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Concept
History of rail transport in Switzerland
Summary
The construction and operation of Swiss railways during the 19th century was carried out by private railways. The first internal line was a 16 km line opened from Zürich to Baden in 1847. By 1860 railways connected western and northeastern Switzerland. The first Alpine railway to be opened was under the Gotthard Pass in 1882. A second alpine line was opened under the Simplon Pass in 1906.
In 1901, the major railways were nationalised to form Swiss Federal Railways. During the first half of the twentieth century they were electrified and slowly upgraded. After the Second World War, rail rapidly lost its share of the rail market to road transport as car ownership rose and more roads were built. From 1970, the Federal Government has become more involved in upgrading the railways, especially in urban areas and on trunk routes under the Rail 2000 project. In addition, two major trans-alpine routes — the Gotthard Railway and the Lötschberg approach to the Simplon Tunnel — are being rebuilt under the NRLA project.
In 1833 the Grand Duchy of Baden developed plans for a railway connecting the cities Mainz and Frankfurt with Basel and onwards to Chur and Northern Italy. The first line in Switzerland, the extension of the French Strasbourg–Basel Railway (French: Chemin de fer de Strasbourg à Bâle) from Mulhouse to Basel, reached a temporary station outside Basel's walls on 15 June 1844 and the permanent station on 11 December 1845. (The Chemins de fer de l'Est took over the company in 1854.) Addressing Swiss worries over French influence due to a locomotives name Napoleon, the Alsacians have purchased a separate locomotive called City of Basel (Ville de Bâle) for their access to Basel. The Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway's Rhine Valley Line reached the original Basel Baden railway station in 1855. Despite constant discussion, it took some time before these lines were extended into Switzerland.
The first internal Swiss line, the 16 km long Swiss Northern Railway (German: Schweizerische Nordbahn, SNB) opened from Zürich to Baden in 1847.
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