Chemin de fer Lausanne – Friborg – Berne

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Chemin de fer Lausanne – Friborg – Berne (LFB)
Section of the Chemin de fer Lausanne – Friborg – Berne
View from Oron train station to the castle of the same name. The town gave its name to the conflict over the route of the Bern – Lausanne railway line.

The Chemin de fer Lausanne – Friborg – Berne (LFB) or Oronbahn was a Swiss railway company that existed from 1858 to 1871. On January 1, 1872, the LFB merged to become Chemins de fer de la Suisse Occidentale (SO).

history

Oron orbit conflict

The aim of the Oron Railway was to connect French -speaking Switzerland with German-speaking Switzerland by means of a railway line from Lausanne to Bern via Oron and Friborg . However, between 1852 and 1857 it was preceded by a long history of suffering, the Oron Railway Conflict , a battle of various cantonal interests over the route selection for a railway connection between western and German-speaking Switzerland.

As early as 1852, the cantons of Bern , Friborg , Vaud and Geneva had agreed in a treaty on a rail link between Geneva and Bern . This line should run from Bern via Laupen - Murten - Payerne - Yverdon - Lausanne to Geneva. Immediately afterwards, the Compagnie de l'Ouest Suisse (OS) received the Vaudois concession for their section.

However, the canton of Friborg wanted to come back to the route and finally insisted that the line should run via Friborg instead of via Laupen. The Ouest Suisse did not agree and insisted on the route over Murten and called the Federal Assembly for a compulsory concession against Freiburg. At the request of Julien Schaller, the Grand Council of Friborg decided on November 27, 1855 to build a railway line at state expense from Yverdon via Payerne – Friborg to Thörishaus on the border with the canton of Bern. The concession was to be given to a company to be set up called Chemin de fer du canton de Friborg ou du Center Ouest Suisse . On February 6, 1856, the Federal Assembly decided in favor of Friborg, and the canton granted its company a concession. Shortly thereafter, Freiburg changed its plans again and became interested in building a direct route, over 26 kilometers shorter, via Oron and on May 24, 1856 granted the Chemin de fer Lyon-Genève a concession.

Grandfey Viaduct over the Saane around 1862

Lausanne, on the other hand, came back to the Federal Assembly and submitted a compulsory license application for the line via Murten. The Federal Council then consulted foreign experts who voted against the Oronbahn because of the considerable technical difficulties and higher installation costs. Nevertheless, after heated debates on September 23, 1856, the Federal Assembly approved in principle the direct oron line.

Lausanne then did not want to enter into an agreement meeting proposed by the Federal Assembly, and the federal government granted Freiburg the compulsory license to build the line on Vaud soil. Vaud, on the other hand, tried a compulsory concession for the Murten Line, but was rejected by the Federal Council on July 31, 1857. Vaud then rebelled against the federal decision and asserted a conflict of competencies. Finally, on December 19, 1857, the united federal assembly rejected the conflict of competencies and weighted the national interests for the Oron line higher than for those of a Murten line.

Company opening

On April 16, 1858, the Oronbahn was able to acquire the concession for the Geneva- Versoix line from the Chemin de fer Lyon-Genève . On July 1, 1858, it took over - just six days after its opening - the Chemin de fer Genève-Versoix (GV) , which had been founded shortly before, and became its successor company. On July 2, 1860, she was able to put the section from Thörishaus on the canton border Bern - Friborg to Balliswil near Düdingen into operation. In the hamlet of Balliswil, not far from Freiburg, a provisional train station was built at the north bearing of the Grandfey Viaduct . The section Bern –Törishaus, which opened on the same day, is located in the canton of Bern and belonged to the Swiss Central Railway (SCB).

On September 4, 1862, the LFB was able to open the rest of the section from Lausanne to Balliswil and thus start continuous train traffic between Bern and the canton capital of Vaud. Financial difficulties that arose during the construction of the Oron Railway caused the LFB to cede their line to the canton of Friborg on November 12, 1863. The approval of the canton of Vaud took place on November 24, 1866 and that of the canton of Geneva only on May 9, 1869.

In 1868, the Lausanne – Friborg – Bern Railway started operating the Versoix – Geneva double track . In the same year, Ouest Suisse also completed the second track from Gland to Versoix.

Operating group Suisse-Occidentale

Locomotive No. 6399 Romont of the SBB, originally No. 4 of the LFB.

The connection from Geneva via Lausanne to German-speaking Switzerland was in the hands of three railway companies, which often fought against each other. The ownership structure was largely based on the cantons. Like the LFB, the Vaudois Ouest Suisse (OS) and the Franco-Suisse (FS) in the canton of Neuchâtel had to contend with financial difficulties, which also resulted from cost overruns during construction. After difficult negotiations, the three railway companies formed an operating group on January 1, 1865 called the " Association des chemins de fer de la Suisse Occidentale ". Their operation became a company called Laurent-Bergeron et Comp. transfer. The financial situation of the three railways in western Switzerland stabilized and from 1868 the operating group was able to pay a modest dividend every year .

On January 1, 1872, the Suisse-Occidentale (SO) was formed as a stock corporation in which the Oronbahn was fully integrated together with the Ouest Suisse and the Franco-Suisse. Thus, with a network length of 315 kilometers, the largest Swiss railway company at the time was created.

Rolling stock

List of locomotives that were used by the LFB:

designation LFB no. Surname SO no.
from 1865		 SO / SOS no.
from 1871		 JS no.
from 1890		 SBB no.
from 1903		 Manufacturer Construction year discarded
from 1873: II
from 1887: B2
from 1902: Ec 2/4		 1-12 → Main article: LFB Ec 2/4 1-12 51-62 251-262 6398, 6399 Esslingen 1862 1895-1905

Remarks

  1. ↑ Lausanne – Friborg – Bern Railway
  2. ↑ In accordance with the Railway Act of 1852, concession sovereignty lay with the cantons. However, the federal government had the right to force concessions if this was in the interests of the whole country.
  3. ↑ The Genève – Lyon Railway merged in 1857 with the Paris – Lyon – Mediterranean Railway (PLM) founded in the same year .
  4. ^ Association of Western Switzerland Railways

swell

  • A century of Swiss railways 1847–1947; Verlag Huber & Co. AG, Frauenfeld; 1947; Volume I, pages 80-82
  • Placid Weissenbach : The railway system in Switzerland. (PDF 14.8 MB) First part. History of the Railway System. 1913, p. 66 , accessed February 1, 2014 .
  • Hans G. Wägli - Swiss Rail Network; General Secretariat SBB, Bern; 1980
  • Lausanne – Friborg – Berne In: bahndaten.ch. Data on the Swiss railways 1847–1920 . Thomas Frey and Hans-Ulrich Schiedt, ViaStoria, accessed on February 1, 2014.
  • Alfred Moser: The steam operation of the Swiss railways 1847-1966 . Birkhäuser Verlag Basel and Stuttgart 1967