belfort

The Delémont – Delle railway line is a standard-gauge railway line in the Swiss canton of Jura and belongs to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

The 40-kilometer route from Delémont via Glovelier , Porrentruy and Boncourt across the border into Delle in France was opened in three stages between 1872 and 1877.

history

The first section, the Porrentruy – Boncourt – Delle line, was opened on September 23, 1872 by the Chemin de fer Porrentruy – Delle (PD). The line found in Delle connection to the Montbéliard – Audincourt – Morvillars – Delle line , which was opened on June 29, 1868 by the Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM). With the cession of Alsace to the German Empire in 1871, Delle became the northernmost border station between Switzerland and France.

The PD was taken over on August 16, 1876 by the Compagnie du Jura bernois (JB). The JB, which literally translates to German as " Bernese Jura ", developed early on into the largest railway company in the area that gave it its name; This is due both to the company's own brisk construction activity and the purchase of two other railway companies.

Advertisement for the route opening on March 30, 1877

Military transports during the First World War in Pruntrut station

Heavy traffic in Delle station before electrification

Viaduct Combe Maran in its original state

On October 15, 1876, the JB opened the Delémont – Glovelier section. The merger with the former PD line took place on March 30, 1877 with the opening of the Glovelier – Porrentruy section, which has elaborate engineering structures.

This merger with the rest of the Swiss standard gauge network also marked the beginning of the upswing in rail traffic via the Delle border station . The Compagnie de l'Est (EST), which had lost part of its routes and access to Basel with the separation of Alsace, opened the Belfort – Morvillars line on August 13, 1877 , which in Danjoutin from the main line Paris – Mulhouse branches off. EST also laid its own second track between Morvillars and Delle.

The owner of the Delémont – Delle line changed names several times over the next few years: On July 1, 1884, the JB was renamed Jura – Bern – Lucerne (JBL), and on January 1, 1890, JBL merged with the Jura-Simplon Railway (JS). JS was one of the five large private railway companies in Switzerland that were nationalized; on May 1, 1903, it was integrated into the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

In addition to international passenger trains, freight trains from France in particular ran via Delle, as the old access to Basel led through Alsace and thus through German territory. In order to avoid the additional customs treatment, trains were preferably routed via Delle to Delémont and on to Basel or a detour to Biel. In terms of the volume of goods in transit, Porrentruy station was statistically fourth in 1913. With the opening of the Grenchenberg tunnel in 1915, the route between Delémont and Biel was also significantly shortened.

The electrical operation of the SBB under 15 kV 16⅔ Hz alternating current was started on the Delémont – Delle line on May 15, 1933, while the short section between the state border and Delle station was also electrified by the SBB.

With the nationalization of PLM and EST on January 1, 1938, the French connecting lines came into the ownership of the SNCF . After the outbreak of the Second World War, border traffic via Delle came to a standstill.

After the Second World War, rail traffic was resumed and in 1948 Switzerland and France agreed to build a new border station in Delle. On the French side, however, a downturn set in, the last two-lane section Morvillars – Delle was reduced to one track in 1953 due to savings. The SNCF finally refrained from the intended electrification in 1957, instead the line to Basel SNCF was electrified. The new border station in Delle was opened against all odds in 1967.

Over time, Delle gradually lost its importance compared to the electrified rail border crossings in Basel, Les Verrières and Vallorbe. The last through trains between Delémont and Belfort - with good connections to long-distance trains to Paris - were abandoned on September 26, 1992 and the Belfort – Delle line was closed for passenger traffic by the SNCF. Cross-border freight traffic on the Boncourt – Delle section was discontinued by the SBB on June 30, 1993, and in the same year the SNCF also completely shut down the Morvillars – Delle section.

With the timetable change on May 27, 1995, the SBB stopped operating the Delle station from the Swiss side. With the discontinuation of passenger traffic, the Boncourt – Delle section was shut down and de-electrified on June 1, 1996. Since the former Delle border station became useless, practically the entire track system of the spacious station was dismantled in 1996 and 1997.

On September 16, 1996, the NPZ regional train Porrentruy – Delémont collided with the Re 4/4 II 11304 locomotive from Delémont to Glovelier in Courfaivre . 30 people were injured, two of them seriously. The driver of the NPZ was distracted by young people who prevented the door from closing.

After 2000, the first ideas arose to reactivate the Belfort – Delle line, resume cross-border passenger traffic and - after the LGV Rhin-Rhône went into operation - the Belfort-Montbéliard TGV station on the Belfort – Delle line with regional trains from Belfort and via the old route from Switzerland to be developed.

As a first symbolic step, the 1.6 km long Boncourt – Delle section was reactivated. The costs of around 1.3 million Swiss francs were primarily borne by the Franche-Comté region and the canton of Jura , with financial contributions from France, Switzerland, the EU, the RFF , the SBB, the SNCF and the municipality of Delle. For the re-commissioning, the route that had grown over in places had to be exposed and the substructure renewed. In the otherwise rail-less Delle station, a new track was laid and the line was re-electrified. After the official and symbolic inauguration ceremony on December 8th, with the timetable change on December 10th, 2006, cross-border rail traffic was resumed by the SBB.

The reactivation of the Belfort – Delle line, with it the connection from Belfort to Porrentruy and the connection at Belfort-Montbéliard TGV station in Meroux to the TGV network, originally planned for the 2017 timetable change, took place on December 6, 2018 with a festive reopening. On December 9, 2018 (timetable change), regular operations on the Belfort-Delle route were resumed.

Engineering structures

The “Combe Maran” viaduct near St-Ursanne was built between 1875 and 1876 by the Decker brothers from Cannstatt in Württemberg . At a height of 50 meters it swings in a slight curve over the valley. Originally built as a viaduct resting on five pillars with a steel trailer, it was reinforced by additional pillars between 1929 and 1930.

Connecting lines

Delémont

• The Delémont – Basel line was opened by JB on September 25, 1875.
• The Moutier – Delémont line was opened on December 16, 1876 by JB.

Glovelier

• The Saignelégier – Glovelier line was opened on May 21, 1904 by the Régional Saignelégier – Glovelier (RSG). After the merger of the RSG to the CJ, the line was closed on May 8, 1948 and converted to meter gauge. Since it reopened on October 4, 1953, Glovellier has had a roller bolster system for reloading and transporting standard-gauge wagons on the meter-gauge route.

Porrentruy

• The Porrentruy – Bonfol line was opened on July 14, 1901 by the RPB.

Courtemaîche

• The Courtemaîche – Bure route was opened by the Swiss Confederation on March 19, 1968 and is used for military transports to the Bure arsenal.

Dent

• The Belfort – Delle line was opened by PLM on June 29, 1868.

traffic

Since December 2004, trains on line S3 of the Basel S-Bahn have been running every hour from Basel to Porrentruy. Between December 2010 and 2015, further S3 trains ran every half hour from Delémont to Glovelier with connections in Delémont on the ICN and the RegioExpress. Since the 2014 timetable, RegioExpress trains have been running every hour between Delle, Delémont and Biel / Bienne; these were extended to Meroux (Belfort-Montbéliard TGV) as of the 2019 timetable.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Route lengths: Delémont – Boncourt border 39.93 km; Dent-boundary – dent 0.38 km ( RFF ); total distance traveled 40.31 km
2. ^ Accident in Courfaivre (JU) . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 10/1996 . Minirex, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 395 .
3. ↑ Belfort - Delle reopening to revive Franco-Swiss link on railwaygazette.com of December 5, 2018, accessed on December 10, 2018
4. ↑ Une centenaire: La ligne CFF Delémont – Delle. 1877-1977. Porrentruy 1977.

literature

• Hans G. Wägli: Swiss Rail Network . AS Verlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-905111-21-7 .
• Hans G. Wägli: Railway Profile Switzerland 2005 . Diplory Verlag, Grafenried 2004.
• Mathias Rellstab, Theo Stolz: Boncourt – Delle stretch open again . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 2/2007, Minirex, Lucerne 2007, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 102.

Web links

Commons : Delémont – Delle railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Association interligne TGV Belfort-Bienne (French)