Surb Valley Railway
The Surbtalbahn was a planned standard gauge railway line along the Surb in the Swiss canton of Aargau .
Routing
The Surbtalbahn was to continue as a continuation of the Wehntalbahn ( Oberglatt - Niederweningen ) along today's main road 17 through the towns of Unterehrendingen , Lengnau , Endingen , Unterendingen and Tegerfelden to Döttingen and meet there with the Turgi – Koblenz – Waldshut railway line, which opened in 1859 .
history
The first discussions about the construction of a railway line through the Surbtal took place as early as 1857, when potential routes for a railway from Wallisellen to Waldshut were discussed and analyzed. At that time, the decision was made in favor of a route via Oberglatt, Neerach , Zweidlen and from there along the Rhine via Kaiserstuhl and Zurzach to Koblenz. The construction failed on the one hand because of the financing and on the other hand because of the war that broke out in 1859 between Austria, France and Sardinia.
As early as 1863, a route from Oerlikon to Oberglatt with continuation to Bülach and Dielsdorf was started together with the Swiss Northeast Railway . The latter continuation was extended to Niederweningen in 1891 .
The construction of a connecting line from Niederweningen to Döttingen was proposed in 1915 by the municipalities of the Surbtal valley, passed as a federal law by the Swiss Federal Assembly on November 21, 1916 , and this was then confirmed on April 14, 1917 by a referendum in the form of an optional referendum .
However , construction was prevented by the First World War . In 1921, however, the SBB were obliged to set up a Baden – Endingen – Döttingen bus service at their own expense to replace the non-existent railway.
In 1926, the SBB postponed the construction of the Surbtalbahn again for 10 years because bus operations were apparently cheaper. This decision sparked protests among the population. The community of Endingen threatened to take legal action to enforce the construction of the Surbtalbahn. SBB granted then the Surbtal tariff concessions with the Surbtalbahntarif and paid also significant amounts of the expansion and maintenance of the road in Surbtal. In the Surbtal Railway tariff it was stated that all prices for the transport of freight and passengers are to be calculated as if the Dielsdorf – Döttingen railway line existed. Thus, z. B. a transport from Niederweningen to Koblenz only 18 instead of 50 tariff kilometers . The 3rd class rail tariff including all reductions and distance discounts was granted for passenger transport.
In 1927 the bus service was extended to Niederweningen. In 1937 the federal law on the construction of the Surbtal Railway, passed in 1917, was put back to the files by a federal law ( SR 742.34) also passed by parliamentary resolution (March 17) and an optional referendum (August 1) .
On November 3rd, 1971, the Surbtal Railway tariff was lifted and bus operations were handed over to PTT. On January 1, 1975, the Surbtal Railway tariff was also lifted for freight traffic.
Traffic today
There is a post bus line 355 of Doettingen by the Surbtal which the head station Niederweningen following the line S 15 of S-Bahn Zurich has. There are also good connections to Baden with the Postbus lines 352 and 353 .