Zurich subway

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Planned subway lines (1972)

In the 1970s, the Zurich U-Bahn was a planning project to build an U-Bahn network in the city of Zurich and in some neighboring communities. The first line should have led from Dietikon via Schlieren , the Zurich main station , Oerlikon and Opfikon to Zurich Airport , with short branches to Schwamendingen and Kloten . The two most important development axes of the agglomeration , the Limmattal and the Glatttal , would have been developed. The route would have been 27.5 km long, 14.8 km of which would have been underground. The construction of two more lines was planned for a later date. After initial optimism, the project was clearly rejected in a referendum on May 20, 1973 by voters in the Canton of Zurich . As early as April 1, 1962, the project of a “Tiefbahn” ( underground tram ), which had planned to lower the tram network in the city center by building 21.15 km of tunnels, also failed in a referendum. Individual parts that were built as preliminary construction work for the underground railway, which was never built, are now used for the Milchbuck – Schwamendingen tram tunnel and as the terminus of the Sihltal-Zürich-Uetliberg railway .

First plans

In Fröschengraben 1864 a steam train to be built.

In 1864, one year after the opening of the Metropolitan Railway in London , the Zürcherische Freitag newspaper published the vision of a partly subterranean steam train that would lead from the station through the frogs' pit to the lake. Instead, the ditch was filled in and made way for Bahnhofstrasse . At the beginning of the 1930s, the expansion of the Zurich tram network was largely complete, the development of the newly emerging quarters was carried out by bus and trolleybus lines. City architect Herbert Steiner, who had drawn up the Zurich building and zoning regulations from 1948, forecast a population of 550,000. He considered the unbundling of traffic flows and the massive expansion of the public transport network to be essential, because this was the only way to realize the ideals of a garden city . In his opinion, however, Zurich was too small to build a subway and would always be too small. The architect Armin Meili and the geographer Hans Carol had similar views . The public hardly noticed these voices because of the beginning post-war boom and the onset of mass motorization .

Kurt Wiesinger , professor of mechanical engineering at the ETH Zurich , proposed in a study in 1946 an “ultra-high-speed train” that would have covered the distance between the main train station and Oerlikon in two minutes. In 1947, architect Wolfgang Nägeli presented a more realistic project in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung . Individual tram routes in the city center were to be laid underground. He proposed a tunnel under the Bahnhofstrasse between Bürkliplatz and Platzspitz , with branches from Paradeplatz to Sihlstrasse and from the main station to Weinbergstrasse. This first stage comprised 2.7 km of tunnels and 0.7 km of ramps and bridges, and he estimated the costs at 35 to 40 million francs . A second stage from Weinbergstrasse to Beckenhof would have been 1.1 km long (plus 0.2 km ramps) and would have cost a further 14 to 18 million.

On March 28, 1949, a private "initiative committee for an underground railway in Zurich" chaired by civil engineer Adolf Weber submitted an application to the Federal Post and Railway Department for a construction and operating license. A 107 km long and 158 stations comprehensive underground network was to be created, with lines from Zurich to Küsnacht , Witikon , Dübendorf , Kloten , Weiningen , Dietikon , Sellenbüren , Adliswil and Thalwil . After a revision, the projected total length was still 90 km. The necessary investment capital of around two billion francs should be raised on a private basis, with a partial interest guarantee from the public sector. In view of the horrendous costs, it seemed hopeless that the Federal Assembly would accept the request, whereupon the initiators withdrew it.

On May 30, 1959, another committee submitted two municipal motions "by voters for the purpose of realizing the Zurich subway". The first asked the municipal council (legislature) to grant 200,000 francs for a study on the construction of two underground lines ( Enge - Kloten and Altstetten - Tiefenbrunnen ) with a total length of 19.7 km. Since this fell within the competence of the Zurich City Council (executive), it was rejected. The second tasked the city council with solving the traffic problems in such a way that an operating company for the Zurich subway could be set up on a non- profit basis. Since the city council had already carried out a study with the same line, it recommended that the voters reject this motion. In the voting campaign that followed, several sides described the project as “unrealistic” and “overdone”. Zurich is not the size necessary for a subway and the investment costs are too high. The municipal referendum on February 14, 1960 was clearly against the subway with 48,502 to 20,944 votes (69.8% no).

Underground project

In addition to these private initiatives, the city authorities also deal intensively with long-term transport planning . In 1952, the city council commissioned two groups of experts to work out general transport planning, on the one hand Carl Pirath and Max Erich Feuchtinger from the Technical University of Stuttgart and on the other hand Kurt Leibbrand and Philipp Kremer from the ETH Zurich. The solution to Zurich's traffic problems was required up until the 1980s. They assumed a population of 550,000 in the city and well over a million in the agglomeration . The proposals presented by the two groups in 1955 were similar in many respects. High-performance thoroughfares were to be created for motorized individual traffic and junctions with overpasses and underpasses, elevated roads and tunnels were to be broken up. The tram should be retained as the backbone of local public transport , but it should be supplemented with underground routes. There was a clear difference in one point: Pirath / Feuchtinger proposed an extensive light rail network that could later be expanded into a fully-fledged underground railway. Leibbrand / Kremer, on the other hand, only wanted to implement a smaller underground tram network in the city center, known in Zurich as the “Tiefbahn”.

Planned underground lines (1962)

The publication of the reports triggered an intense debate on transport policy. While the expansion of the road network was completely undisputed, the public transport caused long-lasting discussions. The city council preferred the moderate project by Leibbrand / Kremer, while the local council preferred the comprehensive one by Pirath / Feuchtinger. In 1956, Professor Walther Lambert was called in as a further expert for network design and the type of operation, and in March 1957 a technical commission was set up. Finally, the city and local council agreed to work out their own underground railway project. With this task they entrusted a working group led by City Councilor Walter Thomann and VBZ Director Werner Latscha . In addition to Kurt Leibbrand, it also included representatives from various civil engineering and engineering companies. In January 1961, the city council presented a project that included tunnels with a total length of 12.3 km. The costs (excluding land acquisition) were estimated at CHF 329 million. In December of the same year, the city council submitted a supplementary directive: The underground railway network should now be 21.15 km long, at a cost of 544 million francs. Compared to the original project, sections to Oerlikon and Schwamendingen had been added and minor adjustments were made in the city center.

Trams of the type Be 4/4 («Karpfen») designed for tunnel operation

The following tunnel sections were planned:

  • Kalkbreite / Birmensdorferstrasse - Stauffacher - Sihlporte - Löwenplatz - Central Station - Limmatstrasse
  • Sihlporte - Talacker - Paradeplatz - Bellevue - Seefeldstrasse / Kreuzplatz
  • Bellevue - Heimplatz (Kunsthaus) - University - Universitätsstrasse
  • Hauptbahnhof - Central - Heimplatz - Hottingerstrasse
  • Central - University - Gloriastrasse
  • Löwenplatz - Paradeplatz - Bleicherweg
  • Main station - Schaffhauserplatz - Hirschwiese - Oerlikon - Schaffhauser- / Binzmühlestrasse
  • Irchel - Hirschwiese - Winterthurerstrasse - Hirschen Schwamendingen - Dübendorferstrasse
  • Schaffhauserplatz - Bucheggplatz - Hofwiesenstrasse

Wherever possible, the construction was planned using the cut-and- cover method . In display of mining excavation should be built are part of routes between Central and the University, under the Hirschgraben and from Bellevue to the home site. A direct route between the main station and Paradeplatz under the middle Bahnhofstrasse should be avoided in view of the large number of works lines and the main telephone tunnel. Instead, a mining drive along the Rennweg and the western flank of the St. Peterhofstatt was proposed.

All parties represented in the municipal council supported the project, but on April 1, 1962 it failed relatively clearly in the municipal referendum with 58,393 votes to 34,307 (63.0% no). An "unholy alliance" of two groups with completely different motives was responsible for the rejection. A non-partisan committee had spoken out against the lowering of the tram and criticized the reluctance of the transport planners to restrict private motorized traffic. A second group, which was primarily committed to the needs of motorists, however, had called for the abolition of the tram and the construction of a full-fledged underground. In 1959/60 15 large-capacity tramcars of the type Be 4/4 known as "Karpfen" were delivered to the VBZ, which were designed for possible use in tunnels with high barriers. As a consequence of the rejection of the Tiefbahn, no further series of this type of railcar were ordered.

Subway project

Planning

U-Bahn Zurich (project line 1)
            
Airport
            
            
Balls
            
            
shipyard
            
Glattbrugg
            
Zurich – Schaffhausen
            
Oberhausen
            
Depot / depot
            
Glatttalstrasse
            
Zurich – Wettingen
            
Eisfeldstrasse
            
            
Zurich – Winterthur
BSicon uextHST.svgBSicon .svg
Oerlikon
BSicon uextHST.svgBSicon .svg
Bernina Square
            
Schwamendingen
            
Overland road
            
Animal hospital
            
Deer meadows
            
Line 2
BSicon .svgBSicon uextHST.svg
Schaffhauserplatz
BSicon .svgBSicon uextHST.svg
Beckenhof
BSicon .svgBSicon uextHST.svg
Central / College
BSicon .svgBSicon uextKRZW.svg
Limmat
BSicon .svgBSicon uextTBHFxt.svg
Main station line 3
BSicon .svgBSicon uextHST.svg
Sihlporte
BSicon .svgBSicon uextKRZW.svg
Sihl
BSicon .svgBSicon uextTBHFxt.svg
Stauffacher line 2
BSicon .svgBSicon uextHSTe@g.svg
Kalkbreite
BSicon .svgBSicon uxmKRZo.svg
Zurich – Chur
BSicon .svgBSicon uextSTRa.svg
BSicon .svgBSicon uextHST.svg
Albisriederplatz
BSicon .svgBSicon uextHSTea.svg
Letzigraben
BSicon .svgBSicon uextHST.svg
Kappeli
BSicon .svgBSicon uextHST.svg
Altstetten
BSicon .svgBSicon uextSTRe.svg
BSicon .svgBSicon uxmKRZo.svg
Zurich – Zug – Lucerne
BSicon .svgBSicon uexHST.svg
Farbhof
BSicon emKRWlo + l.svgBSicon emKRWr + ro.svg
Zurich – Bern / Basel
BSicon uexHST.svgBSicon STR.svg
Gasworks
BSicon uexXBHF-L.svgBSicon XBHF-R.svg
Streaks
BSicon uexHST.svgBSicon STR.svg
Reitmen
BSicon uexHST.svgBSicon STR.svg
Schönwerd
BSicon emKRWl + lo.svgBSicon emKRWro + r.svg
BSicon XBHF-L.svgBSicon uexKXBHFe-R.svg
Dietikon

After the rejection of the underground railway project, the authorities were initially perplexed, as the result of the vote did not allow any clear conclusions to be drawn. In 1963 the city council appointed the architect and spatial planner Hans Marti as a delegate of the newly created city planning office. Marti was in favor of underground rail transport, but was extremely critical of demands for a conversion of Zurich into a car-friendly city . He thought that the tram would disappear from the city in the next few decades was an illusion. The city authorities came to the conclusion that the traffic problems can only be solved with an overall regional planning that extends beyond the city area, in cooperation with the Canton of Zurich and the federal government. In 1963, the Zurich Cantonal Council approved a loan of 935,000 francs for the preparation of general plans , which, in addition to various other areas, also addressed the development of the transport network. The canton and city of Zurich as well as the SBB set up a coordination committee to draw up the transport plan contained therein.

The committee's final report was available on May 18, 1966. According to this, rail-bound, road-independent means of transport should carry the main load of public transport, a distinction being made between coarse, medium and fine distributors. The existing SBB railway network was intended as a rough distribution network, which was to open up the second suburban belt (from a radius of ten to twelve kilometers from the city center). In the “metropolitan area” within this radius, an underground train of conventional design would take on the role of the fast middle-class distributor, since buses and trams are not suitable for this. Rather, these should serve as fine distributors and subway feeders. The tram network was to be adapted to the new circumstances, which necessitated the closure of routes in the city center, but also the construction of new routes in the outer city quarters. At the border of the metropolitan area, “contact stations” were planned between the U-Bahn and S-Bahn; from these the S-Bahn should run without stopping to the city center.

An authority delegation was formed to implement the concept proposed in the transport plan. The canton and city each financed their work with two million francs, while SBB made a contribution of 250,000 francs and assumed the planning and projecting costs of their own systems. The delegation of authorities met for the first time on January 24, 1967. Members were City President Sigmund Widmer , City Councilors Ernst Bieri and Adolf Maurer , Government Councilors Alois Günthard , Rudolf Meier and Hans Künzi , SBB General Directors Otto Wichser and Karl Wellinger and SBB District Director Max Strauss. Künzi served as President, Widmer and Weilinger as Vice-Presidents. The tasks were varied: clarification of legal questions, elaboration of financing proposals, clarification of construction and operational issues, supplementing the existing transport plan for the wider Zurich region, operating concept and expansion planning of regional rail traffic, information to the public. For this purpose, the government delegation set up a total of eight working groups.

A subway network with three lines was planned:

Line 1 was planned until it was ready for construction, as it covered the two most important traffic axes within the metropolitan region ( Glatttal and Limmattal ) and would have been a functional system in terms of the traffic concept even without the other two planned lines. The construction of the branch line to Schwamendingen was also preferred, as this rapidly growing area was very poorly developed at the time. The planners set the maximum speed of the subway to 80 km / h, the minimum route radius to 245 m, the maximum route incline to 40 ‰ and the maximum station incline to 5 ‰. The standard-gauge line would have been electrified with 1500 V direct current from the third rail . The rolling stock was eight-axle Be 8/8 railcars (45.6 m long and 2.9 m wide). Three wagons each would have been coupled together to form a 136.8 m long system with a total of 1302 seats (including 360 seats).

Description of line 1

Line 1 would have been 27.521 km long - including the access to the depot in Opfikon (located roughly on the site of today's Glattpark area). 12.7 km would have been above ground and 14.8 km underground. 6.0 km of the tunnel sections would have been mined, the rest using the cut-and-cover method. 30 stations, each 138 m in length, were planned. A train head time of three minutes was planned on the heavily loaded central section (later two minutes); According to the planning, 70 seconds would have been technically feasible. The plan was to initially build the section between Sihlporte and the airport within seven to eight years. The Sihlporte – Dietikon section and the branches to Kloten and Schwamendingen should be operational after around ten years.

The northern terminus would have been Zurich Airport . Under the hills of Butzenbüel and Holberg, the line would have led to the above-ground station Werft, where a short branch line from Kloten station would have flowed. The subway through Opfikon would then have run parallel to the existing SBB route until shortly after the Eisfeldstrasse stop. The northern portal of the inner city tunnel was planned there. Following the course of Ohmstrasse and Schaffhauserstrasse, the Hirschwiesen transfer station (near the Milchbuck tram stop) would have been reached. There, 30 meters below the surface of the earth, two station tubes connected by cross tunnels would have been built, the western one for trains on the main line and the eastern one for trains to and from Schwamendingen. The Schwamendingen branch line was to run partly under the Schöneichtunnel of the planned A1L motorway slip road and temporarily end at Hirschenplatz. From Hirschwiesen the route would have reached the main station by means of a sweeping S-curve , whereby the Milchbuck tunnel , the Lettentunnel and the Limmat would have been crossed.

At the station Dietikon the subway terminus was planned on the first floor along.

At the main train station, the underground station would have been under the Bahnhofplatz to the south. A second tunnel station for line 3 was to be built here at a later date. After crossing under the Sihl and the (not yet realized) feeder to the A3 , the Stauffacher would have been reached, where a transfer junction to line 2 was planned. The above-ground Kalkbreite station was planned near the intersection with the left bank of the Zürichseebahn . In the further course of Badenerstrasse, the route would have been underground again, with the exception of the Letzigraben station located in a short cut . The section between Albisriederplatz and Letzigraben would have been given an additional pull-out track for turning trains. On the western edge of Altstetten , a viaduct would have crossed the Zurich – Zug railway , the Mülligen marshalling yard and the Zurich – Bern / Basel railway. The subway would have passed through Schlieren north of the railway line. A short tunnel near Poststrasse in Dietikon would have led the route to the south side of the railway line. The subway would finally have reached Dietikon station on a bridge structure . The terminus was planned along the reception building at the height of the first floor. A possible extension from Dietikon to Spreitenbach in the canton of Aargau was considered , but not yet concretized in the planning .

Structural and legal preparations

Access to the Sihltal-Zürich-Uetliberg-Bahn station in Shopville , once intended for the U-Bahn.

Before the subway project was even finished, preliminary construction work was carried out at various locations . In connection with the expansion of the airport, which was carried out between 1966 and 1968, a car parking hall was built under the motorway slip road in front of the terminal. It had been designed so that it could have been converted into a subway station with minimal effort. From 1968 to 1970 the Shopville shopping mall was built under the main train station . As a precaution, the side walls for the subway station planned here were created. A pedestrian underpass was also built on Schaffhauserplatz in 1970, which would also have served as access to the subway. In order not to unnecessarily delay the upcoming construction of the A1L motorway feeder, the decision was made to build a 1364 m long section of the subway branch line to Schwamendingen as a shell together with the Schöneicht tunnel . The city authorities explicitly pointed out the possibility of later use by the tram if the subway project should "unexpectedly" fail. On March 14, 1971, the voters of the City of Zurich approved this CHF 31 million sub-project. With a participation of 56.2% there were 114,413 yes and 31,395 no votes, which corresponded to an approval of 78.47%.

As a supplement to the underground, the SBB planned an S-Bahn network that would take over the main load of traffic outside the metropolitan area. This required the construction of the Hirschengraben tunnel and the Zürichberg tunnel . The original intention was to distribute the costs of around 1.7 billion Swiss francs to be borne by the public purse, one third each, to the federal government, the canton of Zurich and the subway communities. However, there was still no legal basis for federal aid to agglomeration traffic, so that the federal government could not participate in the construction of the subway. Instead, the federal government would assume the cost of the S-Bahn, estimated at 650 million, while it would leave the financing of the underground entirely to the canton and the affected communities. On March 6, 1972, the Zurich Cantonal Council unanimously decided to amend the cantonal constitution, which would allow the canton to promote public transport with financial contributions and to create regional public transport companies. He also approved a regional traffic law with 145: 1 votes, which regulated the implementation of this constitutional article. Both proposals were submitted to the electorate of the Canton of Zurich for voting on June 4, 1972. With a participation of 48.6%, the constitutional amendment was successful with 223,587 to 47,205 votes (82.57% yes), the law with 224,546 to 47,502 votes (82.54% yes). Following the approval of the National Council and the Council of States , the “ Federal Decree on the Granting of a Concession for an Underground Railway in the Zurich Region” came into force on March 13, 1973 .

Failure after initial optimism

The Zurich traffic projects were typical of the seemingly limitless growth euphoria of the 1960s. This included, for example, the vision of building a modern business center of monumental proportions in the Stauffacher / Sihlporte area - a “Manhattan on the Sihl”. Zurich was to become a world-class metropolis. At first there was hardly any opposition worth mentioning: With the exception of the Labor Party at the city level and the Social Democratic Party (SP) at the cantonal level, all political forces supported the construction of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn. An opinion poll carried out in December 1971 showed an agreement of 81% of the population. The first resistance to the seemingly unchecked flood of traffic manifested itself in 1970, when the car-friendly renovation of Heimplatz failed in a municipal referendum, and continued from 1971 with the protest against the planned Zurich Expressstrasse-Y . After the Club of Rome published the study The Limits to Growth on the occasion of the St. Gallen Symposium in 1972, the general public gradually began to feel tired of growth.

In the run-up to the decisive referendum, it was requested that the question of building the underground and suburban trains should be asked separately. In fact, the S-Bahn was largely undisputed, while a fierce settlement and socio-political debate flared up around the U-Bahn. Above all, exponents of the SP took a stand against what they called the "megalomania project". As a result of the underground construction, they feared rising land prices, higher rents and the endangerment of residential space close to the center from office use. This leads to a displacement of the city dwellers into the suburbs and ultimately to longer commutes. In addition, the opponents considered the cost of the underground to be "astronomically high". Proponents argued that the subway was an environmental protection project. They also affirmed that numerous accompanying measures had been prepared to maintain and promote urban living space. Their argument that there would be a “traffic collapse” without the underground did not work, especially since the economy began to cool down and the number of inhabitants in the city of Zurich fell slightly again.

On May 20, 1973, the people at cantonal level had to decide on the “decision of the cantonal council on the approval of a loan for the expansion of public transport in the Zurich region”. This meant the financial participation of the Canton of Zurich in the subway construction, for which 599.2 million francs had to be approved. In addition, a decision had to be made in the city of Zurich on the "expansion of public transport (construction and financing of a subway and an S-Bahn, founding contract)". It included the city's participation in the construction of the subway and, to a lesser extent, in the S-Bahn, as well as the founding agreement of the “Verkehrsbetriebe der Zürich Region” (VRZ). A further 545.5 million francs were earmarked for this. The VRZ, in which the city of Zurich and the subway communities Dietikon, Kloten, Opfikon and Schlieren should also be involved, would have been an extension of the Zurich transport company , which would also have carried out the subway operation. If both proposals had been accepted, the federal government would have made its contribution to the construction of the S-Bahn. This did not happen, however: with an above-average participation of 64.2%, the cantonal proposal was rejected by 234,320 votes to 177,362 (56.92% no); only 34 out of 170 parishes agreed. The city proposal failed even more clearly, with 123,210 votes to 50,114 (71.09% no). SP Cantonal Councilor Franz Schumacher interpreted the referendum as a rejection of the unbridled economic growth and said that the no only applied to the underground.

Reuse and effect

Terminal station of the Sihl Valley-Zurich-Uetliberg Railway
Plan of the Milchbuck – Schwamendingen tunnel

As early as June 18, 1973, the SP submitted a municipal popular initiative calling for a lump sum loan of 200 million for the expansion of public transport (spread over ten years). Above all, the so far neglected tram should benefit from this. The city council took plenty of time to deal with the initiative and considered it superfluous, as it was pursuing its own modernization concept. On March 13, 1977, however, those entitled to vote accepted the initiative with 61,599 votes to 58,588 (51.25% yes). As a result, the Zurich tram network was extensively modernized and optimized. In 1978 the subway tunnel section under the A1L motorway feeder, approved seven years earlier, was nearing completion. Of the 200 million francs available, 123 million were to be used to build a new tram route from Milchbuck through the tunnel to Schwamendingen (and from there on to Hirzenbach and Stettbach station ). The project was successful in a municipal referendum on September 24, 1978 with 69,170 votes to 44,627 (60.78% yes). The 2.5 km long Milchbuck – Schwamendingen tram tunnel was put into operation on February 1, 1986. Since then, two lines have stopped there in the three underground stations Tierspital, Waldgarten and Schörlistrasse, which were built according to underground standards.

How little controversy the Zurich S-Bahn had been in 1973 became clear on November 29, 1981, when the voters of the canton of Zurich approved a loan of 523 million francs for the construction of the S-Bahn with a yes share of 73.75% approved. Another project was the connection of the Sihltal-Zürich-Uetliberg-Bahn (SZU) to the main station . The SZU lines from Uetliberg and Sihltal ended in 1875 and 1892 in the peripheral Selnau terminus , which was difficult to reach from the main station. After the planners had initially considered a short variant with a terminus under the Gessnerallee parking deck (which no longer exists), they decided to use the subway station, which had been partially built and was located under the Shopville , and which was significantly cheaper . The cost of the project was estimated at CHF 105 million. On February 27, 1983, the electorate of the Canton of Zurich approved a loan of 72.41 million with a yes share of 67.48%, whereupon the federal government and the SZU neighboring communities contributed the remaining amount. The groundbreaking for the 1592 m long route, which also includes a new Selnau station , took place on March 4, 1986. The shell of the 1281 m long tunnel was completed in autumn 1988. Finally, the SZU extension went into operation on May 5, 1990, three weeks before the rest of the S-Bahn network.

The northern axis of the rejected underground is now covered by a light rail , the Glattalbahn , which went into operation between 2006 and 2010 . The Limmattalbahn is to be built on the western axis from 2017 to 2022 . In view of the increasing number of inhabitants and increasing traffic density, there were repeated proposals for tunnel-guided rail transport networks in the early 21st century. In 2003, the computer scientist Thomas Mouzinho presented the concept of a ring subway as part of the “Zurich Sustainable” ideas competition. The «Zürkel» was supposed to lead from Wollishofen via Albisrieden , Altstetten , Höngg , Affoltern , Oerlikon , Glattzentrum , Stettbach , Witikon and Tiefenbrunnen back to Wollishofen. In 2011 Ulrich Weidmann, Professor of Transport Systems at ETH Zurich, took up the idea of ​​an underground tram in the city center again, similar to the underground railway project of 1962. In his opinion, the S-Bahn is overloaded and the tram is too slow. In contrast to the views of traffic planners of earlier decades, the area freed up by the dismantling of the tracks should not benefit automobile traffic, but the general increase in quality of life. Based on this idea, two years later the student Christine Furter, supervised by Weidmann, created the detailed «Metrotram» concept in her master's thesis, which was awarded by the LITRA association . It envisages tunnels of 10.3 km in length and 18 stations. Despite the estimated costs of CHF 2.3 to 2.75 billion, this variant performed significantly better in terms of economic efficiency than an underground network that was also examined. In December 2015, two green-liberal cantonal councils submitted a postulate calling on the government council to prepare a report on a possible subway for the greater Zurich area. The postulants did not name specific routes, but the main train station was not to be developed due to capacity reasons. In its reply from March 2016, the government council found that an underground train in the city and the agglomeration of Zurich would be “neither necessary nor useful”. In addition, there would be unnecessarily high costs.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b The Tram Museum is Museum of the Month for May. presseportal.ch, May 11, 2010, accessed on January 2, 2016 .
  2. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. Pp. 204-205.
  3. ^ Wolfgang Nägeli: Proposal to improve the traffic conditions in the city center of Zurich . In: Schweizerischer Ingenieur- und Architektenverein (Ed.): Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 65 , no. 45 . Zurich November 8, 1947, p. 616–617 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-55978 .
  4. ^ Hans Künzi : Necrologist: Adolf Weber . In: Schweizerischer Ingenieur- und Architektenverein (Ed.): Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 76 , no. 25 . Zurich June 21, 1958, p. 380-381 ( online ).
  5. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, p. 573.
  6. ^ Hans Künzi : Zurich's public transport and its S-Bahn . New Year's Gazette of the Learned Society of Zurich . Beer, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-906262-10-3 , p. 25 .
  7. a b c d e f voting database. Presidential Department of the Canton of Zurich, 2015, accessed on January 2, 2016 .
  8. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, pp. 573-574.
  9. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. Pp. 210-211.
  10. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. Pp. 213-214.
  11. ^ The project of an underground railway for Zurich. Schweizerische Bauzeitung 79/47 (1961), p. 847.
  12. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. P. 214.
  13. Chess the traffic chaos. (PDF, 2.8 MB) www.alt-zueri.ch, 1962, accessed on January 2, 2016 (brochure of the Pro Tiefbahn action committee).
  14. ^ The project of an underground railway for Zurich. Schweizerische Bauzeitung 79/47 (1961), p. 851.
  15. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. P. 216.
  16. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. Pp. 217-218.
  17. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. P. 220.
  18. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, pp. 574-575.
  19. ^ A b Hans Künzi: The future subway of Zurich. Schweizerische Bauzeitung 88/51 (1970), p. 1194.
  20. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, pp. 575-576.
  21. ^ Heinrich Brändli: U-Bahn and additional network. Schweizerische Bauzeitung 89/25 (1971), p. 639.
  22. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, pp. 581-582.
  23. ^ A b Heinrich Brändli: U-Bahn and supplementary network. Schweizerische Bauzeitung 89/25 (1971), p. 640.
  24. Hans Künzi: The future subway of Zurich. Schweizerische Bauzeitung 88/51 (1970), pp. 1194–1195.
  25. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, p. 583.
  26. a b The tram from Oerlikon to Schwamendingen. Tram Museum Zurich, August 30, 2006, archived from the original on December 19, 2010 ; accessed on January 2, 2016 .
  27. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, pp. 583-584.
  28. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, pp. 584-585.
  29. Planning Zentrum Dietikon 1969. (PDF, 9.9 MB) In: Neujahrsblatt von Dietikon 1970. Gemeinde Dietikon, 1970, p. 13 , accessed on January 2, 2016 .
  30. Sandro Fehr: The development of the third dimension. Origin and development of the civil aviation infrastructure in Switzerland, 1919–1990 . Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-0340-1228-7 , p. 226-227 .
  31. "Local transport: under the ground with it?" Swiss television, January 15, 1970, accessed on January 2, 2016 (archived contribution from the television program “Spektrum Schweiz”).
  32. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, pp. 572-573.
  33. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, pp. 577-578.
  34. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. P. 224.
  35. a b c Marc Tribelhorn: Zurich U-Bahn dreams. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 30, 2013, accessed on January 2, 2016 .
  36. ^ A b Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. P. 225.
  37. ^ A b c Norbert Hobmeier: The Zurich S-Bahn. P. 12.
  38. Federal Gazette No. 39/1972, p. 573.
  39. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. Pp. 228-229.
  40. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt. P. 234.
  41. ^ Norbert Hobmeier: The Zurich S-Bahn. P. 10.
  42. ^ Norbert Hobmeier: The Zurich S-Bahn. Pp. 100-101.
  43. ^ Under the Sihl to the city center - 25 years of railway extension. (PDF, 851 kB) Sihltal-Zürich-Uetliberg-Bahn , May 2015, accessed on January 2, 2016 .
  44. Thomas Mouzinho: The Zürkel. www.gressly.me, 2003, accessed January 2, 2016 .
  45. Marcus Weiss: Does «Zürkel» still have a chance? (PDF, 351 kB) Höngger, February 19, 2009, accessed on January 2, 2016 .
  46. Werner Huber: Zurich's new tram drives nimbly under the ground . In: raised ground floor . tape 24 , no. 6 /7 (June / July). Zurich 2011, doi : 10.5169 / seals-287108 .
  47. Christine Furter: Metrotram Zurich - light rail or underground for Zurich. (PDF, 21.6 MB) (No longer available online.) ETH Zurich, Institute for Transport Planning and Systems, June 2013, archived from the original on April 14, 2016 ; accessed on January 2, 2016 .
  48. Simon Eppenberger: Commuters in the tube. Tages-Anzeiger , December 10, 2015, accessed January 2, 2016 .
  49. U-Bahn in Zurich anything but useful. 20 minutes , March 24, 2016, accessed March 25, 2016 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 14, 2016 .