Left bank Zurichseebahn

Zurich – Ziegelbrücke – Näfels
Timetable field :	720 (Zurich – Ziegelbrücke) 736 (Ziegelbrücke – Näfels)
Route length:	61.31 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	17  ‰
Legend 0.34 Zurich HB S 24 end point S 25 408 m above sea level M. Diameter line from track 31-34 S 2 S 8 Line to Winterthur S 24 , line to Baden Connection curve from Zurich Altstetten 1.96 Zurich Aussersihl Zimmerberg Base Tunnel (9478 m / 9419 m) 2.93 Zurich Wiedikon 405 m above sea level M. Wiedikon- Ulmberg tunnel (848 m) Manessetunnel to SZU - freight line to Giesshübel 3.41 Kollerwiese 3.93 Zurich Narrow 409 m above sea level M. Engetunnel (903 m) 5.81 Zurich Wollishofen 409 m above sea level M. 8.86 Kilchberg 424 m above sea level M. 9.68 Nidelbad Preparations for continuation of the base tunnel to Zug 10.64 Rüschlikon 433 m above sea level M. 12.09 Thalwil 435 m above sea level M. Route to train S 24 14.23 Oberrieden 424 m above sea level M. 16.77 Horgen 408 m above sea level M. 20.73 Au ZH 409 m above sea level M. 23.97 Waedenswil 408 m above sea level M. Route to Saturdayern-Einsiedeln 27.46 Richterswil 408 m above sea level M. 28.73 port 29.37 Bäch SZ 411 m above sea level M. 31.71 Freienbach SBB 410 m above sea level M. Route from Arth-Goldau 33.44 Pfäffikon SZ end point S 8 412 m above sea level M. Lake Zurich – Gotthard Railway to Rapperswil 37.18 Altendorf 412 m above sea level M. 39.58 Laugh 416 m above sea level M. A3 laugh (62 m) 43.49 Siebnen - Wangen end point S 27 433 m above sea level M. 46.57 Schübelbach - Buttikon 418 m above sea level M. 49.94 Reichenburg 420 m above sea level M. 54.23 Bilten 421 m above sea level M. Lower Linth Canal Bridge (62 m) Route from Rapperswil S 4 S 6 57.14 Brick bridge end point S 2 S 27 425 m above sea level M. Beaver liqueur tunnel (305 m) old route until 1969 Weesen (repealed in 1969) 425 m above sea level M. Linth Canal (53 m / / 72 m) old route until 1969 Weesen (until 2013 PV ) 425 m above sea level M. 58.9 Lower and upper urns 427 m above sea level M. former Gäsi nach Sargans (until 1960) Route to Unterterzen - Sargans S 2 S 4 Discontinued in 1918, canceled in 1931 61.65 Näfels - Mollis 437 m above sea level M. Line to Linthal S 6 S 25

The Linksufige Zürichseebahn , also known as the Linksufrige Seebahn (often simply left bank or Seebahn ), is a railway line opened on September 20, 1875 by the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB) from Zurich main station via Ziegelbrücke to Näfels . With the nationalization of the NOB in 1902 , the Seebahn became part of the newly founded Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

Before the railway line was opened along the left bank of Lake Zurich , the first express trains ran between Zurich and Chur via Uster . When the right bank of the Zürichseebahn opened in 1894, the term Seebahn had long been established in Zurich for the route on the left bank and it has been preserved to this day thanks to the corresponding street and property names.

Route

Zurich – Thalwil

Zurich Enge station at the opening

Railway line between Enge and Wiedikon. You can see the Ulmberg tunnel (today a road tunnel) and the overpass of the Sihl valley and Üetliberg route.

Thalwil station, 1875

The Seebahn leaves the Zurich track field as the southernmost double lane at the coal triangle , which is formed by the lines Hauptbahnhof – Wiedikon, Wiedikon – Altstetten and a connection from the Hauptbahnhof – Altstetten. The coal triangle was used to store coal during steam operation; today, the SBB coal triangle substation is located here . After the coal triangle, the connecting line from Zurich Altstetten, opened on June 1, 1897, joins the left bank of the Zurichseebahn. It allows freight trains to bypass the Zurich terminus and was occasionally used by passenger trains. For example the Arlberg-Orient-Express that stopped at Zurich Enge train station .

When it opened in 1875, the tracks between Zurich main station and Wollishofen were not yet in the lower ground. They crossed twelve streets and three tram lines at the same level, which led to considerable traffic obstructions from the turn of the century after the automobile was hardly foreseeable during construction. This became particularly disruptive after the Thalwil – Arth-Goldau railway line was opened in 1897 , so that trains from Zurich in the direction of Gotthard also ran via the Seebahn. The NOB originally planned the construction of an elevated route, but the city of Zurich prevailed with the desire for a guided tour in a lower area. The new route with a Seebahn incision , Wiedikon-Ulmberg tunnel and Enge tunnel was opened on March 1, 1927. The old Ulmberg tunnel was converted into a road tunnel and is still in operation today (western tube of the Ulmberg tunnel ). Witnesses of the original route are a station keeper's house and the building line of the houses on Alfred Escher-Str. 4, 6 and 10, as well as Gotthardstrasse 62 .

The tracks have been running in the Seebahn incision since 1927 and merge under the station building of the Wiedikon station, which is designed as a riding station , into the Ulmberg tunnel, which opens into the incision of the Enge train station . Branch off from this after the Wiedikon train station, the connecting track leads through the Manessetunnel to the SZU in the Giesshübel train station . After the Enge train station and the subsequent Engetunnel, the route rejoins the original route from 1875 before reaching Zurich Wollishofen train station . The Seebahnstrasse runs parallel to the Seebahn cut in the city of Zurich. Between 1982 and 2009, it carried transit traffic from the A3 to the A1 through the city of Zurich.

The Seebahn leaves the city of Zurich south of Wollishofen. This is followed by the Kilchberg and Rüschlikon train stations before the line reaches Thalwil train station.

Since 2004, the Zimmerberg base tunnel has been branching off in the Seebahn section of the city of Zurich , the first stage of which forms a second double lane parallel to the Seebahn. This route leads directly to Thalwil without intermediate stops and is used by express and freight trains. It joins the old Seebahn route directly in front of the Thalwil train station.

Thalwil – Ziegelbrücke – Näfels

In Horgen, the station building and goods shed had sunk a meter immediately after the opening and had to be demolished.

Wädenswil station at the opening

Upper Linth Bridge

At the south end of the station of Thalwil the branches stretch Thalwil- train from the 1897 by the NOB as Zurich feeder to the Gotthard Railway was opened (GB). The intersection-free unbundling of the two lines brings about the oldest overpass in the SBB network, which was put into operation on December 7, 1962 together with the Thalwil – Horgen Oberdorf double lane on the line to Zug. The route to Zug leads through the Zimmerberg Tunnel and the Albis Tunnel into the city ​​of Zug , where the connection to the Zug – Arth-Goldau route of the UK will be created.

The Oberrieden and Horgen train stations follow the Seebahn , from where the route usually runs directly on the lake shore. In Horgen, on September 20, 1875 - two days after the inauguration - cracks appeared on the steamboat pier. On the same day, three tracks of the station sank with 6500 square meters of heaped land in Lake Zurich. For the next two days, the water swallowed the toilet block. The goods shed and the station had sunk a meter, so they had to be demolished. It was only after 13 years that Horgen came to a station building. The line was expanded step by step. The line at Käpfnach was electrified before June 26, 1924. The double-track expansion took place later.

After the station Au ZH follows Wädenswil , where the 1877 Wädenswil-Einsiedeln train opened (WE) railway Wädenswil- Einsiedeln branches. The Richterswil , Bäch and Freienbach SBB train stations continue before the Seebahn reaches the Pfäffikon SZ railway junction . In Pfäffikon, the railway line to Rapperswil , opened by the Lake Zurich – Gotthard Railway (ZGB) , has been branching off since 1878 and runs over the Rapperswil lake dam , in whose construction the ZGB was involved. The continuation from Lake Zurich in the direction of the Gotthard Railway to Arth-Goldau was no longer opened by the ZGB in 1891, but by the Swiss Southeast Railway (SOB), which was created in 1890 from the merger of the ZGB with the WE.

The Altendorf train station follows along the Zurich Obersee , where the Etzelwerk AG power station is located. The company, originally founded by Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke (NOK) and SBB, has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBB since 1987 and mainly generates traction current in the pumped storage power plant of the same name by utilizing the difference in altitude between Lake Sihl and Lake Zurich.

With the train station of Lachen follows the last village on Zurich Obersee. The railway line then runs through the Linth plain with the train stations Siebnen-Wangen, Schübelbach - Buttikon , Reichenburg , Bilten and Ziegelbrücke . While regional trains and S-Bahn traffic end at the Ziegelbrücke railway junction, the express trains continue on the Ziegelbrücke – Sargans railway line . The original NOB Seebahn runs in a single lane through the Nider- and Oberurnen train station to the old end of the line at the Näfels - Mollis train station . Today this single-lane section is part of the regional train line Rapperswil-Glarus-Linthal, and the Näfels-Mollis train station is no longer a terminus.

In Näfels, an industrial track reminds us that a railway line once ran from Näfels to Weesen , which was built in 1859 by the United Swiss Railways (VSB) as part of the Rüti ZH - Rapperswil – brick bridge – Weesen – Näfels – Glarus line. Passenger traffic on this route was discontinued between Weesen and Näfels in 1918. The closed Weesen – Näfels section was canceled in 1931.

Accidents

On March 16, 1909, the Sargans –Zurich express train drove into some of the freight wagons on the shed track due to incorrect switch positions. Two people working in a freight car died and two were injured.

On August 6, 1957, between Lachen and Altendorf, a passenger train hit an express train that was on the open road and was heading for Chur. The express train had to brake quickly because the signal had been stopped immediately before the passage. 36 people were injured.

On February 2, 1999, an RBe 4/4 shuttle train on the S-Bahn line S1 crashed into a derailed car on the Zurich – Lucerne express train at Zurich Wiedikon station . The S-Bahn train was slashed to three car lengths. A seriously injured post office worker who was in the luggage compartment of the S-Bahn control car later died in the hospital. The derailment of the last car on the express train was caused by a broken rail.

On May 17, 2003, an empty composition of the Südostbahn (SOB) in Pfäffikon SZ crashed into a standing InterRegio train Basel- Chur of the SBB. Although the entry signal had announced the entrance to the occupied track to the SOB- NPZ coming from Saturday , the driver only noticed the standing Interregio shortly before the impact. 18 people, mainly in the Interregio, were injured. Major property damage occurred to the vehicles.

business

The Seebahn was automated in the 1990s and the few unoccupied signal boxes at the large stations are controlled from the remote control centers in Zurich (HB – Pfäffikon) and Ziegelbrücke (Pfäffikon – Ziegelbrücke – Näfels).

Zurich – Thalwil

The section between Zurich and Thalwil has to deal with the most traffic, it has remained the most important feeder to the Gotthard Railway for passenger traffic via Zurich and handles the national traffic to Zug-Lucerne. In S-Bahn traffic, the route is part of the shortest connection to Zug, with the somewhat longer route through the Knonau Office being preferred in terms of operations and planning due to the capacity bottleneck (single-lane Zimmerberg tunnel). For the same reason, freight traffic in the direction of Gotthard is usually diverted via the Aargau Southern Railway .

Since the Zimmerberg Base Tunnel was opened in 2004, it has taken on all express train and freight traffic, while the actual Seebahn is practically only used by the Zurich S-Bahn . A massive bottleneck, however, is caused by the non-crossing-free integration of the base tunnel into the Seebahn near Thalwil, which also reduces four lanes to two lanes. As a result, the tunnel does not serve to increase capacity, but primarily to protect against noise. The second part of the Zimmerberg base tunnel would have brought relief here. However, this has been postponed because of the financing.

Thalwil – Pfäffikon – Ziegelbrücke

Pfäffikon (SZ) station with the S2 to Zurich – Effretikon on the left in the picture, the S5 and the S40.

Traffic between Thalwil and brick bridge includes all trains from the greater Zurich area on the railway line to Sargans the Grisons and St. Gallen Rhine Valley, including intercity trains to Chur, Regio Express trains, as well as some international trains to Austria, via Buchs SG  - Feldkirch run . In addition, the line also serves the national freight traffic and the freight trains from the Mittelland to the freight station Buchs SG.

Regional transport is provided by the Zurich S-Bahn. Of the four S-Bahn lines, one runs with stops at all stations from Zurich to Pfäffikon, the second runs faster on the same section and continues to Ziegelbrücke. The S25 runs between Zurich HB and Ziegelbrücke with a similar stopping policy as the RegioExpress trains and then stops at all stations between Ziegelbrücke and Linthal.

March shuttle

Since the summer of 2014, the upper March between Ziegelbrücke and Siebnen - Wangen is no longer accessible by the S2 of the Zurich S-Bahn, but by the March shuttle, which runs every half hour. In Siebnen-Wangen it provides connections to the RegioExpress Chur-Zurich and the accelerated S25 Linthal-Ziegelbrücke-Zurich express trains. Although the connection operated by the Südostbahn (SOB) does not belong to the Zurich or St. Gallen S-Bahn , it is known as the S27. Since the timetable year 2018 , the S27 has only been running during rush hour due to poor occupancy .

Brick Bridge – Näfels

Between Ziegelbrücke and the Näfels-Mollis train station, the section is primarily used for regional traffic between Rapperswil and Glarus.

Zurich S-Bahn

• S 2 Zurich Airport - Zurich HB - Pfäffikon SZ - Ziegelbrücke (- Unterterzen ) Only stops between Pfäffikon SZ and Zurich Enge in Richterswil, Wädenswil, Horgen and Thalwil; without a hold between Siebnen-Wangen and Ziegelbrücke; Extended to Untererzen on weekends.
• S 8 Winterthur - Wallisellen - Zurich HB - Thalwil - Pfäffikon SZ Runs between Weinfelden and Winterthur every hour on weekdays only.
• S 24 Thayngen - Schaffhausen / Weinfelden - Winterthur - Zurich Airport - Zurich HB - Thalwil - Horgen Oberdorf - Zug Runs between Thayngen and the airport every hour on weekdays only
• S 25 Zurich HB - Pfäffikon SZ - Ziegelbrücke - Glarus - Linthal hourly express trains (former Glarus Sprinter).
• S 27 ( Siebnen - Wangen - Ziegelbrücke ) is officially not part of the Zurich S-Bahn
• SN8 ( Oerlikon -) Zurich HB - Enge - Thalwil - Horgen - Wädenswil - Pfäffikon SZ - Lachen SZ (ZVV night network)

Picture gallery

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  Former railway keeper's house at the Ulmberg Tunnel (demolished in 2014)

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  Ulmberg Tunnel from 1875

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  Seebahn tunnel under the Sihl at Sihlhölzli

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  Lowered section of the Wiedikon sea railway

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  Zurich-Wiedikon riding station

literature

• Hans G. Wägli Schienennetz Schweiz 3rd edition 2010 ISBN 978-3-909111-74-9
• Hans G. Wägli Railway Profile Switzerland 2nd edition Profile No. 721 page 86

Web links

Commons : Left bank Zurichseebahn  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ruedi Baumann: The mysterious rails of the railway king. Tages-Anzeiger , November 30, 2011, accessed on December 25, 2012 (contains map and photos of the old Seebahn in the city of Zurich). 
2. ^ Expansion of the Thalwil train station and the line to Sihlbrugg . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 81 , no. 25 , 1963, pp. 458-460 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-66821 .
3. ↑ Walter Bernet: At the beginning a catastrophe. The history of the left bank railway. In: NZZ.ch. January 11, 2014, accessed March 28, 2014 . 
4. ^ Walter Mittelholzer : In the middle: Suter sawmill, in the background: Seestrasse, top right: Restaurant Schweizerbund. In: ETH Zurich e-pics. June 26, 1924, Retrieved May 2, 2019 . 
5. ^ II. Report of the Federal Council to the Federal Assembly on 5 requests for pardon (winter session 1910). (PDF; 0.4 MiB) November 22, 1910, p. 565 , accessed on October 20, 2013 . 
6. ↑ Un tamponnement fait 36 ​​blessé. (No longer available online.) Journal de Genève, August 8, 1957, p. 2 , archived from the original on December 2, 2013 ; Retrieved November 15, 2013 (French, Le Temps - archives historiques). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
7. ↑ Derailment and collision in Zurich Wiedikon . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 3/1999 . Minirex, 1999, ISSN  1022-7113 , pp. 66-67 .
8. ↑ Collision in Pfäffikon SZ . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 7 . Minirex, 2003, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 291 .
9. ^ Adrian Huber: An overview of the St. Gallen S-Bahn 2013. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: Obersee Nachrichten . March 28, 2013, p. 11 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved June 17, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
10. ↑ Financing the March shuttle out of balance. (PDF) Building Department of the Canton of Schwyz, Office for Public Transport, accessed on June 15, 2017 .