United Huttwil Railways

United Huttwil Railways
legal form	AG
Seat	Huttwil
founding	January 1, 1944
Lines
Gauge	1435 mm ( standard gauge )

The company United Huttwil-Bahnen ( VHB ) was a railway company based in Huttwil , Switzerland . In 1997 it merged with the Emmental-Burgdorf-Thun-Bahn (EBT) and the Solothurn-Münster-Bahn (SMB) to form Regionalverkehr Mittelland (RM), which then took over the operation of the VHB route network. Since mid-2006, the lines have been operated by BLS AG , which arose from the merger of RM with BLS Lötschbergbahn .

history

Poster from 1900 promoting through trains from Langenthal to Wolhusen

At the Huttwil depot in July 1993 with one SMB and one EBT locomotive Be 4/4 as well as the Ee 3/3 of the VHB (ex SBB)

VHB route network during its greatest expansion

Ordinary share for CHF 250 in AG Vereinigte Huttwil-Bahnen from December 21, 1944

The inaugural trip from Huttwil to Langenthal for the inauguration of the Langenthal-Huttwil Railway (LHB) took place on October 31, 1889, even if the official operating license did not arrive until the evening and was valid from the following day.

LHB got off to a good start, with transport orders from construction and industry increasing in particular. The LHB was subsequently also commissioned to build a railway from Huttwil to Willisau and Wolhusen . Thanks to the joint operation of the new Huttwil-Wolhusen-Bahn (HWB) with the LHB, continuous trains from Langenthal to Wolhusen could now be offered.

In 1908, the Ramsei-Sumiswald-Huttwil-Bahn (RSHB) was opened as a connection to what was then the Emmental Railway . The LHB was again responsible for operational management.

The Huttwil-Eriswil-Bahn (HEB) followed as the last of the railways departing from Huttwil , which was soon taken over by the LHB.

Due to the Private Railway Aid Act of 1939, the merger of the three railways took place on January 1, 1944 to form the United Huttwil-Bahnen (VHB) company , which from this point in time in a joint operation with the Emmental-Burgdorf-Thun-Bahn (EBT) and the Solothurn-Münster -Bahn (SMB) stand. Accordingly, the rolling stock was used freely and some passenger cars were labeled with the abbreviations of all three railways involved.

Langenthal-Huttwil Railway (LHB) November 1, 1889

Huttwil-Wolhusen-Bahn (HWB) 9.5.1895

Ramsei-Sumiswald-Huttwil Railway (RSHB) 1.6.1908

Huttwil-Eriswil Railway (HEB) E September 1, 1915; 01/01/1927

United Huttwil Railways (VHB) 1.1.1944

Regional traffic Mittelland (RM) 1.1.1997

BLS AG 2006

Unless otherwise stated, all dates are opening (E) or incorporation or takeover (O)

Electrification

Start of operations	section
July 8, 1945	Langenthal – Huttwil
August 6, 1945	Huttwil – Hüswil
October 7, 1945	Ramsei – Sumiswald – Wasen i. E.
December 7, 1945	Hüswil – Wolhusen
April 12, 1946	Sumiswald – Huttwil
May 5, 1946	Huttwil – Eriswil

Electric operation was introduced on all routes under the VHB. The AC system common to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) with a voltage of 15 kilovolts and a frequency of 16⅔ Hertz was used.

The electrification began in mid-1945 with the section between Langenthal and Huttwil and was completed in two further stages by the end of the year to Wolhusen. The section between Ramsei and Sumiswald including the branch line to Wasen was also electrified in the meantime, and the two electrified sections of the line finally merged in Huttwil in April 1946. Finally, the branch line to Eriswil was also provided with a contact wire.

Shutdowns

Not all VHB routes could be preserved, the reasons are mainly the topography and the relatively sparse settlement of the region, which consists of many small scattered settlements, which means that only the traffic between larger towns and the freight traffic can be operated at almost cost-covering rates.

The line of the Huttwil-Eriswil-Bahn (HEB), the short branch line Huttwil-Eriswil , which had already been taken over by the Langenthal-Huttwil-Bahn (LHB) on January 1, 1927, suffered the most . Although the line was the last to be electrified in 1946, it was in decline. Due to the low usage, passenger transport was replaced by a bus service when the timetable changed in 1975. When the freight traffic also collapsed, this was also stopped, and the outdated route was finally canceled in 1979.

Although this remained the only interruption of a route under the VHB, passenger traffic on the branch route from Sumiswald-Grünen to Wasen in Emmental was also shut down when the timetable changed in 1994. An additional factor in this shutdown was the outdated and personnel-intensive infrastructure that required personnel at the stations to operate the manual switches.

After the merger to form RM, passenger traffic on the Affoltern-Weier – Huttwil section was also shut down in 2004, although this was no longer solely due to the meager number of passengers, but also due to the travel time of the S-Bahn from Bern. Because the S-Bahn already turned in Affoltern-Weier, one composition could be saved and the long downtime in Huttwil was eliminated. Since the timetable change in 2009, the S-Bahn has already turned in Sumiswald-Grünen, and the Affoltern-Sumiswald section has been switched to bus operation.

In December 2013, the infrastructure concession for the Sumiswald – Wasen and Sumiswald – Huttwil lines was transferred to Emmentalbahn GmbH (ETB). This must keep the two routes open for network access, especially for freight traffic and vehicle transfers. This obligation is met by the federal government and the canton.

The railway line from Sumiswald to Huttwil has been in operation again since autumn 2014 and the Emmental Museum Railway Cooperative is planning regular journeys.

Merger to form RM

The joint operation with the Emmental-Burgdorf-Thun-Bahn and the Solothurn-Münster-Bahn under joint management by EBT as the largest of the three companies was merged on January 1, 1997 in the Regionalverkehr Mittelland (RM) company. For its part, RM merged with BLS Lötschbergbahn (BLS) to form BLS AG , which has been operational since June 27, 2006.

stretch

route	opening	Number of stations *	length	society	comment
Langenthal - Huttwil	1889	9 (3) + 6	14.09	LHB
Huttwil – Wolhusen	1895	9 (2) + 7	25.23	HWB
Ramsei – Huttwil	1908	11 (4) + 6	19.46	RSHB	Sumiswald – Huttwil section closed from 2010 to 2014
Sumiswald - Wasen	1908	5 (3)	5.20	RSHB	Shut down at the end of 2009
Huttwil – Eriswil	1915	5 (3)	4.90	HEB	Taken over by LHB in 1927 shut down in 1978 abandoned in 1979
* of which breakpoints (without points) + number of block points

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 100 years LHB - at the inauguration the operating license was missing , in Berner Zeitung, November 3, 1989
2. ↑ 100 years of the Ramsei-Sumiswald-Huttwil-Bahn - retrospectives on a dying line , in Berner Zeitung, May 30, 2008
3. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: media information from the Federal Office of Transport from December 16, 2013
4. ↑ Slow-Up: Successful renaissance of the steam locomotive romance , in Wochen-Zeitung, September 18, 2014
5. ↑ The Emmental Railway makes steam , in the Berner Zeitung, March 19, 2015

literature

• Hans Born: 75 years of Langenthal-Huttwil-Bahn, anniversary publication, Schürch printing company, Huttwil 1964
• Werner Weber, Werner Hardmeier: Regionalverkehr Mittelland; Volume 1: Emmental Railway, Burgdorf-Thun Railway . Prellbock Druck & Verlag, Leissigen 2000, ISBN 3-907579-20-8
• Werner Weber, Werner Hardmeier, Jürg Aeschlimann: Regionalverkehr Mittelland; Volume 2: Emmental-Burgdorf-Thun Railway . Prellbock Druck & Verlag, Leissigen 2002, ISBN 3-907579-23-2
• Werner Weber, Jürg Suter: Solothurn-Münster Railway . Prellbock Druck & Verlag, Leissigen 2008. ISBN 978-3-907579-28-2
• Pascal Lippmann: Fleet policy and fleet concept of Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 11/2003, ISSN  1421-2811 , pp. 494–497.

Web links

• BLS AG website