New Mattstetten – Rothrist line

Bern – Olten
Route length:	45.079 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	20  ‰
Minimum radius :	3000 m
Top speed:	200 km / h
Legend from Lausanne , from Neuchâtel , von Schwarzenburg and von Thun – Belp 106.1 Bern 540 m above sea level M. Lorraine Viaduct (1150 m) 103.3 Bern Wylerfeld to Münsingen - Thun 103.0 Bern Wankdorf from Thun - Münsingen Worblaufen / Worblental (70 m / 206 m) 101.3 4.9 Lochligut 4.9 to Biel / Bienne and to Olten (old route) Grauholz tunnel (6295 m) 12.3 Äspli near Mattstetten from Bern (old route) 12.3 Branch of the old route via Burgdorf – Langenthal to Olten (old route) (17.1) Wild crossing Birchiwald (60 m) (18.4) Rüdtligentunnel (Chästunnel) (400 m) (19.3) Emmequerungstunnel (1633 m) (24.4) Wild crossing Neuschläg (60 m) (30.1) Hersiwil Tunnel (1000 m) (33.1) Önzberg tunnel (3173 m) from Solothurn 36.0 Branch of the upgraded Solothurn – Wanzwil line 36.0 Wanzwil (36.6) Gishübeltunnel (855 m) Badwald wildlife crossing (80 m) (40.3) Thunstetten Tunnel (889 m) (42.9) Long stay tunnel (1107 m) (48.2) Aegertentunnel (657 m) Murg Bridge (Crossing with trunk line; 223 m) (49.2) Murghal tunnel (4745 m) 55.2 Branch of the old route from Zollikofen – Burgdorf – Langenthal 55.2 Rothrist West 56.4 Rothrist 407 m above sea level M. not served by the new line 56.4 45.2 Old line to Olten and Lucerne Born line to Olten

The new Mattstetten-Rothrist line is the name given to the high-speed railway line from Mattstetten near Bern to Rothrist near Olten , which was built between 1996 and 2004 and was implemented as part of Bahn 2000 .

With a maximum operational speed of 200 km / h, the operational headway time is two minutes. This means that the travel time between the most important hubs in Switzerland, such as Bern , Basel and Zurich, can be kept under an hour and an integral clock schedule can be implemented.

history

Construction work on the longest new line in Switzerland since 1926 began in April 1996. The planned completion date was 2005. On April 30, 2004, the last section of rail was used on the Bernese-Solothurn canton border near Inkwil .

ETCS

The Mattstetten – Rothrist railway line is the first in Switzerland on which driver's cab signaling with ETCS Level 2 has been used in regular operation. The introduction of ETCS, originally planned for December 2004, has been postponed several times due to technical problems. On July 2, 2006, a nocturnal advance operation was started. Trains from 10:30 p.m. and from 23 July 9:30 p.m. (24 trains per day) ran at speeds of up to 160 km / h with ETCS. The entire changeover to ETCS, with 240 trains per day, should take place when the timetable changes in December 2006. A two-year ETCS test operation with several thousand test runs and up to eight simultaneous train runs was carried out for the ETCS operation. The vehicle equipment (for ten different train types) and the radio block center were supplied by Alstom .

InterCity tilting train on NBS Mattstetten – Rothrist (2007)

The switchover time from the conventional signaling system with external signals to the driver's cab signaling ETCS was then gradually pushed forward and since March 18, 2007 the trains have been running ETCS-guided all day at a speed of 160, and since December 2007 at up to 200 km / h.

In 100 days up to December 22, 2006, 0.73 percent of the trains were diverted over the old route due to ETCS problems. The failure rate was significantly reduced after software problems were resolved. When it went into full operation in mid-March 2007, around 250 trains per day operated by ETCS ran along the route. This is the first time that scheduled train headways of two minutes have been achieved using ETCS. In autumn 2007, up to twelve ETCS-guided trains were on the line at the same time. Around 250,000 operating kilometers were covered per month.

The trackside ETCS equipment consists of a radio block center, the necessary Eurobalises and an electronic signal box . Around 500 vehicles were converted.

Due to fears that when the line was opened and the new line was built (on December 12, 2004), ETCS might not be operational yet, so light signaling was planned. The ETCS fall-back level should be dismantled in the 4th quarter of 2013 and the 1st quarter of 2014. The costs for dismantling the signals and adapting the security systems were put at 7.4 million francs. Two conditions of the planning permission decree for the new line required that the fallback level be dissolved no later than ten years after commissioning. The fallback level had a negative impact on the availability of the overall system. After two previous, extensive test weekends, on the weekend of August 5 and 6, 2017, the entire route was completely closed, the outside signals were definitely taken out of service and gradually dismantled by August 11, 2017. Meanwhile, rail traffic was diverted via the trunk line.

In 2018, 0.17% of trains caused a malfunction related to ETCS, in 2019 it was 0.20%.

Web links

Commons : Railway line Mattstetten - Rothrist  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Location and course of the route on the OpenRailwayMap
• Driver's cab ride at 200km / h Basel SBB - Bern (05.2018) . Video of a driver's cab ride along the route.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Eichenberger: Increase in capacity through ETCS . In: signal + wire . tape 99 , no. 3 , 2007, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 6-14 .
2. ↑ Announcement of the start of construction: the new Mattstetten – Rothrist line . In: Railway technical review . 45, No. 10, 1996, p. 593.
3. ↑ Announcement of the new Mattstetten – Rothrist line completed . In: Railway technical review . 53, No. 6, 2004, p. 332.
4. ^ For the time being only on new lines in Neue Zürcher Zeitung from April 26, 2007
5. ↑ ^{a b} Jacques Poré: ERTMS / ETCS - experiences and prospects . In: signal + wire . tape 99 , no. 10 , 2007, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 34-40 .
6. ↑ SBB; ETCS operations started . In: signal + wire . tape 98 , no. 7 , 2006, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 47 .
7. ↑ ERTMS solution Atlas for Swiss route . In: signal + wire . tape 98 , no. 9 , 2006, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 69 .
8. ↑ Switzerland: ETCS in full operation . In: signal + wire . tape 99 , no. 4 , 2007, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 44 .
9. ↑ Chris Jackson: ERTMS moves on: 'there is no way back' . In: Railway Gazette International . tape 163 , no. 10 , 2007, ISSN  0373-5346 , p. 608 f .
10. ^ ETCS Level 2: Success for the Swiss Federal Railways . In: European Railway Review , Issue 3, 2007, p. 98.
11. ↑ François Lacôte, Jacques Pore: ERTMS / ETCS is reality . In: signal + wire . tape 96 , no. 6 , 2004, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 6-12 .
12. ↑ SBB are dismantling the ETCS fall-back plan . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 5 , 2013, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 244 .
13. ↑ Frank Walenberg, Rob te Pas, Lieuwe Zuchterman: Making progresses towards standardized train control . In: Railway Gazette International . tape 168 , no. 3 , 2012, ISSN  0373-5346 , p. 35-38 .
14. ^ Bettina Wilhelm: Dismantling of the N-signaling on the Bahn-2000-line of the SBB . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 1 , 2018, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 26-28 .
15. ↑ Railway expansion programs . (PDF) Status report 2019. In: admin.ch. Federal Office of Transport , p. 86 , accessed on May 17, 2020 .