Sursee-Triengen Railway

Sursee-Triengen-Bahn AG
legal form	Corporation
founding	1911
Seat	Triengen , Switzerland
Branch	transport
Website	sursee-triengen-bahn.ch

The Sursee-Triengen-Bahn ( ST ) is a Swiss railway company based in Triengen , in the canton of Lucerne . It was the construction company of its eponymous main line, the standard-gauge railway line Sursee – Triengen, and is the owner of the same. ST has a network access permit (NZB) from the Federal Office of Transport ( FOT) and uses the assigned vehicle owner abbreviation (VKM) CH-ST for its rail vehicles .

The 8.81 km long trunk line, opened in 1912, branches off the SBB main line Olten – Lucerne in Sursee and leads down the Surental valley via Geuensee and Büron to Triengen , where the depot and workshop are located. Since October 2018, ST has had the railway infrastructure concession (EBK) for the Hinwil – Bäretswil section, which was taken over by SBB, and the Bäretswil – Bauma section, which has been leased on a long-term basis by the Zürcher Oberland Steam Railway Association (DVZO) since December 2018 has been.

history

Sursee-Triengen Railway
ST steam train en route on May 7, 1988
Route length:	8.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	15  ‰
Minimum radius :	250 m
Legend SBB route from Lucerne 0.00 Sursee 0.20 Route until 1978 0.37 SBB route to Zofingen - Olten 0.67 Münchrüti siding 1.38 Sursee city 1.65 Siding 2.04 Sursee water mat Error profile +0.11 Chommlibachstrasse 2.58 Siding 3.75 Geuensee 5.77 Office - Bad Knutwil 8.81 Triengen - Winikon

Efforts to open up the Surental with a continuous rail link go back to the middle of the 19th century. The communities in the valley campaigned for the Schweizerische Centralbahn (SCB) to ensure that its main north-south axis should lead from Liestal through a Schafmatt tunnel to Aarau and on via Sursee to Lucerne. However, the SCB decided to build the route through the Hauenstein tunnel and via Olten . There was another project of a continuous Surental Railway in 1872; but it was linked to the Swiss National Railways and was lost when it went bankrupt.

In 1899, an Aargau committee received the concession to build a narrow-gauge railway from Aarau to Schöftland . Six years earlier, a Lucerne committee had also received a concession, but for a standard-gauge railway. The two competing committees sought to raise the funds they needed before their opponents. The Aargauer were faster and opened the Aarau-Schöftland-Bahn (AS, today part of the Wynental- and Suhrentalbahn ) on November 19, 1901 .

There was resistance in Lucerne's Surental valley to the extension of the AS beyond Schöftland. The municipality of Triengen in particular was of the opinion that a narrow-gauge railway was insufficient in terms of capacity. The Lucerne people firmly stuck to a standard-gauge railway , the postal and railway departments could not reach an agreement between the hardened fronts. Finally, on November 23, 1912, after a short construction period, the Sursee-Triengen Railway (ST) was opened. There was now an eleven kilometer gap between Schöftland and Triengen. Linking the two routes was out of the question, because they differed not only in their track width, but also in the type of traction - the ST has never been electrified to this day and is therefore a curiosity in Switzerland.

From 1924 postbuses ran between Schöftland and Triengen. From 1905 to 1945, a total of 29 expert reports were drawn up to fill a gap, none of which was ready for a project. In 1953 a basic study was published which had been jointly commissioned by the Aargau and Lucerne municipalities and thus had realistic chances of realization. It was planned to extend the AS to Triengen and to change the gauge of the ST to narrow gauge. In 1956, however, the Federal Office of Transport (EAV) refused to participate financially and clearly preferred a bus connection between Schöftland and Sursee. As a result, there were protest rallies, which the EAV was initially unimpressed. The cantons of Aargau and Lucerne then submitted a license application. When another rally in Triengen with 10,000 participants created additional political pressure, the EAV gave in. In March 1963, the Federal Council submitted a motion to parliament to approve the concession, which it did in September of the same year.

When it came to the detailed planning, it quickly became apparent that much higher costs were to be expected. Instead of the budgeted 15 million francs, 40 million were now necessary. As a result, support for the project gradually began to wane. When Federal Councilor Roger Bonvin took office in 1968, who was also responsible for the SAB, the mood changed completely and the federal authorities were now vigorously aiming for bus operation. This was initially provisionally started on September 26, 1971 between Schöftland and Sursee and finally introduced after a three-year test phase.

In 1978 the route was changed: the switch at the Sursee SBB point was only set up about 200 meters further north, the route was stretched and the Sursee Stadt station was canceled.

The Sursee – Triengen railway line is now used by SBB Cargo for regional freight transport. In addition, the ST offers nostalgic steam trips. In May 2009, ETH Zurich published a study commissioned by ST on the reintroduction of passenger transport. The municipality of Triengen is opposed to this project, as the settlements are better served by the bus line and the municipality would also have to participate in any deficit in the operation.

Rolling stock

model series		Manufacturer	Construction year	origin	number of pieces		Discarded	Remarks
series	Numbers				total	today
Steam locomotives
E 2/2	1		1912		2	0	1963
	2						1962
Ed 3/3	1	SLM	1932	VHB (1960)	(M) 1 00	0	1965	Rental locomotive
E 3/3	3	SLM	1907	SBB (1961)	(Ex) 4 00	0	1962	ex SBB E 3/3 8477
	4th		1909	SBB (1962)		0	1964	ex SBB E 3/3 8488
	5		1907	SBB (1963)		1		ex SBB E 3/3 8479
	8522		1913	SBB (1964)		1		ex SBB E 3/3 8522
Steam railcar
FZm 1/2	11	SLM / SIG	1918		1	0	1961
Passenger coaches
FROM 2	1	SIG	1912		1	0	1968
B 2	2	SWS	1911	MThB (1965)	(Ex) 1 00	hist.0 1	1997	ex MThB B 102; to HSTB sold
				HSTB (2018)				Readmission, inoperable
B 3	3	SWS	1906	SBB (1965)	(Ex) 2 00	2		ex SBB C 3 8397> 8464
	4th		1905					ex SBB C 3 8490> 8555
B 2	21st	SIG	1912		2	0	1966
	22nd						1968
BC 4	41	SCB	1885	SBB (1913)	(Ex) 1 00	0	?	ex SCB 377, SBB 4987; Whereabouts unknown
FROM	42		1962	SBB (1987)	(Ex) 1 00	hist.0 1		of EV given
ABi	43	SWS	1948	BN (1987)	(Ex) 1 00	1		ex BN ABi
SRi	44	SWS	1946	BN (1988)	(Ex) 1 00	1		ex BN Bi 20-03 093
WR 3	34	SWS	1912	SBB (2000)	(Ex) 1 00	1		ex SBB 96-32 506 (Rottenwagen)
Double room 2	51	SIG	1912		1	0	1971
Double room 3	52	SIG	1908	PTT (1965)	(Ex) 1 00	0	1972	ex PTT 613
D 2	53	SIG	1891	PTT (1972)	(Ex) 1 00	0	1997	ex PTT Z 2 789; at CSG sold
D 3	54	SIG	1906	SBB (1987)	(Ex) 1 00	1		ex SBB F 3
Shunting locomotives and tractors
Em 2/2	1	SIG / BBC	1965		1	1		«Lisi»
Em 2/2	2	SLM / MAN	1976		1	0	2006	to SBBC sold
Tm III	9456	RACO	1986	SBB (2011)	(Ex) 1 00	1		ex SBB Tm III 9456
Freight wagons
K 2	451-454	SIG	1912		4th	0	1966	ex K 2 401-404
X	455	ACMV	1971	SBB (2005)	(Ex) 1 00	1		ex SBB Hbis
L 4	461-462	SIG	1912		2	0	1964	ex L 4 501-502
M 4	471-472	SIG	1912		2	0	1966	ex M 4 601-602
S.	701	SCB	1874	SBB (1967)	(Ex) 1 00	0	1986	ex SBB 82030
S.	702	SIG	1920	SBB (1986)	(Ex) 1 00	1		ex SBB M (32-05 070)
K 2		SIG	1916	SBB (1996)	(Ex) 1 00	P		ex Nestlé; Steam Railway Association Surental
Draisine
Dm 1/2		ST	1981		1	1		"Luise", motorized trolley
Special vehicles (Team 3652)
Dm	3652	Condor	1947	SBB (1987)	(Ex) 1 00	P		Draisine, ex SBB Dm 3652
SRC 2	36521	Team 3652	2008		1	P		Trolley for Dm 3652
Ub = takeover from outside stock (used vehicle); Um = conversion from our own stock

Explanations

• Em 2/2 2 (1976)

  Shunting tractor type SBB Tm ^IV . With the takeover of freight traffic by SBB Cargo, the tractor was rented to the same from 2000 and finally sold in April 2006 and classified as Tm ^IV 8701. The vehicle was scrapped by SBBC on December 31, 2010 and sold to Widmer Rail Service (WRS) in 2012 .

• K ₂ (1916)

  originally used by SBB and Nestlé. The vehicle is privately owned by the Surental Steam Railway Association, which carries out nostalgia trips on the ST.

• Room ₃ 424 (1908, SIG)

  The mail car was parked for a long time in Triengen and Geuensee on loan from Classic Rail; At the end of 2010 it was passed on to «Swisstrain».

Trivia

For the remake of the classic movie “Murder on the Orient Express”, filming took place in March 2017 on the Sursee-Triengen line with the French steam locomotive type 241-A-65 . The fellow in the film Johnny Depp , Michelle Pfeiffer and Penelope Cruz were not present at the shooting.

literature

• André Kirchhofer: rallies, concessions, cost pressure - railway projects in the Suhrental between 1850 and 1975 . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 119 . here + now, Publishing House for Culture and History, Baden 2007, p. 146-168 . Digitized on e-periodicals
• Daniel Zumbühl: 75 years of the Sursee-Triengen-Bahn - official commemorative publication . Ernst B. Leutwiler Verlag, Zurich 1987.

Web links

Commons : Sursee-Triengen-Bahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sursee – Triengen Railway
• Sursee - Triengen Bahn (ST) In: discontinued-bahnen.ch by Jürg Ehrbar
• Draisine Dm 3652

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sursee - Triengen Bahn (ST) In: discontinued-bahnen.ch by Jürg Ehrbar, accessed on June 13, 2020
2. ↑ Weidmann Ulrich, Rieder Markus, Patrick Frank, Silko Höppner (2009): Reintroduction of passenger traffic on the Sursee-Triengen-Bahn and a possible extension  ( 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.   Preliminary study, Institute for Transport Planning and Transport Systems (IVT), ETH Zurich, Zurich (pdf, 3.87 MB)
3. ↑ Municipality of Triengen, April 27, 2009: From the municipal council ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved on July 12, 2009 from Triengen Online in the News section.
4. ↑ Hollywood in the Surental: Orient-Express drives through Triengen for a movie In: 20 minutes from March 21, 2017