Jura-Gotthard Railway

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The Jura-Gotthard-Bahn (JGB) was a planned and unrealized project in the 1870s to build a railway line in Switzerland . It should have led from Delémont via Balsthal , Langenthal , Willisau , Lucerne and Stans to Altdorf . This would have made it possible to run direct trains from Paris to the Gotthard Railway and on to Milan . The project failed when the French Chemin de fer de l'Est decided instead to route its international trains to Basel via the Jura Railway .

Starting point and idea

According to the terms of the Peace Treaty of Frankfurt , signed on May 10, 1871 , which formally ended the Franco-Prussian War , the French railway company Chemin de fer de l'Est (EST) had to cede its routes in Alsace and Lorraine . These came under the control of the German Reich Railways in Alsace-Lorraine , which meant that the EST no longer had a direct connection to Switzerland. Instead of the previously used route via Mulhouse , a new one had to be found through the Jura in order to create a connection to the planned Gotthard Railway .

In the same year, a provisional committee was set up in Langenthal in the canton of Bern to plan a railway line to Huttwil . The initially purely regional project took on international dimensions when the committee wrote a letter to EST on November 22, 1871. It stated that both sides had common interests, especially since the shortest connection between Belfort and Gotthard was via Langenthal and there were excellent prospects in terms of profitability. In a letter of reply dated December 2, the EST director expressed his interest in principle.

The committee then called a public meeting, which took place on December 17, 1871 in the Reformed Church of Langenthal. Another committee from Willisau joined this call. Around 500 interested people were present at the meeting chaired by National Councilor Johann Bützberger . Bützberger presented the project idea, while Jost Weber , government councilor of the canton of Lucerne , called for an intercantonal committee to be formed and for founding shares to be subscribed. National Councilor Daniel Flückiger pointed out that time was pressing because the city of Basel had already sent negotiators to Paris to enforce a line from Belfort - Porrentruy - Kleinlützel - Basel. On December 24, 1871, the intercantonal initiative committee, which comprised eleven (later 14) high-ranking politicians and was headed by Johann Bützberger, met for the first time in the Olten railway station buffet . The initiative committee began preparations for raising capital in January 1872 and commissioned a technical report on the preliminary project, which also contained a cost estimate .

Route description

Johann Bützberger submitted an application for a license on February 23, 1873 , in which the route was described in more detail. The JGB route should be 157.8 km long, with a minimum radius of 300 m and a maximum gradient of 21 ‰. However, these values ​​would only be reached in the area of ​​the Jura breakthrough. The initiative committee expected costs of almost 42 million francs . The Paris – Belfort – JGB – Gotthard Railway – Milan connection would have been shorter than any other between north-eastern France and northern Italy . It would have been able to pull in all of the transit traffic in this corridor. The route network of the United Swiss Railways was to be connected from Lucerne in order to also take up transit traffic between France and Austria-Hungary via the Arlbergbahn .

From Delémont , where there would be a connection to the line from Belfort that was already under construction , the JGB was to initially head south through the Birstal to Moutier and then turn east into the Grand Val. Between Corcelles and Welschenrohr a 2360 m long tunnel was planned under the Walenmatt in order to reach the valley of the Dünnern . Oensingen would be reached via Balsthal , where the JGB would cross the future route of the Gäubahn . The route now heading south would then cross the Aare at Aarwangen and reach Langenthal . Two further variants of a Jura breakthrough were investigated between Delémont and Balsthal: the first via Vicques , Montsevelier , Erschwil and Mümliswil , the second via Laufen , Breitenbach , Erschwil and Mümliswil.

Overview map from the French version of the report from 1874 over the areas of France and Switzerland that should have been connected by the Jura-Gotthard Railway with the Gotthard (Italy) and the Arlberg (Austria).

From Langenthal, the JGB was to open up Huttwil and Willisau in a south-easterly direction . Between Wolhusen and Lucerne , it was to use an 18.5 km long section of the Bern – Lucerne railway line that was under construction . Since the cantons of Bern and Lucerne were the main shareholders of the Bern-Lucerne railway company , this was not a problem. From Lucerne, another new line to be built was required. After Hergiswil , the JGB would cross the Alpnachersee by means of a lattice girder bridge and then via Stans to reach the south bank of the Vierwaldstättersee near Buochs . The route should then largely follow the lakeshore via Treib and Bauen and finally flow into the Gotthard Railway in Altdorf .

Further development

The National Council and the Council of States granted the license on 20/22 September 1873. In July 1874, the initiative committee again turned to the public with a detailed technical and commercial report in German and French. With regard to the financing, she stated that the JGB needed a subsidy of eight million francs. This is primarily to be raised by France, as the project will primarily benefit EST, which is affected by the competition between Belgian- Alsatian lines. On August 27, 1874, the initiative committee decided that a meeting of the founding shareholders should now be called in order to advance the project. Before a delegation left for Paris, the EST announced that they were no longer interested in the Jura-Gotthard Railway. Instead, the company took a stake in the Chemins de fer du Jura bernois , which opened the Delémont – Basel section of the Jura Railway in 1875 .

It became more and more apparent that the project would probably not be realized. On December 17, 1877, the initiative committee held its last meeting in Bern and decided to prepare a final report for the founding shareholders, which was available in March 1879. A total of 1,120 founding shares at CHF 20 each had been paid in. The remaining deficit of 348.35 francs was covered by the members of the initiative committee. Only parts of the plans were implemented:

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Schneeberger: The project of a Jura-Gotthard railway. P. 161.
  2. ^ Schneeberger: The project of a Jura-Gotthard railway. Pp. 161-162.
  3. ^ Schneeberger: The project of a Jura-Gotthard railway. Pp. 163-165.
  4. ^ Schneeberger: The project of a Jura-Gotthard railway. P. 166.
  5. ^ Schneeberger: The project of a Jura-Gotthard railway. P. 169.
  6. ↑ a b c Message from the Federal Council to the High Federal Assembly regarding the concession for the construction and operation of a Jura-Gotthard railway. (PDF, 531 kB) In: Federal Gazette . Swiss Federal Chancellery , July 24, 1873, accessed on September 9, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Jura-Gotthard Railway . In: The Railway . tape 1 , no. 10 . Orell Füssli , Zurich 1874, p. 103 .
  8. ^ Schneeberger: The project of a Jura-Gotthard railway. P. 170.
  9. ^ Schneeberger: The project of a Jura-Gotthard railway. P. 172.
  10. ^ Schneeberger: The project of a Jura-Gotthard railway. Pp. 172, 174.