Lake Zurich – Gotthard Railway

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Rapperswil – Pfäffikon
Seedamm with train from Lake Zurich Gotthard Railway
Seedamm with train from Lake Zurich Gotthard Railway
Timetable field : 671
Route length: 3,510 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system : 15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope : 8  ‰
Legend
   
 from Zurich via Uster and from Uznach
   
 from Zurich over miles
Station, station
 0.02 Rapperswil starting point S 40             409  m above sea level. M.
   
 0.39 Rapperwiler Bridge (115 m)
   
 0.86 Cantonal border St. Gallen - Schwyz
   
 0.94 Hurdner Bridge (99 m)
Stop, stop
 1.74 Obstacles 408  m above sea level M.
Station without passenger traffic
 2.07 Pfäffikon SZ North 410  m above sea level M.
   
 2.66 Canal bridge (67/67 m)
   
 from brick bridge
Station, station
 4.02 Pfäffikon SZ end point S 5 412  m above sea level M.
   
 to Zurich and Arth-Goldau

The Lake Zurich – Gotthard Railway (ZGB) was a railway company in Switzerland .

history

Lake Zurich – Gotthard Railway

The company, which appears in federal statistics as Rapperswil – Pfäffikon , opened on August 27, 1878, the operation of the railway line over the newly built dam from Rapperswil to Pfäffikon . The ambitious goal of the stock corporation was to build a rail link from Eastern Switzerland to the Gotthard Railway (GB), which was still under construction at the time, and further along Lake Lucerne via Vitznau and Küssnacht to Rotkreuz. In 1879 alone, over 160,000 francs were invested in the planning of a planned extension of the Pfäffikon – Brunnen SZ .

Steam train on the Seedamm, Rapperswil on the left, mountain panorama in the background

The federal government contributed 100,000 francs to the cost of building the dam, which in addition to the rail route also included road and a footpath. In addition to the operation and maintenance of the railway line, the ZGB was also responsible for the maintenance of the road on the lake embankment. In order to be able to forego further investments in rolling stock and operating facilities, the ZGB transferred the operation to the United Swiss Railways (VSB), which had a large depot in Rapperswil . The always loss-making operation was limited to the Rapperwil – Pfäffikon route, where the ZGB established the connection to the Zurichseebahn on the left bank .

Southeast railway

Although the company had a concession to build a connection to the Gotthard Railway, no significant effort was made to achieve this goal. When another initiative committee tried to get a Pfäffikon – Brunnen or Arth-Goldau concession, the ZGB sold them the terrain surveys that had already been made. Finally, on August 12, 1889, the existing initiative committees, the Wädenswil-Einsiedeln-Bahn and the ZGB signed a merger agreement to found the Südostbahn (SOB). On January 1, 1890, the SOB began operations and on August 5, 1891, the Rapperswil – Pfäffikon route through the VSB ended. When the SOB bought the Civil Code, almost 90 percent of the share capital and 25 percent of the fixed bonds were written off .

The Südostbahn, to which the Rapperswil – Pfäffikon line now belonged, opened the Pfäffikon – Arth-Goldau line on August 8, 1891 , with which Rapperswil had found a connection to the Gotthard Railway. On May 15, 1939, the SOB began electrical operations. Since June 6, 2004, the double lane Pfäffikon Nord – Pfäffikon has relieved the heavily traveled route over the Seedamm. S-Bahn services of the SBB are run today in the network access over the route of the SOB.

business

Five trains run every hour in each direction across the lake dam:

  • SOB Voralpen-Express, hauled by a Re 456

  • Re 450 double-decker shuttle train of the SBB as S5

  • S40 Rapperswil – Einsiedeln with Flirt of the Südostbahn

The SBB trains of the S5 travel the SOB route over the Seedamm in the network access , whereby the SOB station Hurden is only served by the SBB in the night network.

literature

  • Gerhard Oswald, Kaspar Michel: The Southeast Railway - History of a Private Railway. Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-280-02048-4
  • Gerhard Oswald: Is the end of the line at Brunnen or Goldau? The history of the origins of the railway connection between Innerschwyz and Ausserschwyz. Schwyzer Hefte 54, Verlag Schyzer Hefte, Schwyz 1991, ISBN 3-909102-15-8
  • Lake Zurich – Gotthard Railway (Rapperswil – Pfäffikon). In: bahndaten.ch. Data on the Swiss railways 1847–1920. Thomas Frey and Hans-Ulrich Schiedt, ViaStoria, accessed on February 1, 2014 .
  • Hans G. Wägli: Swiss rail network and Swiss rail profile CH + . AS Verlag, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-909111-74-9 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Length of ownership according to bahndaten.ch
  2. ↑ timetable year 2016