Thurtle Line

Thurtle Line
Timetable field :	840
Route length:	53.1 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	14  ‰
Top speed:	125 km / h
Legend SBB from Zurich S 8 and from Bülach 26.05 Winterthur end point S 30 438.8  m above sea level M. to Schaffhausen SBB to Rüti and St. Gallen 29.66 Oberwinterthur 456.8  m above sea level M. SBB to Etzwilen 31.96 Wiesendangen 470  m above sea level M. A1 33.54 Rickenbach-Attikon 471.7  m above sea level M. A7 Canton border Zurich / Thurgau 38.05 Islikon 422.7  m above sea level M. ≈38.20 Frauenfeld sugar factory ≈41.50 Murg FW to Wil SG 42.05 Frauenfeld 404.6  m above sea level M. Industry 46.20 Felben-Wellhausen 398.8  m above sea level M. 48.67 Hüttlingen-Mettendorf 403.7  m above sea level M. Thur (174 m) 52.12 Müllheim-Wigoltingen 411.5  m above sea level M. 55.69 Märstetten 418.3  m above sea level M. Thurbo from Wil 59.49 Weinfelden end point S 5 S 7 S 8 S 30 429.3  m above sea level M. Thurbo to Kreuzlingen 63.28 Bürglen 439.7  m above sea level M. 66.11 Sulgen 449.2  m above sea level M. SBB to Bischofszell - St. Gallen S 5 69.70 Alders 448.7  m above sea level M. 72.91 Oberaach 444.3  m above sea level M. 75.57 Amriswil 437.2  m above sea level M. to Schaffhausen 82.15 Romanshorn change of direction S 7 398.5  m above sea level M. 81.00 SOB to St. Gallen and SBB to Rorschach S 7

The Thurtallinie is a Swiss railway line and was built as part of the Bodenseebahn. It connects Winterthur with Romanshorn , where there was a connection to the ferry traffic across Lake Constance . It is the fourth oldest railway line in Switzerland. Its construction was decided by the Zurich-Bodenseebahn , which, however, merged with the Swiss Northern Railway to form the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB) during construction . The Thurtallinie was opened on May 16, 1855, the line from Winterthur to Oerlikon on December 27, 1855. The Zurich main station was reached on June 26, 1856 and the two existing NOB lines were connected.

As a continuation of this route, the Lake Constance Trajekte Romanshorn – Friedrichshafen and Romanshorn – Lindau were established.

history

The story goes back to one of the oldest Swiss railway projects: as early as 1836 an east railway project from Zurich to Lake Constance was developed. Like the northern line (Zurich – Basel) and the southern line (Zurich – Chur), this project was developed by Alois Negrelli von Moldelbe and was supposed to lead from Winterthur via Frauenfeld to Romanshorn, although a slightly different route was proposed between Zurich and Winterthur. In Zurich, for example, a separate train station was planned in the Oberstrass area . From there on, the line followed around the Zürichberg to Stettbach , to cross the Glatt at Dübendorf . Then it went via Hegnau and Kindhausen to Rikon, today a district of Effretikon . After that, the route largely coincided with the route. Negrelli himself gave this of the three projects he worked out the lowest economic chances of success. The killing blow for this project was the political change of 1839, when the liberal forces were ousted by the conservatives in the canton of Zurich. Negrelli left Zurich in 1840 and worked in Austria as General Inspector for the Kaiser-Ferdinands-Nordbahngesellschaft . He later returned to Switzerland, but was only involved in the construction of the Northern Railway.

The political situation in Switzerland at that time was anything but rail-friendly, as the conflict between Catholics and Protestants, which culminated in the Sonderbund War in 1847, came to a head. Only with the new constitution and the abolition of Swiss customs duties did the situation fundamentally change. At this time, Alfred Escher, a personality who would make a significant contribution to the history of the railway in Switzerland , entered the political arena. The designation of his convictions that was customary at the time was "legally radical", but only inaccurately reflects his political position: he was a clear representative of what we now understand by free market economy. He was aware that healthy financial growth was only possible through better connections to other markets, and the railroad was the means of that time. He is considered one of the main advocates of the Railway Act , which came into force in 1852 , which placed the construction of railroads in private hands.

His first major project was this railway line, for which the Zurich-Bodenseebahn received the concession on February 28, 1853. Melchior Ziegler, the first president of the Zurich-Bodenseebahn-Gesellschaft, was quickly ousted by Alfred Escher. Escher signed the merger agreement between the Swiss Northern Railway and the Zurich-Lake Constance Railway to form the Swiss North-Eastern Railway , as a member of the Zurich-Lake Constance Railway, as the newly appointed Director of the North Eastern Railway and as President of the Government Council of the Canton of Zurich.

The definition of the final route had already begun in 1850, but the final route for all sections was not determined until 1853, so that construction work began in some places immediately after the route was established. In addition to the terminal stations in Romanshorn and Zurich, the plans provided for the following stations: Amriswil, Riedt, Bürglen, Weinfelden, Märstetten, Felben, Frauenfeld, Islikon, Ruchegg, Winterthur, Rikon (Effretikon), Wallisellen and Oerlikon. Two of these were relocated again: Wiesendangen instead of Ruchegg and Sulgen instead of Riedt. The local authorities asked for additional stations or stops, but only the two requests that rail freight transport offered were taken into account. Together with the line, industrial connections to the mills in the Kupferhammer near Kemptthal and the Haslimühle in Müllheim-Wigoltingen were built. The Oberach, Hüttingen, Oberwinterthur and Baltenswil stops, which were primarily intended to benefit the local population, were all rejected.

The Thurtallinie was built with a single track and opened on May 16, 1855 with a single track. Even at the planning stage, however, care was taken to ensure that double-track expansion was possible. However, the line was only equipped with a second track under the direction of SBB. The two parallel tracks between Winterthur and Oberwinterthur, which were built separately by the NOB and SNB, were merged into a double-track line as early as 1903. For the rest of the route, the substructure for the second track had to be created first. The double-track lines were opened in the following order:

• Frauenfeld – Müllheim on October 1, 1905
• Oberwinterthur – Wiesendangen on May 1, 1906
• Islikon – Frauenfeld on May 1, 1906
• Müllheim – Sulgen on May 1, 1907.
• Sulgen – Amriswil on July 1, 1907
• Wiesendangen – Islikon on July 4, 1907
• Amriswil – Romanshorn on September 30, 1907

As the main line, it was electrified early on by the SBB with the usual electricity system of 15,000 volts at 16.7 Hertz. Electrical operation on the Winterthur – Romanshorn line began on May 4, 1928.

Course and stations

Winterthur train station

The station Winterthur was west of the old town built. In the direction of Romanshorn, the Thurtallinie makes a right curve, while the route to Schaffhausen branches off to the left. In the resulting triangle is the Winterthur depot , which today is of little importance apart from the stationing of a fire extinguishing and rescue train . The actual depot work has all been outsourced to the S-Bahn depot in Oberwinterthur. The exit from Winterthur station along the Stadtrain is now four-track. The former track of the Bodenseebahn is now the second northernmost. After completing the four lines to Oberwinterthur and Grüze, a separate track was created for each railway administration and line. In 1903, the two side-by-side tracks between Winterthur and Oberwinterthur were merged to form a real double-track track. After the Thurtallinie has separated from the route to St. Gallen and Tösstal with a left curve, the Oberwinterthur train station is reached. This was built by the Swiss National Railway in 1875, whose route from Etzwilen met the route of the Bodenseebahn here. The new Baroque station building was built in 1918 by the SBB . With the opening of the Zurich S-Bahn in 1990, the seven-hectare Oberwinterthur maintenance facility was opened south of the main line towards Romanshorn . The Technorama Winterthur is on the other side of the route .

The Wiesendangen train station received an inglorious honor in 1975 when the SBB had the unique and well-preserved reception building in the chalet style demolished at 5 a.m. on a Monday morning. The culmination point of this section of the route is reached between Wiesendangen and Rickenbach .

The station building in Rickenbach-Attikon dates from 1907, this station was only opened on October 15, 1907. After Attikon, the Thurtallinie leads over a three-kilometer-long dam, 85 meters down into the Thur Valley.

The Islikon train station is operated today in the station holder model and still has the reception building from 1873. After the Islikon train station , the siding of the Frauenfeld sugar factory branches off to the north , whose large-scale facilities accompany the Thurtallinie until shortly before the town of Frauenfeld.

Frauenfeld train station

Eschikofer Bridge over the Thur

The canton capital of the canton Thurgau in the station Frauenfeld a large and correspondingly respectable reception building, on the forecourt since 1887 Frauenfeld-Wil train departs. The station was extensively expanded with the opening of the weapons yard and extensively rebuilt in view of the 2000 railroad , as it was one of the last large stations with level rail access . During the renovation, an underground roundabout was created under the station square, the classicist reception building from 1859 was gently renovated and a 420-meter-long central platform was built, which is covered by the second longest platform roof in Switzerland. While the goods shed was being demolished, the classicist military warehouse building was converted into a park-and-ride garage. The locomotive shed from 1890 is now used by the SBB construction service.

North of the line towards Romanshorn, the Frauenfeld parcel post center was opened in 1999, for which a rail connection was set up.

The Felben-Wellhausen station probably has the most original freight shed on this route, parts of which go back to 1855. The current reception building was built in 1873.

The Hüttligen-Mettendorf stop developed from a stopping point to a train station and is now a stop again. The Thur is crossed in front of the Müllheim-Wigoltingen train station . For this, the Thurtallinie makes an S-curve, in the middle of which the Eschikofer Bridge is located. The initially single-lane covered wooden bridge was replaced in 1903 - in connection with the double-lane expansion - by a new bridge consisting of two 174-meter-long steel truss bridges lying next to each other.

The Müllheim-Wigoltingen train station received a medium-sized reception building. A goods shed was added to this in 1862 and expanded in 1871. On the other side, the building received a waiting room extension in 1894. On May 19, 1863, a collision between a passing express train and a stopping passenger train occurred in the station due to incorrect switch positions. Two railway employees were injured so seriously that they died, another survived seriously injured. An unspecified number of passengers were slightly injured even though the cars they were sitting in were smashed.

In 2001, Märstetten train station was given a bus shelter and a so-called rail beam based on the “Facelifting Stations” concept.

Weinfelden train station

The station Weinfelden is a junction station for the 1911th At that time the Mittelthurgau Railway was opened, which set up its depot here and cuts through the Bodensee line.

In 1866, the Bürglen train station was given a medium-sized reception building on the gable .

Sulgen station has been a branch railway station since 1876. The Bischofszellerbahn , which opened on February 1st between Sulgen and Bischofszell-Stadt, also built a locomotive shed in the station. Today a section of the Eurovapor is located here.

Erlen station still has the converted station building from 1873, and the goods shed from 1859 is still there. From a railway technology point of view, the station is now just a stop.

Oberaach station still has the station building built in 1907, but this has been purified . The station itself was only opened on February 1, 1908. The station was closed for passenger traffic in 2001 and replaced by a new stop of the same name relocated a few hundred meters eastwards. Since you could save yourself the construction of a pedestrian underpass because you could use the overpass as an access.

The station Amriswil was already equipped with a 1855 train yard, and in 1867 with a stately station building. The station building was demolished in modern times and the freight tracks dismantled. From a railway technology point of view, Amriswil has been just a stop since 2004. The station building is now a functional, one-storey building with a flat roof, but the station is still commercially occupied and covers the entire range of services including travel agency and money transfer.

Romanshorn train station

The station Romanshorn possessed as a railway terminal at the port in accordance extensive railway tracks and a depot. The Romanshorn marshalling yard, located on the railway line to Romanshorn that opened on October 15, 1869 , was closed in 1997. Access from this route was via a connecting loop; The depot is located in the track triangle formed in this way. This single-track connecting line is still used today by freight trains from the direction of the Rhine Valley and Rorschach towards the Limmattal marshalling yard , but not by regular passenger trains . The passenger station was completely renovated in 2004, while the reception building, which was built between 1853 and 1855, was retained.

• 

  Islikon

• 

  Felben-Wellhausen

• 

  Hüttlingen-Mettendorf

• 

  Müllheim-Wigoltingen

• 

  Former Märstetten station

• 

  Amriswil

business

The Thurtallinie has always been used by express trains Zürich-Romanshorn (2010: IC Romanshorn-Brig) and regional trains Winterthur-Romanshorn, since the introduction of the line in 2000 there has been a shifted express train Zürich-Weinfelden-Konstanz (2010: IR Konstanz-Biel / Bienne) added. Both trains are temporarily run as ICN with RABDe 500 , but shuttle trains with Re 460 and EW IV or IC2000 as rolling stock are common. Regional traffic was interrupted with the introduction of the St. Gallen S-Bahn in Weinfelden: Since then, the regional trains called S7 have been running from Romanshorn to Weinfelden, while the regional trains now called S30 of the Zurich S-Bahn only run between Weinfelden and Winterthur. For this purpose, the S30 is supplemented by the extended S8 (Zurich S-Bahn) during the day from Monday to Friday at a strongly limping half-hourly cycle . Between Sulgen and Weinfelden, there are also the S5 trains (S-Bahn St. Gallen) that use the Bischofszellerbahn.

On the nights from Friday to Saturday and from Saturday to Sunday night S-Bahn trains run at extra charge.

Since the closure of the marshalling yard in Romanshorn, the Thurtallinie has lost some of its importance for freight traffic. Nevertheless, the route is mainly used by freight trains in an east-west direction: the freight wagons from the Rhine Valley and Lake Constance are brought to the Limmattal marshalling yard, since the Buchs marshalling yard only serves as a distribution station, but not as a collection station for national individual wagon traffic. As a transit route, it is only used by trains destined for the Wolfurt marshalling yard . Freight trains over the Arlberg usually use the border crossing at Buchs. There are also a number of parcel post trains for the parcel post center in Frauenfeld, and every autumn many sugar beet trains run for the Frauenfeld sugar factory.

The Thurtallinie is often used by trial and test trains because it has enough capacity as well as enough sidings and sidings that can be used without problems outside the sugar beet season.

Historical

The two McDonald's EW IV dining cars were to be found very often on this route, as they ran in the Jura Südfuss express trains that were not commuted at that time and that were connected to Romanshorn.

The IR Konstanz – Zürich was initially called RX (RegionalExpress) Zugvogel, later Cityvogel . It ran the Constance – Zurich (–Bern – Geneva) route and only ran on this section from Monday to Friday, first three, then seven and in 2003 eight times. The offer was launched at the 1997 timetable change with the participation of the cantons of Zurich and Thurgau, the cities of Kreuzlingen and Konstanz and the district of Konstanz with 1.4 million Swiss francs.

On December 12, 2004, as part of the Bahn 2000 concept, it was replaced by a daily ICN hourly service, the financial support from the cantons, districts and cities was discontinued, and it was extended to Biel, before the 2008 timetable change was changed to conventional train material Interregios took place.

From 2015 to 2017, the Thurtal line from Winterthur to Weinfelden was modernized in order to increase the maximum speed from 125 km / h to 150 km / h. The travel time was reduced by 5 minutes. The originally planned straightening of the route was waived for cost reasons.

literature

• Hans-Peter Bärtschi , Adrian Ramsauer , Jürg Hauswirth: The Bodenseebahn 1855–2005: Romanhorn – Winterthur – Zurich . Minirex AG, Lucerne 2005, ISBN 3-907014-18-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Knoepfel: At 150 km / h through the Thur Valley . In: St. Galler Tagblatt. March 7, 2013, accessed July 1, 2017 . The newly named ICN is called "Minister Kern". SBB media office, May 28, 2005, accessed on July 1, 2017 . Uttwil: Erich Trösch. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . February 20, 2013 , accessed July 1, 2017 . Online research. Huber interpellation regarding the electrification of the Thurtle line (dossier). In: State Archives of the Canton of Thurgau. August 21, 1918, accessed July 1, 2017 . 
    
   
    
2. ↑ Only the Zurich-Baden, Basel-Liestal and Bussigny-Yverdon railway lines are older
3. ↑ The Bodenseebahn, pages 79 + 82
4. ↑ The Bodenseebahn, pages 80–81
5. ↑ The Bodenseebahn, page 152
6. ↑ SBB timetable 97/98
7. ↑ SBB timetable 01/02
8. ↑ Dispute over CityVogel , SÜDKURIER Online on January 10, 2003
9. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ↑ Martin Knoepfel: At 150 km / h through the Thur Valley . In: St. Galler Tagblatt. March 7, 2013, accessed July 1, 2017 .