Matterhornbahn

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Drawing of the Gornergrat (left) and Matterhorn (right) lifts by Xaver Imfeld

The Matterhornbahn is one of many railway lines in the high alpine Alpine region of Switzerland that were planned during the Belle Époque , but never realized. First projected in 1890, it was to continue the Visp-Zermatt Railway (opened in 1891) from Zermatt ( 1608  m above sea level ) to the center of the Valais Alps - a branch on the Gornergrat ( 3135  m above sea level ), the others on the Matterhorn ( 4478  m above sea level ). In contrast to the Gornergratbahn , the opening of which was celebrated on August 20, 1898, the Matterhornbahn was never realized.

Project history

Xaver Imfeld, author of the Matterhornbahn project

Together with the Biel-based printer and entrepreneur Leo Heer-Bétrix (1835–1890), Xaver Imfeld (1853–1909) - the “most famous engineering topographer of the time” - submitted a “license application for the construction of the Zermatt high mountain railways on August 22, 1890 on the Gornergrat and the Matterhorn ». Imfeld had already made an appearance with railway projects such as the Visp-Zermatt-Bahn, and in 1896 he was also involved in the Jungfrau Railway project . The seven million franc project in Valais was supposed to be completed in just four years. The recipient of the license application was the head of the then postal and railway department, Federal Councilor Emil Welti .

Neither the Federal Council nor the National Council or the Council of States opposed the project. The media also did not express any criticism. Rather the opposite was the case: The Berner Tagblatt reported on June 22, 1892:

«The Zermatt-Gornergrat and Matterhorn railway project is a double project and aims to provide a convenient connection between the Zermatt train station and the two aforementioned vantage points. According to the concessionaires, the horse material is already insufficient to meet all requirements, and the Visp-Zermatt line that has been put into operation will bring many more vulnerable people, for whom easy transport to the most beautiful vantage points is a real benefit. "

The planning of visionary railway projects experienced a unique boom at the end of the 19th century, for example in Savoy with the planning of a train to Mont Blanc . This competition provided political tailwind for projects such as the Matterhornbahn, the terminus of which was to be the highest in the world.

Projected route

Length profile of the planned Gornergrat and Matterhorn lifts

The first section was to form a steam-powered adhesion railway , which should lead from Zermatt through a 180-meter-long tunnel under the village hill and beyond the Triftbach to the Zmuttbach , in order to reach the Gorge junction after crossing it. The construction of the railway should have been carried out in the same way as the Visp-Zermatt railway in order to be able to drive the new route with the existing vehicles ( meter gauge , two-part Abt racks ).

From Gorge, a connection route by means of a hairpin should lead to the Moos station after crossing the Matter Vispa , the starting point of the Gornergrat Railway. The main line of the railway was to be continued as a rack railway to the hamlet “Zum See”, the beginning of the actual Matterhorn railway. The first section should have taken an electric cable car to the Schafberg station, using the same construction system as the San Salvatore Railway in Lugano, which opened in 1890 (0.80 meter track, two-part Abt racks, motor in the middle of the rope length , the carriages meet in the middle and require passengers to change there).

An electric cogwheel railway would have formed the second section, passing the Schwarzsee and Hörnli stations in places through tunnels and reaching the Whymperhütte, named after Edward Whymper , the first to climb the Matterhorn (underground transfer station). In the third section, a cable car would have been used again, which would have led in an extremely steep tunnel or a shaft of several tons to just below the summit of the Matterhorn. A gallery with rooms for the restoration, the operating staff, the mountain guides and sleeping cabins was planned there.

The schedule was ambitious: in the first year the connecting railways to Moos and “Zum See” were to be built, in the second the cable cars to Riffelalp (Gornergratbahn) and Schafberg (Matterhornbahn), in the third year the cable cars to the Gornergrat and the Whymperhütte and already in fourth year the cable car to the Matterhorn.

Hydropower for electricity supply

In addition to the connections from Zermatt to Moos and “Zum See”, both the Gornergrat and Matterhorn lifts should be operated electrically. To this end, the concessionaires proposed “for this purpose, using the abundant hydropower of the area, to build a central installation which, if necessary. can also provide power for lighting purposes, etc. ». The concessionaires explicitly advised against using coal. On the one hand, it is too expensive and, on the other hand, it shouldn't pollute "the pure mountain air that travelers seek".

Photogrammetric measurement

Sketch of the station system on the summit of the Matterhorn, its height here at 4,505 m. ü. M. is specified.

The official map series could not suffice for the detailed planning and the construction project, because the topographic atlas of Switzerland (Siegfried map ) only shows the Matterhorn on a scale of 1: 50,000. Xaver Imfeld had to consider a more precise and detailed survey of the summit. Precise height information was essential for planning this special run. Imfeld, who had previously worked as a topographer for the Federal Topographical Bureau , was one of the first in Switzerland to use image measurement (photogrammetry). With this method, the corresponding calculations could be made on the basis of photographs. Imfeld used a photogrammetric theodolite from Kern & Co in Aarau, with which he repeatedly determined over 800 altitude points in 1891. After the failure of the railway project, he used his photogrammetric measurements to model his impressive relief of the Matterhorn 1: 5000, which he presented at the national exhibition in Geneva in 1896.

Failure of the project

Although the Federal Council granted the concession for the Matterhornbahn on June 20, 1892, construction work did not begin. Xaver Imfeld fell ill and saw no speedy recovery. He therefore ceded his concession to the Biel architect August Haag . In 1895, Haag took over the concession from the widow of Heer-Bétrix, who had already died in 1890, but immediately reported to the Federal Council that he would prefer the construction of the Gornergrat Railway to the one on the Matterhorn. This line was already operational on August 20, 1898. Contrary to the project here, the Gornergratbahn was built as a pure cogwheel railway without a cable car section.

But the Matterhornbahn project was not off the table. At the end of 1906 a slightly modified license application was made, again from Imfeld's pen. This time the Lausanne mineralogist Henri Golliez was at his side and the cost was estimated at 10 million francs. But in contrast to the project from 1890, this was no longer simply waved through. The Post and Railway Department has already raised concerns, mainly for safety reasons. In addition, the population's railroad fever cooled noticeably and gave way to a critical view of ambitious projects of this kind. The most important spokesman for the opposition to mountain railways of this kind was the Swiss Homeland Security , which was just founded in this context , together with the Swiss Alpine Club and the natural research societies. In addition to the publication of numerous articles, the opposition launched a petition against the Matterhornbahn. With almost 70,000 signatures, it represented the “largest and most spectacular collection of signatures in the still young state”.

However, it was not primarily the resistance to the mountain railway that contributed to the failure of the project, but rather the question of financing. It was noticed as early as 1891 that the costs in the license application were underestimated. The Schweizerische Bauzeitung reported , “that a tunnel with a gradient of over 70% is no longer to be regarded as a tunnel construction, but rather as a tonnage-length shaft and that its construction costs are therefore significantly higher. Furthermore, the considerable difficulties that oppose work at such an unusual altitude must also be taken into account in the calculation. " Not only were the costs set too low, geological and climatic studies that were driving costs were also insufficiently incorporated into the project. The reason for this was on the one hand the fear that the competition might implement the project published in the Bauzeitung in 1891. However, cost and time schedules were the decisive criteria for the approval of a concession: “The bid was awarded to the petitioner who could guarantee an earlier completion for a lower sum. This moment is a decisive indication of why the plans had been calculated so tightly. Cost overruns after approval could not lead to a withdrawal of the license, but realistic financial plans could lead to a non-award of the license. " Thirdly, the costs were tightly calculated in order to attract investors and offer them the prospect of a good return.

In 1909, Xaver Imfeld died of a heart attack at the age of 56 and only four years later Henri Golliez, only 52 years old. With the death of both the chief engineer and the initiator and the following year with the outbreak of World War I , the dream of a mountain railway to the Matterhorn ended.

literature

  • Stefanie Niesner: Engineer vs. Berg - The battle for the Matterhorn. A critical consideration of the concession applications for the unrealized Matterhornbahn project , in: historioPLUS 3 (2016), 28–57 ( digitized version ).
  • Martin Rickenbacher: How high is the mountain of mountains? , in: The Matterhorn im Kartenbild , Cartographica Helvetica 51 (2015), pp. 34–45, doi : 10.5169 / seals-513716 .
  • Heinz Schild: Visionary rail projects. Switzerland on the move 1870–1939 , AS Verlag , Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-906055-13-8 .
  • Heinz Schild: The failed fight for a Matterhorn railway , in: Cartographica Helvetica 51 (2015), pp. 59–62, doi : 10.5169 / seals-513721 .
  • Zermatt Hochgebirgs-Bahnen , article about the Matterhornbahn project , based on the documents of Xaver Imfeld. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung , 17/18 (1891), issue 23, pp. 145–147, doi : 10.5169 / seals-86120 .

Web links

  • Message from the Federal Council to the Federal Assembly on the concession of a railway from Zermatt to the Gornergrat and to the Matterhorn, dated January 30, 1892 ( digitized version of the Swiss Federal Archives).
  • Message from the Federal Council to the Federal Assembly on the transfer and amendment of the concession for the railroad from Zermatt to the Gornergrat and the Matterhorn, as well as the extension of the deadline for the line from Zermatt to the Gornergrat of June 18, 1894 ( digital copy from the Swiss Federal Archives).

proof

  1. Heinz Schild: The failed fight for a Matterhorn railway , in: Cartographica Helvetica 51 (2015), p. 59, doi : 10.5169 / seals-513721 .
  2. ^ Heinz Schild: Visionary rail projects. Switzerland on the move 1870–1939. AS Verlag , Zurich 2013, p. 170.
  3. Heinz Schild: The failed fight for a Matterhorn railway. In: Cartographica Helvetica. Volume 51, 2015, p. 59, doi : 10.5169 / seals-513721 .
  4. ↑ License application, 1890–1892 ( Swiss Federal Archives E53 # 1000/893 # 7467 * ).
  5. ^ Project of the Zermatt high mountain railways Gornergrat and Matterhorn from August 22, 1890 , in: Swiss Federal Archives E53 # 1000/893 # 7467 * .
  6. Martin Rickenbacher: Xaver Imfeld and the Federal Topographical Bureau 1876-1890. In: Geomatics Switzerland. Volume 107, No. 11, 2009, pp. 549-554, doi : 10.5169 / seals-236643 .
  7. Martin Rickenbacher: How high is the mountain of mountains? In: The Matterhorn im Kartenbild , Cartographica Helvetica 51 (2015), p. 40, doi : 10.5169 / seals-513716 .
  8. Catalog special of Groupe XX Cartography of the Exposition Nationale Suisse Genève 1896 , p. 39, no. 1714.
  9. Stefanie Niesner: Engineer vs. Berg - The battle for the Matterhorn. A critical look at the concession applications for the unrealized Matterhornbahn project. In: historioPLUS. Volume 3, 2016, pp. 37-38 ( digitized version ).
  10. Stefanie Niesner: Engineer vs. Berg - The battle for the Matterhorn. A critical look at the concession applications for the unrealized Matterhornbahn project. In: historioPLUS. Volume 3, 2016, p. 39 ( digitized version ).
  11. Heinz Schild: The failed fight for a Matterhorn railway. In: Cartographica Helvetica. Volume 51, 2015, p. 61, doi : 10.5169 / seals-513721 .
  12. ^ Zermatt Hochgebirgs-Bahnen , article about the Matterhornbahn project , based on the documents of Xaver Imfeld. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung , 17/18 (1891), issue 23, p. 147, doi : 10.5169 / seals-86120 .
  13. Stefanie Niesner: Engineer vs. Berg - The battle for the Matterhorn. A critical consideration of the license applications for the unrealized Matterhornbahn project , in: historioPLUS 3 (2016), 49 ( digitized version ).