Swiss National Railway

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Swiss National Railway

logo
legal form Corporation
founding April 5, 1875
resolution March 15, 1880
Reason for dissolution Takeover by NOB
Seat Winterthur
management Johann Jakob Sulzer
Friedrich Joseph Bürli
Theodor Ziegler
Number of employees 437 (in bankruptcy)
Branch Rail transport

Route network of the national railway
Share for CHF 500 in the Swiss National Railway from February 1, 1876

The Swiss National Railway (SNB) was a Swiss railway company that existed from 1875 to 1880 and was based in Winterthur . Emerging from the predecessor companies “Winterthur – Singen – Kreuzlingen” and “Winterthur – Zofingen”, it aimed to build a main line from Lake Constance through the Mittelland to Lake Geneva, financed by cities and municipalities . With it the monopoly position of the established private railways should be broken. Most recently, the 159 km long standard-gauge SNB route network extended from Winterthur north-east to Kreuzlingen and Singen (Hohentwiel) and west to Aarau and Zofingen .

The SNB was shaped by the political influence of the Democratic Party, which dominated Winterthur . She wanted to oppose the private companies, known as “Herrenbahnen” for propaganda purposes, with a “Volksbahn” that serves the common good. Often the routes did not lead along the valleys, but cut them, which led to high construction costs. In particular, the Swiss Northeast Railway and the Swiss Central Railway severely hindered the SNB by granting licenses and building parallel or shortened routes as well as excessive price demands for the use of existing facilities. For example, the connection to the city center of Zurich could be prevented.

The SNB had to struggle with financial problems from the start. The construction of the route network took place in the first years of the Great Depression , which was triggered by the founder crash . Income from passenger and freight transport remained well below expectations. In 1878 the SNB had to be forcibly liquidated , two years later the Nordostbahn took over the bankruptcy estate for around 14% of the original investment amount. Cities and municipalities along the routes had to pay off the debts caused by the SNB well into the 20th century.

Starting position

Alfred Escher

When the state was founded in 1848, the Swiss rail network was only 25 km long. The further expansion only really got going with the entry into force of the Railway Act of 1852. During the deliberations, the Federal Assembly initially leaned towards a state railway that was supposed to implement a route concept developed by Robert Stephenson . It took only a few regions into account, which is why the Federal Assembly, under the influence of Alfred Escher , decided to leave the railway system to private investors. The cantons were given the right to grant concessions , was only responsible for the regulation of technical issues while the federal government. As a result, the Swiss rail network multiplied in a largely uncoordinated manner and in 1870 already reached a length of 1,335 km.

In northern and eastern Switzerland, three large companies with regional monopolies emerged : the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB), which was under the control of Escher and the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt , which he founded , the Swiss Central Railway (SCB) owned by Basler and Alsace banks and the United Swiss Railways (VSB), which had been largely financed with French capital. Alfred Escher, from 1871 also President of the Gotthard Railway Company , was the undisputed leader of the radical liberal liberals , the dominant political movement in Switzerland. Due to his numerous economic and political offices, the "railway king" possessed an unprecedented wealth of power with which he defended the monopoly position of the three great companies. The first resistance to this "Escher system" came in 1857 when Federal Councilor Jakob Stämpfli , a vehement supporter of the state railway idea , founded the Swiss East-West Railway , which went bankrupt four years later .

In the canton of Zurich , the economic policy pursued by Escher and his allies unilaterally favored the canton capital, Zurich , while the rural communities felt disadvantaged. In response, in the 1860s was the democratic movement , the state intervention , direct democracy and social reforms demanded. Its political impetus came primarily from the city of Winterthur . The left-liberal Democratic Party , founded in 1867, succeeded two years later in changing the canton's constitution to suit them. It also provided the majority in the Cantonal Council and all seats in the Government Council . This succeeded in restricting Escher's political power. In 1872 the Democrats passed a law that allowed the canton to financially support the construction of railways in areas that had not previously been considered. At the federal level, they contributed to the revision of the Railway Act in the same year. It abolished the privilege of the private railway companies to build "priority lines", transferred the granting of concessions to the federal government and introduced uniform transport and tariff conditions that gave priority to the shortest connection between two destinations.

Winterthur ambitions

Johann Jakob Sulzer

Winterthur was opened up in the 1860s by NOB routes to Zurich , Romanshorn and Schaffhausen ; there was also a VSB route in the direction of St. Gallen . Influential Winterthur democrats saw this as a preference for Zurich. Councilor of States and City President Johann Jakob Sulzer , a great rival of Escher, sketched a "Winterthur Railway Program" in 1863. According to this, the city should become the center of a "world railway" as direct as possible from Paris to Constantinople ; A connection to a transalpine Splügen railway to Italy was also planned via Rapperswil . Nothing came of that, however: in 1871, the city ​​council cut the financing of the planned Winterthur– Wetzikon line in view of the expected conflicts with the VSB in the Zurich Oberland and in the Linth plain . On the other hand, the NOB claimed the concession of the Winterthur – Koblenz railway line and asserted the «connection privilege» enshrined in the Railway Act of 1852, although it actually considered the line unprofitable. The roads to the Alps and Basel were therefore blocked for a Winterthur railway company.

At the beginning of 1872, Sulzer developed the vision of a continuous national railway from Kreuzlingen on Lake Constance to Vevey on Lake Geneva , again with Winterthur as the operational center. It should be financed by the cities and communities to be developed, serve the common good as a «people's railway» , compete with the private «gentlemen's railways» and bring them to their knees in the long term. Salomon Bleuler , National Councilor and publisher of the influential Winterthur newspaper Der Landbote , supported the project with propaganda. In aggressive, often exuberant and bombastic articles, he accused the private railways of endangering the independence of state power with their monopolies. Swiss railway policy can no longer be determined on foreign exchanges. He also promised low prices and high returns. Theodor Ziegler , the Winterthur town clerk , was supposed to put Sulzer's vision into practice. On July 12, 1872, the “Railway Company Winterthur – Singen – Kreuzlingen” (WSK) was constituted, with Sulzer as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Ziegler as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Winterthur – Etzwilen – Singen / Kreuzlingen route

The WSK planned the railway lines Winterthur – Etzwilen , Etzwilen – Singen (Hohentwiel) and Etzwilen – Kreuzlingen / Konstanz with a total length of 74 km. Escher's political allies tried to hinder the project. The canton of Schaffhausen initially forbade the city ​​of Stein am Rhein from paying in the funds approved for the project, while the canton of Thurgau made no contribution at all. Nevertheless, the financing of the "Eastern section", estimated at 11 million francs , was successful. The canton of Zurich and interested municipalities raised around 5 million francs in share capital , and private individuals another million. The bank in Winterthur , the Eidgenössische Bank and the Rheinische Creditbank took over three quarters of a bond of 5 million. A second bond was later added, raising $ 1.34 million. The city of Winterthur held the largest share of the total capital with a little more than a third. There the railway project was not without controversy: On March 14, 1873, the community assembly rejected an application to sell the WSK stake to the NOB with 58 percent of the votes. All three routes in the eastern section went into operation on July 17, 1875, accompanied by public festivals. It was said that a patriotic act had been carried out that was helping to free Switzerland “from the clutches of the railway barons”.

Fusion to the national railway

Although the canton of Aargau had a relatively well-developed rail network early on, several regions felt that the NOB and SCB had betrayed them. When the government council granted the concession for the Baden - Aarau connection , it stipulated that the route had to go via Lenzburg . The NOB preferred the direct route along the Aare via Wildegg and submitted a corresponding change request , which the Grand Council rejected in 1855 with a large majority. The NOB then stoked a press campaign against the Lenzburg Line until the Grand Council changed its mind in February 1857 and approved the Wildegger Line - a process that went down in history as the “Lenzburg betrayal”. Zofingen also suffered a disappointment: the city had hoped to become the crossroads of the most important north-south and east-west connections in Switzerland, but the SCB decided on Olten instead . Like Winterthur, Baden was a Democratic stronghold. Josef Zehnder in particular , the contentious publisher of the Badener Tagblatt and city ​​administrator , was vehemently committed to the national railway and sharply attacked its opponents in numerous newspaper articles.

Service correspondence card (Dättwil station, 1879)

On August 3, 1872, a conference was held in Winterthur to discuss the further construction to the west. At the end of September, 26 municipalities submitted a petition to the Grand Council, followed by a popular assembly in Mellingen in November . Also in November 1872, shortly before the new Railway Act came into force, the Grand Council only granted the concession for part of the desired route (Baden-Lenzburg-Aarau). In doing so, he bowed in part to pressure from the NOB, which, however, was to be obliged at the same time with the so-called Westbahn contract to build branch lines into the Suhrental , Wynental and Seetal (ultimately in vain). Finally, in October 1873, the newly responsible Federal Assembly awarded the license to the "Railway Company Winterthur - Zofingen" (WZ), which was constituted on August 27, 1873. Its Chairman of the Board of Directors was Samuel Offenhäuser, President of the bank in Zofingen .

For the construction of the 85 km long “west section” between Winterthur and Zofingen (including the junction from Suhr to Aarau), the WZ reckoned with costs of 17 million francs. The share subscription, however, only raised a little over 8.4 million. The largest shareholders were the canton of Zurich (1.74 million) as well as the cities of Zofingen (1.62 million) and Winterthur (1.15 million). The canton of Aargau, which was not legally obliged to participate, only subscribed to a symbolic CHF 1,000 in shares; the proportion of private shareholders was below 5 percent. In order to cover the shortfall, the WZ also decided to issue a bond of 9 million. Winterthur, Zofingen, Baden and Lenzburg secured a liability guarantee for capital and any interest (in a ratio of 7: 5: 3: 3). After negotiations on the merger of WSK and WZ had been ongoing at the instigation of Winterthur and Zofingen since autumn 1874, the companies merged on April 5, 1875 to form the Swiss National Railway (SNB), with company headquarters in Winterthur and the former National Councilor Friedrich Joseph Bürli as president of the board.

The four cities extended their liability guarantee to the SNB, while the Eidgenössische Bank and the bank in Winterthur issued the bond. However, the first series only brought in around 3.8 instead of the hoped-for 5 million, whereupon Zofingen shot in CHF 350,000 and Winterthur CHF 800,000. The second series of 4 million, issued in 1876, attracted even less interest due to the deteriorating economic situation. Winterthur and Zofingen stepped into the breach again in April 1877 and took over another 1.9 and 1.3 million respectively. The cost of building the eastern section has now been CHF 2.5 million above budget. The SNB covered the shortfall by accessing the share capital that was originally intended for the western section, which led to protests in the Aargau communities.

Fierce competition

The NOB began to hinder its Winterthur competitor with all possible means early on. She considered it her sole right to operate a railway between Winterthur and Zurich. In doing so, it relied on the concession granted by the Zurich government council on January 1, 1853, which granted it monopoly privileges for a period of 30 years. In August 1872, the NOB issued a letter asking the government not to grant the SNB a license. Even before an answer was received, the new railway law was put into effect, which transferred the authority to grant concessions to the federal government.

Winterthur – Wettingen route
Wettingen – Zofingen route

Between Winterthur and Effretikon (about halfway to Zurich) there was an approximately ten kilometer long two-lane section of the NOB. Another route was not possible for topographical reasons, which is why the SNB sought cooperation. Although not many trains ran there and the NOB would have been legally obliged to do so, it denied the competitor shared use - because of alleged "overload". The SNB obtained approval from the federal court . As a result, the NOB demanded such a high rental price that bordered on usury that the SNB preferred to lay a third track. But now the NOB demanded a "safety distance" of six meters to their own tracks, which would have forced the SNB to dig a tunnel at the narrowest point at the Mannenberger Mühle. Again she had to go to the federal court and got that the third track could be built without the arbitrary distance.

The planned western section of the SNB between Winterthur and Wettingen was eight kilometers shorter than the existing NOB line via Zurich. As the new railway law mandated that freight traffic had to take the shortest route, the NOB feared the loss of the considerable freight volume between eastern Switzerland and Aargau. For this reason, she planned a route that should be even shorter than that of the national railway. For this purpose, they built the first section of the Winterthur – Koblenz railway from Winterthur to Bülach . This was followed by the Bülach-Baden Railway , a cross-connection from the Glatttal to Otelfingen in the Furttal . It was opened on October 1, 1877 and created a connection that was 2.7 km shorter.

Under pressure from the Federal Council, the NOB and the SNB signed a contract on January 9, 1875 that regulated operations on the joint Otelfingen – Wettingen section. While the stations were jointly owned, the northern track belonged to the SNB and the southern track to the NOB. The operation took place according to the rules and regulations of the NOB. The historian Arnold Gubler, who published a comprehensive work on the national railway in 1922, described this contract as the only reasonable agreement between the two companies. Otherwise, the NOB tried to hinder the competition wherever possible. For example, she initially resisted sharing the Winterthur train station ; after a compromise could be found, she refused the shunting service. Instead of handing goods over to the SNB in Konstanz , they preferred to take a long detour and transported them in conjunction with the VSB via Sargans and Rorschach . She did not accept tickets bought at SNB train stations.

Continuous operation

Free ticket to the opening ceremony of the continuous route between Winterthur and Zofingen

Since the national railway line crossed several valleys west of Wettingen, numerous complex engineering structures were required, for example the Wettingen – Baden railway bridge over the Limmat and the Mellingen railway bridge over the Reuss . Between Baden and Dättwil a slope had to be overcome that required a larger amount of rock to be excavated. The opening of the west section was originally planned for August 1, 1877, but this was delayed due to the delayed final assembly of the Limmat Bridge. Finally, operations began in two stages: Wettingen – Zofingen (including the branch to Aarau) on September 6, 1877 and Wettingen – Winterthur on October 15, 1877. Official celebrations with special trips and banquets took place two days beforehand.

In 1875 the eastern section still made a net income of 316 francs / km, but then the SNB quickly got into financial difficulties. In 1876 the deficit was 576 francs / km, in 1877 it rose to 3,435 francs / km. Compared to the NOB, the SNB only carried around half of the people and a third of the goods per kilometer, despite dumping prices . As early as January 1876, the director Theodor Ziegler, who was considered weak and overwhelmed, applied for work to be stopped on the western section, for bankruptcy protection and for liquidation . But the board of directors rejected the motions, as did the resignation offered by Ziegler. These events were initially kept secret and the public only found out about them when it was too late.

The Winterthur entrepreneur Jakob Sulzer-Hirzel , an opponent of the national railway, wrote about the first days of the western section:

«The national railway was opened on Saturday. Because there was free travel, 30 wagons arrived here overcrowded, so that one reckons that around 2,400 people would have arrived here. But now it sounds different. Yesterday there were two people in one train and ten people in another; 6 o'clock this morning: - nobody. But the best thing is: If you want to take the national train to Zurich, you can only travel as far as Seebach; from there he has to walk to Oerlikon. "

- Jakob Sulzer-Hirzel

Liquidation and bankruptcy proceedings

Participation of the guaranteed cities (in francs)
city shares Bonds
(guaranteed)		 Bonds
(subscribed)		 total
Winterthur 2,010,000 3,500,000 2,516,500 8,026,500
to bathe 528,000 1,500,000 0 2,028,000
Lenzburg 580,000 1,500,000 0 2,080,000
Zofingen 1,720,000 2,500,000 1,650,000 5,870,000

In January 1878, the SNB was no longer able to pay the bond interest, whereupon 40 creditors initiated debt enforcement proceedings. After the failure of a settlement , the federal court ordered the compulsory liquidation on February 20, 1878 . The journeys were not discontinued (a reduced timetable came into force instead), but the municipalities involved had to take over the operating deficits. The St. Gallen canton judge Albert Bärlocher and the Schaffhausen Council of States Eduard Russenberger acted as liquidators . At the time of the bankruptcy , the SNB employed 437 people (24 of them in administration, 215 in rail maintenance, 155 in transport and 43 in traction service).

The national railway communities formed an intercantonal committee that was to either renovate the railway or sell it on under the best possible conditions. On August 30, 1879, it auctioned the facilities for 4.41 million Swiss francs, but could not exercise the purchase option due to a lack of financial guarantees. At the second auction on March 15, 1880, the western section went to the NOB for CHF 750,000 and the eastern section to the Swiss Federal Bank for CHF 3.15 million . The latter gave their part to the NOB a little later with a loss of 40,000 francs. Thus the NOB acquired the entire bankruptcy assets of its competitor for almost 14% of the original value. The new owner removed the third track between Winterthur and Effretikon in 1880, and two years later also the second track between Otelfingen and Wettingen.

All municipalities involved in the share capital suffered a total loss. The small town of Mellingen in Aargau , which had invested the exceptionally high amount of 420,000 francs, was hit particularly hard . She had taken out a bank loan to finance it, but could not pay the biannual interest of 12,000 francs. In order to avoid the impending bankruptcy, the canton of Aargau assumed the debt, which had now accumulated to 550,000 francs, while the municipality had to pledge forest, cultivated land and public buildings in return. Mellingen never bought back its forest holdings, so that the entire forest is still owned by the canton to this day. Other communities cleared large parts of their forests to pay off their debts by selling timber. A statement by the postman Suter from Kölliken has been handed down : "With every whistle of the Natzibahn-Loki, a fir tree falls over in our forest."

Caricature in Nebelspalter about bankruptcy proceedings (1882)

The four guarantee cities had to bear additional burdens, as they were also prosecuted for the bonds. Of the original 9 million francs, after deducting 3.5 million that Winterthur had assumed as part of its guarantee, and after deducting a small bankruptcy dividend , 5.03 million remained uncovered. Baden , Lenzburg and Zofingen refused to pay the due interest: According to Aargau bankruptcy law, interest payments could be suspended while proceedings were ongoing, whereas this was not possible under Zurich bankruptcy law. Winterthur was therefore forced to pay the interest also for the co-guarantors and in 1881, after the liquidation process was over, the three Aargau towns were to pursue these interest payments. They made the proposal to repay debt to issue interest-bearing bonds in the amount of 3.32 million francs (with Winterthur being offset against the accrued interest on the debt). In addition, the canton of Aargau should have made an annual amortization contribution of CHF 25,000. The proposal failed in 1882 due to the opposition of the creditors.

Several private creditors, who felt that their interests were disadvantaged, ultimately demanded the bankruptcy of the city of Winterthur and the auctioning of city assets. On January 20, 1883, the Zurich Government Council asked the Federal Council for help, which then convened a commission of experts. It consisted of the National Councilor Josef Zemp and the Councilors of States Alphonse Bory and Alfred Scheurer . While they were looking for a solution, the situation threatened to escalate. In August, the Winterthur city council warned a debt enforcement officer from Zurich that the mood among the population was so tense that you could not guarantee your personal safety if he had pawns removed. On October 2, a community assembly attended by 2,000 people passed a resolution: Further payments for the guarantee debt were refused until the Federal Assembly could make a decision and the Federal Council was asked to put pressure on the creditors.

The commission of experts published its report on October 15, 1883 and put the total debt at 6,058,800 francs (unsecured bonds, Winterthur recourse claims and unredeemed coupons ). Based on this, the Federal Assembly approved an amount of 2.4 million francs on December 21, of which the cantons of Aargau and Zurich received 1.6 million and 800,000 francs, respectively. This money went to the four guaranteed cities in the form of long-term loans to help clear the mountain of debt. Winterthur, in turn, waived the recourse claims in the amount of 560,703 francs against the Aargau cities. The cities had to raise the rest themselves by pledging property and tax increases. After the cities could not agree on their share, the Federal Council stipulated a binding division (one third Winterthur, two thirds the cities in Aargau).

Long term consequences

In the 1870s, Switzerland experienced a second heyday of railroad construction, during which the route network expanded by more than 1,000 km. The boom during and after the Franco-Prussian War meant that large sums of money were available for railway projects on the capital market. When the national railway tried to establish itself, the private railway companies defended themselves by entering into numerous obligations to build routes. Sometimes it even seemed to be more advantageous to build routes with insufficient profitability for strategic reasons than to take the risk of competition. The Great Depression triggered by the Founders' Crash of 1873 began to have an impact in Switzerland from 1875. The volume of traffic and the associated revenue fell markedly. Because of the accelerated expansion of their route networks, the private railway companies had taken out a lot of outside capital and had to accept high interest rates on the now dried up capital market; In addition, share prices fell by more than 90 percent within four years. Apart from the Gotthard Railway , which was financed with considerable government contributions from the German Empire and Italy , only 42 km of railway lines were opened in the 1880s.

Obligation of CHF 500 from the municipality of Baden dated December 15, 1874; repaid by 1935 using a federal loan.

Although the Nordostbahn was able to acquire the lost national railway at a bargain price, its financial situation was extremely precarious due to the ruinous competition. In March 1877 the NOB asked the Federal Council to release it from the construction commitments it had entered into (the concessions were linked to binding completion dates). In February 1878 the Federal Assembly confirmed an agreement according to which the construction obligations remained in place, but could be suspended until the NOB was renovated . It was not until 1887 that the NOB was able to pay out a modest dividend again , the earlier returns remained unmatched. The construction of the line was suspended for over a decade and it was not until 1892 that the "moratorium lines" were put into operation. The serious crisis of the railway companies meant that the supporters of the nationalization gained more and more influence. Karl Bürkli calculated that the per capita losses for the Swiss economy caused by the renovations far exceeded the reparations paid by France to the German Reich. The partial nationalization of the also ailing Centralbahn failed in an optional referendum in 1891 . In 1898, however, another popular vote was successful, which enabled the largest railway companies to be bought back. The state-owned Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) was founded in 1902, which, after almost four decades, fulfilled one of the main concerns of the Democratic Party in a different form.

A year before SBB was founded, politicians in Aargau tried to obtain a waiver of the remaining debt on the loan under the leadership of National Councilor Rudolf Suter-Geiser . The federal government rejected the request, but was finally ready to lower the interest rate. So the guarantee cities had no choice but to continue paying off the national railway debts year after year. Baden, Lenzburg and Zofingen repaid the last tranche of the federal loan in 1935. Zofingen had taken out another loan of one million francs in 1883; the last bonds were solemnly burned on February 2, 1943 under notarial supervision in the municipal gas works. Winterthur also repaid the last tranche of the federal loan in 1935. In addition, there was a mortgage loan of 11.55 million francs that had been taken out in 1880. The entire city property was pledged for this. The repayment plan provided for a repayment until 1960. Despite the strains of the two world wars, the city managed to settle the last installment eight years earlier.

Unrealized projects

Third section Zofingen – Lyss

Route planning Zofingen – Lyss

A committee founded in May 1870 planned the construction of the Gäubahn from Olten via Oensingen to Solothurn . To this end, a concession that was granted in 1852 but had not yet been used was to be reactivated. The canton of Bern renewed the concession in November 1872 - with the intention of operating the Gäubahn through an independent company that would cooperate with what would later become the national railway. Trains of the national railway were to continue from Solothurn via Lyss , Kerzers and Payerne to Vevey . The Gäubahn Committee thwarted the plans of the Bern cantonal government and ceded the concession to the Swiss Central Railway on February 16, 1873 .

The national railway was now blocked from the optimal route to the west. Meetings in Utzenstorf and Langenthal decided to plan a new route. A 62 km long route should lead from Zofingen via Vordemwald , Langenthal, Herzogenbuchsee , Utzenstorf and the Limpachertal to Lyss, for which costs of 2.5 million francs were estimated. A 14-strong Swiss initiative committee was formed. National Railway, Zofingen – Lyss section ”, to which the National Councilors Albert Friedrich Born , Johann Bützberger and Jakob Stämpfli belonged. This turned on August 15, 1873 with the request to subscribe to foundation shares to interested communities.

Langenthal tied his funding commitment to the condition that the national railway line should not touch the existing Central Railway station , but that a separate station should be built south of the city center. Two engineers commissioned by the cantonal government came to the conclusion in an expert report in July 1874 that a second train station would entail a number of disadvantages. For example, it is only possible with disproportionate effort to connect it to other planned routes such as the Langenthal-Wauwil-Bahn or the Jura-Gotthard-Bahn . The Great Council of the Canton of Bern approved on 3 December 1874 an initiative committee requested by the subsidy contribution of 2 million Swiss francs. The following cantonal referendum on February 28, 1875 was also positive with 60.7% of the votes.

At the request of the cantonal government, the Federal Assembly had already granted the initiative committee the concession for the Zofingen – Herzogenbuchsee – Lyss line on September 22, 1873. Since the preparations progressed slowly and the start of construction was constantly delayed due to the deteriorating economic situation, the Federal Assembly approved three extensions of the deadline by one year each. There was no longer a fourth extension in 1877. The Federal Council's annual report noted that the license had "expired due to failure to provide financial statements and start work". After the forced liquidation of the national railway in February 1878, the construction of the third section had become an illusion.

Branch line to Zurich city center

The Nebelspalter compared the competition between NOB and SNB with dogs and cats (1876)

In the historiography of the 19th and 20th centuries, the thesis was widespread that the national railway deliberately wanted to bypass Zurich in order to damage the powerful canton capital economically. In fact, there were plans to build a branch line to Zurich city center right from the start, which, given the disputes with the competition, received little public attention. On August 20, 1872, the Cantonal Council granted the Winterthur – Singen – Kreuzlingen railway company the concession to build and operate a line from Kloten to Zurich, which would have reached the city with a Zürichberg tunnel and its terminus either in the area of ​​today's Sechseläutenplatz or in what was then still an independent station The suburb of Riesbach would be located - in both cases significantly closer to the city center than the Nordostbahn station . Although the Federal Assembly extended the concessions for one year in each case in 1873 and 1874, nothing concrete happened. The national railway blamed strong resistance from the city authorities and the northeast railway.

The NOB only granted the United Swiss Railways a right of joint use on its route to Zurich, while it categorically excluded the SNB. In January 1876, the SNB General Assembly decided to plan a separate access route. On July 4, 1876, the Federal Assembly granted a concession limited to three years for a 4.5 km long stretch from Seebach via Unterstrass to Hirschengraben . A terminus station was planned there below the Polytechnic and in the immediate vicinity of the center , which should be implemented on two levels due to the limited space available. SNB representatives even went on a study trip to England to explore similar facilities.

The project, which is estimated at CHF 2.5 million, would have overwhelmed the financially distressed SNB, which is why a “committee of concessionaires for a Seebach – Zurich railway” founded an apparently independent stock corporation to raise the investment capital. The SNB should operate the branch line for an annual rent of 5 percent. However, the links were so close that it was hardly possible to speak of two different companies. The efforts to raise capital were largely unsuccessful. The reasons for this were the ongoing political pressure from the established railway companies and the credit institutions allied with them, the increasingly deteriorating economic situation in Europe and, in particular, the continued negative attitude of the city of Zurich. In 1877 the SNB board of directors decided to initially build only the section to Unterstrass with a train station directly on the (then) city limits of Zurich. In view of the precipitous events surrounding the forced liquidation, it did not come to that.

vehicles

Series A tender locomotive No. 8
Series B tender locomotive

Although the SNB was an economic fiasco, it set new standards in the area of rolling stock and owned the most modern vehicles of all Swiss railway companies at the time. Between 1874 and 1877 it received a total of 18 steam locomotives from the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM) in Winterthur, which belonged to three series . The SNB did not have its own railway workshop, which is why the SLM carried out all major maintenance work, repairs and retrofits in its plant itself.

The “A” series ( designated as SNB Eb 3/4 according to the subsequently introduced uniform Swiss type designation) included twelve express train tank locomotives with a length of 10.59 m, a service weight of 43.5 t and a top speed of 75 km / h . They were the first to be designed in Switzerland as a “Mogul” type with a 1'C wheel arrangement, i.e. with one running axle and three driving axles . Under pressure from the competition, the railway department doubted the safety, whereupon the SLM installed radially movable axle bushes on the running axles.

The "B" series ( SNB Ed 3/4 ) comprised four tank locomotives for freight traffic. They were practically identical to the "A" series, but had smaller drive wheels (1300 instead of 1600 mm diameter) and a reduced top speed of 55 km / h. Series "C" (SNB Ed / 3/3 ) consisted of two powerful tank locomotives for mixed traffic , a successor to the TB E 3/3 delivered by Krauss to the United Swiss Railways (VSB) in 1870 . Charles Brown designed a new type of control for the SLM model : the setting for the reversing from forwards to backwards and the steam filling of the cylinders were located directly under the driver's cab .

After the bankruptcy, the Nordostbahn took over all twelve locomotives of the "A" series and continued to use them until 1901. The six remaining locomotives of the “B” and “C” series were brought to France, some of them through intermediaries. The Swiss Federal Railways , founded in 1902, did not take over any of the former SNB locomotives. A series "C" locomotive, which had been reordered by the Emmental Railway in 1881 , was in service until 1933. It was preserved and was donated to the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne in 1960 .

The SNB was also innovative in the area of railway wheels . So far (and well into the 20th century) wagons were used whose wheels consisted of wrought iron spokes and wheel tires . In the 1860s, the Swiss caster Abraham Ganz , who emigrated to Hungary , developed a process for the efficient manufacture of railway wheels from a single shell casting. In Switzerland, the SNB was the first railway company to use such bikes. The NOB harassed the SNB by wanting to ban wagons with cast-shell wheels on their tracks “for safety reasons”, as the new technology has not yet been tested enough. However, this did not prevent the NOB from taking over cast- shell wheeled wagons from the VSB and the Austrian kk state railways and transporting them on their own network.

Todays use

With a few exceptions, the routes operated by the national railway still exist today.

Etzwilen station (2017)
Conversion of the Aarau – Suhr railway line to meter gauge (2009)

The Etzwilen – Kreuzlingen Hafen railway is mainly used for regional traffic and is used by the S8 of the St. Gallen S-Bahn ( Schaffhausen - Romanshorn - St. Gallen ). The InterRegio Konstanz - Weinfelden - Zurich , the RegioExpress St. Gallen - Kreuzlingen Hafen - Konstanz - Kreuzlingen and the S14 (Konstanz - Kreuzlingen - Weinfelden) operate on the Konstanz – Kreuzlingen section . The section between Etzwilen and Stein am Rhein is also used by the S29 ( Winterthur –Stein am Rhein) of the Zurich S-Bahn . The Thur Bridge Ossingen is the most important lattice girder bridge with iron pillars still preserved in Switzerland and is classified as a cultural asset of national importance .

On May 31, 1969, the SBB stopped passenger services on the Etzwilen – Singen railway line . The route was never electrified, but was used until December 12, 2004 by trains on the rolling road that were hauled by diesel locomotives. In Singen , a short part of the route had to be dismantled to make room for a traffic roundabout. Since August 1, 2007, the steam trains of the Stein am Rhein – Etzwilen – Hemishofen – Ramsen (SEHR) museum railway have been running on the former national railway line . The most striking structure is the Rhine bridge near Hemishofen .

The Winterthur – Etzwilen line is served by the S29 of the Zurich S-Bahn, the section between Winterthur and Seuzach also by the S12.

The Wettingen – Effretikon line is also used by Zurich S-Bahn trains. The S6 ( Baden - Zurich HB - Uetikon ) uses the section between Wettingen and Seebach , the S7 (Winterthur - Zurich HB - Meilen - Rapperswil ) that between Opfikon and Effretikon . The “bankruptcy curve” between Opfikon and Seebach was taken out of service and dismantled on May 26, 1909 because it was not in use. At the beginning of the Second World War , the SBB quickly rebuilt the connection and handed it over to operation on November 15, 1939, so that west-east traffic could have been maintained if the railway systems in Zurich-Oerlikon were destroyed. Freight trains can bypass Zurich on the Wettingen – Effretikon line to the north; Via a connection between Würenlos and Killwangen-Spreitenbach , the freight trains from eastern Switzerland reach the Limmattal marshalling yard . From 1905 to 1909, the Oerlikon machine factory used the Seebach – Wettingen section to test electric train transport with single-phase alternating current .

On the Zofingen – Wettingen line , the section between Lenzburg and Zofingen is used by the S28 of the Aargau S-Bahn . This section of the route is popularly known as «Nazeli», derived from the national railway. The section between Lenzburg and the Gruemet junction (near Mellingen ) is integrated into the Heitersberg line, which opened on May 22, 1975, and forms part of the most important west-east rail link in Switzerland. Passenger traffic between the Gruemet junction and Wettingen ceased on December 12, 2004. Freight traffic continues to use this section to operate the Mellingen tank farm and the sidings in Baden.

The Aarau – Suhr railway was shut down for passenger and freight traffic on December 12, 2004, and gauge change to meter gauge began four years later . The Wynental and Suhrental Railway between Aarau and Menziken has been running the route since November 22, 2010 . This made it possible to replace a tram-like section in Aarau and Suhr.

literature

  • Hans-Peter Bärtschi, Sylvia Bärtschi-Baumann, Peter Güller, Christian Jossi, Bruno Meyer, Peter Niederhäuser, Jörg Thalmann: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway . Ed .: Hans Peter Bärtschi. Profile Publishing, Wetzikon 2009, ISBN 978-3-907659-65-6 .
  • Hans-Peter Bärtschi: On the trail of the national railway . In: Swiss Association of Railway Amateur (Ed.): Railway Amateur . Vol. 63, no. 5 , 2009, ISSN  0013-2764 , p. 230-233 .
  • Peter Strupler: Winterthur and the railroad at the time of the steam locomotives 1848 to 1968 . Birkenhalde Verlag, Winterthur 2008, ISBN 978-3-908050-28-5 .
  • Paul F. Schneeberger: The project of a standard gauge railway Lyss – Herzogenbuchsee – Langenthal – Zofingen . In: Yearbook of the Oberaargau . tape 48 . Yearbook Association Oberaargau, Langenthal 2005, p. 196-214 .
  • Fritz Ruprecht: The history of the Swiss National Railway, documented on previously unknown certificates . Ed .: HP magazine. No. 7 , 1996, pp. 18-21 .

Web links

Commons : Swiss National Railways  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 19.
  2. ^ Thomas Maissen : Victory of the economic liberals - and Zurich. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 26, 2002, accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  3. ^ A b c Bruno Fischer, Joseph Jung: Private Railway Companies in Crisis: The 1870s. Alfred Escher Foundation, 2015, accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  4. ^ Bärtschi al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 45.
  5. ^ Bärtschi al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 22-23.
  6. ^ Bärtschi al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 46.
  7. ^ Bärtschi al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 24.
  8. ^ Bärtschi al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 24-25.
  9. ↑ a b Bärtschi al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 25.
  10. ^ Bärtschi al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 25, 27.
  11. ^ Bärtschi al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 109.
  12. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 27-28.
  13. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 71.
  14. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 72.
  15. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 86, 90.
  16. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 77.
  17. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 74.
  18. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 77-78.
  19. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 83.
  20. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 78-80.
  21. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 80-82.
  22. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 52-53.
  23. ↑ a b Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 30.
  24. ↑ Jörg Thalmann: With the third track came bankruptcy. Der Landbote , July 18, 2009, accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  25. ↑ a b The “Schipkapass” -bahn Bülach – Baden. (PDF, 102 kB) Swiss Railway Review , August 2002, accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  26. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 93, 96.
  27. ↑ a b Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 35.
  28. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 16.
  29. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 112.
  30. ↑ a b c Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 100.
  31. ↑ a b Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 114.
  32. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 96.
  33. ^ A b Hans G. Wägli: Swiss Rail Network . Ed .: General Secretariat SBB. AS-Verlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-905111-21-7 .
  34. ^ Walter Ruesch: The Swiss National Railway or from Lake Constance to Léman. Notes on hopes and disappointments of the Volksbahn . In: Neujahrsblatt Commission (ed.): Zofinger Neujahrsblatt . tape 47 . Zofingen 1967, p. 76 .
  35. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 101-102.
  36. ↑ a b Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 118.
  37. ↑ a b c Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 40.
  38. ^ Report of the expert commission appointed to the high Federal Council for the investigation of the financial situation of the guarantee cities for the national railway bonds of 9 million. (PDF, 3.3 MB) In: Federal Gazette . Swiss Federal Chancellery , October 15, 1883, accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  39. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 119.
  40. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 68.
  41. ↑ Template No. 39, Swiss Federal Chancellery , accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  42. ↑ Template No. 53, Swiss Federal Chancellery , accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  43. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 103.
  44. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 121.
  45. ^ Karl H. Flatt: 100 Years of the Gäubahn, 1st part . In: Yearbook of the Oberaargau . tape 19 . Yearbook Association Oberaargau, Langenthal 1976, p. 159-181 .
  46. ↑ Schneeberger: The project of a standard gauge railway Lyss – Herzogenbuchsee – Langenthal – Zofingen. Pp. 198-200.
  47. ↑ Schneeberger: The project of a standard gauge railway Lyss – Herzogenbuchsee – Langenthal – Zofingen. Pp. 205-208.
  48. ↑ Schneeberger: The project of a standard gauge railway Lyss – Herzogenbuchsee – Langenthal – Zofingen. Pp. 211-213.
  49. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 45.
  50. ↑ S. Zurlinden: Hundred Years: Pictures from the History of the City of Zurich in the Period from 1814-1914 . Рипол Классик, 1914, ISBN 978-5-87370-648-8 ( google.com [accessed October 9, 2017]).
  51. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 49-50.
  52. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 57-58.
  53. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. Pp. 59-60.
  54. ↑ a b Bärtschi al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway . P. 61.
  55. ^ A b c d Hans Moser: The steam operation of the Swiss railways 1847-2006 . Swiss Association of Railway Amateurs, Geneva 2007, ISBN 978-3-03300948-4  ( formally incorrect ) , p. 108 .
  56. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 54.
  57. ^ Bärtschi et al .: The National Railway: Vision of a People's Railway. P. 135.
  58. ↑ Network map of St. Gallen S-Bahn. (PDF, 2.0 MB) S-Bahn St. Gallen, 2017, accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  59. ↑ A – Objects ZH 2017. (PDF; 163 kB) Swiss inventory of cultural assets of national importance. In: babs.admin.ch / kulturgueterschutz.ch. Federal Office for Civil Protection - Department of Cultural Property Protection, January 1, 2017, archived from the original on January 3, 2017 ; accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  60. ↑ Traffic circle and museum train station in Singen ( memento from September 19, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), as of August 4, 2009.
  61. ↑ a b S-Bahn, buses and ships. (PDF, 267 kB) Zürcher Verkehrsverbund , 2017, archived from the original on February 22, 2016 ; accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  62. ↑ SBB awaken the Aargau “Nationalbahn” line from a deep slumber. Aargauer Zeitung , December 10, 2015, accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  63. ↑ Aargauer Nationalbahn-Ostast says goodbye. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , December 11, 2014, accessed on September 27, 2017 .
  64. ↑ Last ride of the Wynental and Suhrental Railway through Suhr. bahnonline.ch, November 30, 2010, accessed on October 25, 2018 .

Remarks

  1. ^ A town clerk is the head of a town administration.
  2. ↑ At that time each canton had its own bankruptcy law. The Swiss-wide uniform debt collection and bankruptcy law only came into force in 1892.