Zurich – Winterthur railway line

	from Zurich Stadelhofen , Hirschengraben tunnel	2148 m

−0.6 0.0	Zurich HB
	Weinberg tunnel	5,358 / 5,434 m
	to Zurich-Wiedikon-Thalwil

	Aussersihl Viaduct	834 m

1.9 0.2	Zurich Hardbrücke
	to Zurich-Altstetten-Baden
	Hardturm Viaduct	1,126 m
	from Zurich-Altstetten
1.2	Hard
	Limmat
1.7	to Zurich Letten – Zurich Stadelhofen
	Käferberg tunnel 2,119 m
2.3	Zurich Wipkingen
	Wipkingertunnel	959 m
205.4	Weinberg tunnel


	Zurich Oerlikon South
4.7	Zurich Oerlikon
	Zurich Oerlikon North
	to Effretikon via Kloten / Zurich Airport
8.4	Wallisellen
	to Wetzikon
	from Zurich Stadelhofen – Zurich HB
11.1	Dietlikon

	Hürlistein overpass
14.8	Hürlistein
14.8	from Zurich Oerlikon via Kloten / Zurich Airport

	Brüttener Tunnel (planned)
	A1 Hürlistein	112 m
16.8	Effretikon
	to Wetzikon
20.5	Kemptthal
	A1 Lampergrain	185 m

22.9	Tössmühle triple track to Winterthur
	Töss	61 m
	from Bülach
25.0	Winterthur GB
26.1	Winterthur
	to Schaffhausen ,
	to Wil , to Bauma , to Etzwillen and to Romanshorn

The Zurich – Winterthur railway line (timetable field 750) is a railway line in Switzerland . It was opened in 1855 and runs from Zurich main station via several branches to Winterthur and is a bottleneck in Swiss rail traffic. Practically all lines of the core network of the Zurich S-Bahn use parts of this route.

history

The Zurich – Winterthur railway is part of the connection that the Zurich-Bodenseebahn planned from Zurich to Romanshorn. The Swiss Northeast Railway, the successor to the Zurich-Bodenseebahn, first opened the Winterthur – Romanshorn section on May 18, 1855 , before the Winterthur to Oerlikon section went into operation on December 27 of the same year . With the opening of the last section between Oerlikon and Zurich on June 26, 1856, the rail link to Lake Constance was finally completed. From the start, the route was mostly two-lane. It leads from Zurich via Wipkingen to Oerlikon and from there via Wallisellen , Dietlikon and Effretikon to Winterthur. In 1902, the line became the property of SBB , which switched the line to electric operation on August 6, 1925.

Route sections

Overview of the routes

Only on the section from Effretikon to Winterthur there is no parallel route. Zurich main station and Oerlikon are connected by three tunnels. Two of them from the "old" terminal station above ground to Oerlikon. Since 2014, with the commissioning of the Weinberg tunnel and the newly built tunnel station, another route has led to Oerlikon. There are three connections from Oerlikon to Effretikon: via Wallisellen, Kloten and the airport . With a few exceptions, the Zürichberg line, which runs from the main train station via Stadelhofen to Effretikon, is only used by S-Bahn trains.

Photo from 1898: The Aussersihl Viaduct

Wipkinger line (Zurich HB – Wipkingen – Oerlikon)

This is the first connection between Zurich HB and Oerlikon. It was opened on June 26, 1856 and at that time still led over a ramp to the Limmat Bridge. This ran along today's Röntgenstrasse, which explains its curved course. Because this ramp was too steep for the locomotives of the time, the Vorbahnhofsbrücke was built, which, thanks to its curved route, allowed a more moderate gradient. At that time it was the longest railway bridge in Switzerland at 834 meters. After a short stretch of the old dam is reached, you join the bridge over the Sihlquai and the Limmat. Together, the two bridges are also known as the Wipkinger Viaduct . After the bridge, the Zurich Wipkingen train station follows and then the Wipkinger tunnel , after which the route continues for a while in an open cut, where it joins the Käferberg line and finally reaches the Zurich Oerlikon train station . Although it was planned as a two-lane line from the start, it was only able to start operating as such on May 30, 1860. It has been electrified since 1925, and electrical operation began on August 6 of that year. The section is used by some of the long-distance trains and the S 24 line.

Käferberglinie (Zurich HB – Hardbrücke – Oerlikon)

The Käferberg line, named after the Käferberg tunnel , is the second connection between Oerlikon and the main train station. It was built on June 1, 1969 as a direct connection between Oerlikon and Altstetten for freight trains. On May 23, 1982, the two-lane Hardturm viaduct to the main station with the Hardbrücke stop was opened, the stop initially only had the two platform edges on the ramp to the Hardturm viaduct. With the construction of the S-Bahn line between HB and Altstetten, two more platforms were added. Since the start of the Zurich S-Bahn in 1990 , the S-Bahn trains to the Limmat Valley have also stopped at Zurich Hardbrücke station . The Käferberglinie is used by the trains of the S 3 , S 6 , S 7 , S 9 , S 15 and S 16 .

Oerlikon – Wallisellen – Effretikon

The Oerlikon – Effretikon section is the continuation of the Wipkinger line and was opened on December 27, 1855 by the Swiss Northeast Railway . Until the airport line opened, this section carried the bulk of the long-distance traffic. It has been planned as a double-track line since the beginning, with the second track officially going into operation later: Zurich – Wallisellen on May 30, 1860, Wallisellen – Effretikon in 1861. On August 6, 1925, electrical operation could begin. In Wallisellen, the Glatthalbahn line branches off (timetable field 740) to Dübendorf - Uster - Rapperswil SG , and the Zürichberg line joins Dietlikon. The section is used by lines S 8 , S 19 and S 14 (to Wallisellen).

S3 to Dietlikon, at the Hürlistein service station

Effretikon – Winterthur

The Effretikon – Winterthur section is the continuation of the route from Zurich via Oerlikon, Wallisellen, Dietlikon, Effretikon and was opened in 1855 by the Swiss Northeast Railway . In 1862 a second track was added to the route. In 1877 the competing Swiss National Railway (SNB) built another track next to the existing double track for its route from Baden Oberstadt via Wettingen-Seebach-Kloten to Winterthur. But as early as 1878, due to financial problems, the SNB was forced to liquidate and the Swiss Northeast Railway took over this company. In 1880 the third track of the former SNB was demolished.

Today a third track would be useful, because this line is a bottleneck in the connection from Zurich via Winterthur to Eastern Switzerland and is considered to be the busiest railway line in Switzerland. There have already been many different projects to increase route capacity, such as an extension to four tracks or the Brüttener Tunnel as a continuation of the airport line from Bassersdorf to Winterthur. However, these efforts have always failed due to funding and were not planned for the 2030 railways at the beginning of 2010 . As a stopgap solution, a three-lane expansion of the line after the motorway underpass at Tössmühle to Winterthur station has been implemented. In Winterthur- Töss , a train stop planned for the future is shown on the cantonal structure plan. In Winterthur the route runs under the Storchenbrücke , which is noticeably illuminated for train passengers even at night.

Zurich Oerlikon – Kloten / Zurich Airport – Effretikon

Timetable field :

750

Route length:

old Klotener line: 14.3 km
airport line: 15.6 km

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Route class :

D4

Power system :

15 kV 16.7 Hz ~

Maximum slope :

old Klotener line:
Opfikon - Zurich Oerlikon : 19 ‰
Airport line:
Zurich Airport - Zurich Oerlikon : 25 ‰

Train control :

ZUB , Signum , Euro-ZUB , Euro-Signum

Legend

	from Zurich HB
4.7	Zurich Oerlikon
	to Effretikon via Wallisellen – Dietlikon
5.4	from Wettingen
6.17	Opfikon South
6.6	to Bülach


7.2	Opfikon



	Airport tunnel	1,215 m
8.2	Riet single-track to Kloten
8.8	Kloten Balsberg
9.6	Zurich Airport
	Hagenholz tunnel	2,837 m

10.0 11.3	Balls

13.4	Abw. Dorfnest
	old route until 1980
14.8	Bassersdorf

	Brüttener Tunnel (planned)
	Hürlistein overpass
18.3 14.8	from Oerlikon via Wallisellen

16.8	Effretikon
	to Winterthur

Oerlikon – Kloten – Bassersdorf

The former SNB line Bassersdorf – Kloten –Opfikon was opened in 1877, and electrical operation could also start here on August 6, 1925. Initially, the whole route was single-track. With the construction of the airport line, the section (between the Dorfnest junction and the Hürlistein junction) on which the two lines coincide was expanded to include two lanes. The Bassersdorf train station was also relocated. Today the route is used by the S 7 . The line was covered in the area of the community of Bassersdorf in connection with the double-track expansion 1977-79 near Opfikon, and the Opfikon station was built at this point.

Airport line (Oerlikon – Bassersdorf – Effretikon)

In 1980 the airport line between Oerlikon and Bassersdorf was inaugurated. It connects Zurich Airport to Swiss rail traffic. The airport train station is under Check-In 3. All long-distance trains between Zurich and Winterthur as well as lines S 2 , S 16 (only to the airport) and S 24 use this route.

Zurich HB – Stadelhofen – Stettbach – Dübendorf / Dietlikon

Stadelhofen station, view towards the Zürichberg tunnel

Timetable field :

750

Route length:

11.1 km

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Route class :

D4

Power system :

15 kV 16.7 Hz ~

Maximum slope :

Hirschengraben tunnel in

To the east on height

the Rämistrasse: 40 ‰

Top speed:

120 km / h

Train control :

ZUB , Signum , Euro-ZUB , Euro-Signum

Dual track :

continuous

Legend

	from Baden – Zurich Altstetten and from Zurich Oerlikon
1.9	Hard bridge
0.9 99.1
99.3	Apron tunnel
99.8	Zurich HB Gl. 41-44
	Hirschengraben tunnel	2,148 m
	from Zurich HB
1.7	to Zurich Oerlikon
2.9	Zurich Latvians
	Lettentunnel 2,093 m


101.6	Zurich Stadelhofen
102.3	to Rapperswil

	Zurichberg tunnel	4,968 m

	Stettbach tunnel	354 m
106.9	Stettbach

	Neugut Viaduct	920 m
108.0	Branch new property
108.1	from Wallisellen to Rapperswil
	Föhrlibuck tunnel	199 m
	Willow Viaduct	550 m
109.4	from Wallisellen
110.2	Dietlikon
	to Effretikon

Zurich mountain line (Zurich HB – Stadelhofen – Dietlikon / Dübendorf)

This is the actual core of the Zurich S-Bahn, because the entire S-Bahn concept would not have been possible without this new line together with the 4,968 meter long Zurichberg tunnel and the 2,148 meter long Hirschengraben tunnel . Together with the S-Bahn, the Zürichberglinie between Zürich HB and Dietlikon / Dübendorf was opened for regular traffic on May 27, 1990. The line is double-lane throughout and electrified at 15,000 volts 16 2/3 Hertz. The Neugut junction, where the line is connected to the Glatthalbahn line, is designed with two single-lane bridges so that the trains can branch off without crossing the opposite track. The Zürichberg route is used by the S 3 , S 5 , S 9 , S 11 , S 12 and S 15 lines .

Accidents

On January 8, 1885, a train from Winterthur to Zurich on the Nordostbahn ran over a closed signal on a train coming from Wettingen . The train from Wettingen was pushed backwards from the Seebach station over the junction on the open road , in order to continue forwards in the direction of Zurich. The accident resulted in seven injuries and major property damage.

On December 17, 1932, in fog, a passenger train at Zurich Oerlikon station ran into a standing steam locomotive due to faults in the signal box . Five people died and 16 were seriously injured.

On August 8, 1992, a S-Bahn train going to Rafz and an express train coming from Romanshorn collided at the Zurich Oerlikon station . One young man was killed and nine people were injured, some seriously. The S-Bahn had run over a signal that was not equipped with the Integra-Signum train protection system . After the accident, the SBB decided to introduce ZUB train protection .

On October 24, 2003 in Zurich Oerlikon two express trains drove in a cross drive sideways into each other. A Czech tourist died and over 60 people were injured, most of them slightly. A Regio-Express traveling from Zurich to Constance could not stop in Zurich Oerlikon and crashed sideways into an express train coming from Schaffhausen . The brake taps between the first and second wagons were wrongly closed and most of the train was unbraked.

expansion

To relieve the Zurich railway junction, the Altstetten-Zurich HB-Oerlikon diameter line was built from 2007 to 2015. Which, with the Weinberg tunnel, formed a third connection between the main train station and Zurich Oerlikon. The trains on this route will stop at the main station in the new underground station Löwenstrasse , which, in contrast to the above-ground terminus station , is designed as a through station . The Löwenstrasse station and the Weinberg tunnel were opened for S-Bahn traffic in mid-2014. The bridges between Zurich HB and Zurich Altstetten Vorbahnhof did not go into operation until the end of 2015.

There are also plans to build a tunnel for the bottleneck between Effretikon and Winterthur. The Brüttener tunnel would lead from Bassersdorf to Winterthur. Due to the long implementation time and the high costs, an expansion of the existing line to at least four tracks was examined. A corresponding popular initiative of the Swiss Transport Club (VCS) , Zurich, was rejected by the voters of the Canton of Zurich on September 26, 2010 with 70% no votes.

business

Train

The route is fully or partially used by 12 S-Bahn lines and three night S-Bahn lines.

S 2 Zurich Airport - Zurich HB - Pfäffikon SZ - Ziegelbrücke (- Unterterzen ) ( stops between Pfäffikon SZ and Zurich Enge only in Richterswil, Wädenswil, Horgen and Thalwil; without a stop between Siebnen-Wangen and Ziegelbrücke; extended to Untererzen on weekends. )
S 3 ( Bülach -) Hardbrücke - Zurich HB - Stadelhofen - Effretikon - Wetzikon
S 5 Zug - Affoltern a. A. - Zurich HB - Uster - Pfäffikon SZ ( stops between Stadelhofen and Wetzikon only in Uster; without a stop between Pfäffikon SZ and Rapperswil. )
S 6 Baden - Regensdorf-Watt - Zurich HB - Uetikon
S 7 Winterthur - Kloten - Zurich HB - Stadelhofen - Meilen - Rapperswil (runs between Stadelhofen and Meilen without stopping. )
S 8 Winterthur - Wallisellen - Zurich HB - Thalwil - Pfäffikon SZ (runs between Weinfelden and Winterthur only on weekdays every hour. )
S 9 Schaffhausen - Rafz - Zurich HB - Stettbach - Uster (runs between Rafz and Schaffhausen every hour. )
S 11 Aarau - Lenzburg - Dietikon - Zurich HB - Stettbach - Winterthur - Seuzach / Sennhof-Kyburg (- Wila ) (runs between Stettbach and Winterthur without stopping. )
S 12 Brugg - Altstetten - Zurich HB - Stadelhofen - Winterthur - Schaffhausen / Wil (runs between Stettbach and Winterthur without stopping. )
S 14 Affoltern a. A. - Altstetten - Zurich HB - Oerlikon - Wallisellen - Hinwil
S 15 Rapperswil - Uster - Zurich HB - Oberglatt - Niederweningen ( stops between Stadelhofen and Wetzikon only in Uster. )
S 16 Zurich Airport - Zurich HB - Herrliberg-Feldmeilen (- miles ) ( extended to miles in the evening )
S 19 ( Koblenz - Baden -) Dietikon - Zurich HB - Wallisellen - Effretikon (- Pfäffikon ZH ) ( only runs on weekdays. Koblenz - Dietikon and Effretikon - Pfäffikon ZH only during rush hour )
S 21 ( Regensdorf-Watt - Oerlikon - Zurich HB ) ( only runs during rush hour. Stop at Zurich Affoltern only in the direction of load. )
S 24 Thayngen - Schaffhausen / Weinfelden - Winterthur - Zurich Airport - Zurich HB - Thalwil - Horgen Oberdorf - Zug
SN1 Zurich HB - Stadelhofen - Dietlikon - Effretikon - Winterthur (ZVV night network)
SN5 Bülach - Oerlikon - Zurich HB - Stadelhofen - Dübendorf - Uster - Rüti - Rapperswil (ZVV night network)
SN7 Stäfa - Meilen - Stadelhofen - Zurich HB - Oerlikon - Kloten - Bassersdorf (ZVV night network)

A number of additional trains also run during rush hour.

Long-distance transport

In addition to the S-Bahn trains, the route is used by all long-distance trains to Eastern Switzerland . Daily long-distance trains:

1 Genève-Aéroport - Bern - Zurich HB - St. Gallen
5 Genève-Aéroport / Lausanne - Biel / Bienne - Zurich HB (- St. Gallen )
8th Brig - Bern - Zurich HB - Romanshorn
36 Basel SBB - Brugg AG - Zurich HB (- Zurich Airport )
37 Basel SBB - Aarau - Zurich HB (- St. Gallen )
70 Lucerne - Zurich HB
75 Lucerne - Zurich HB - Constance
( Basel SBB - Aarau -) Zurich HB - St. Gallen - Memmingen / Kempten - Munich

Other traffic

The route is used by some freight trains from and to Eastern Switzerland.

literature

Individual evidence

^ Hans G. Wägli, General Secretariat SBB (ed.): Schienennetz Schweiz. AS-Verlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 978-3-905111-21-7 .
^ Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network . AS Verlag, Zurich 2010, pages 33 + 49
^ Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network . AS Verlag, Zurich 2010, page 51
↑ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, January 31, 2008
↑ ^a ^b Stefan Hotz: Fuhrer wants the Bürtten tunnel . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 69 , March 24, 2010.
↑ Railway accident near Seebach. (PDF 0.8 MB) Schweizerische Bauzeitung, Volume 5 (1985), Issue 2, p. 11 , accessed on November 21, 2013 .
^ Walter von Andrian: Accident series on the Zurich S-Bahn . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 9/1992 . Minirex, ISSN 1022-7113 , p. 408-410 .
^ Mathias Rellstab, Walter von Andrian: The collision in Zurich Oerlikon of October 24, 2003 . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 12/2003 . Minirex, ISSN 1022-7113 , p. 564-566 .
^ VCS defeat: "We are ahead of the times" . In: Tages-Anzeiger , September 26, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2011.

[waegli-1] Hans G. Wägli, General Secretariat SBB (ed.): Schienennetz Schweiz. AS-Verlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 978-3-905111-21-7 .

[2] Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network . AS Verlag, Zurich 2010, pages 33 + 49

[3] Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network . AS Verlag, Zurich 2010, page 51

[4] Neue Zürcher Zeitung, January 31, 2008

[nzz20100324-5] Stefan Hotz: Fuhrer wants the Bürtten tunnel . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 69 , March 24, 2010.

[6] Railway accident near Seebach. (PDF 0.8 MB) Schweizerische Bauzeitung, Volume 5 (1985), Issue 2, p. 11 , accessed on November 21, 2013 .

[7] Walter von Andrian: Accident series on the Zurich S-Bahn . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 9/1992 . Minirex, ISSN 1022-7113 , p. 408-410 .

[8] Mathias Rellstab, Walter von Andrian: The collision in Zurich Oerlikon of October 24, 2003 . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 12/2003 . Minirex, ISSN 1022-7113 , p. 564-566 .

[ta20100926-9] VCS defeat: "We are ahead of the times" . In: Tages-Anzeiger , September 26, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2011.