The Jura–Simplon Railways (JS), ( French: Compagnie des ''Chemins de Fer Jura–Simplon'') was a railway company that was formed in 1890. It was nationalised in 1903 as the largest railway company in Switzerland and integrated into the

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...

(SBB).

History

The ''Jura–Simplon Railways'' was a railway company, which was formed from the 1890 merger of the two most important western Swiss railway companies, the

Jura–Bern–Lucerne Railway The Bernese Jura Railway (''Chemins de fer du Jura bernois'', abbreviated ''Jura bernois'', JB) was a railway company in Switzerland. The company was called the Jura–Bern–Luzern (''Jura–Bern–Lucerne'', JBL) from 1 July 1884. The Jura–Ber ...

(JBL), including the Gümligen–Lucerne line belonging to the canton of Bern, and the

Western Swiss Railways The Western Switzerland Railways (''Chemins de fer de la Suisse Occidentale'', shortened to ''Suisse-Occidentale''; SO or S-O), were initially a joint operation of three Swiss railway companies, but these companies merged on 1 January 1872. The co ...

(''Chemins de fer de la Suisse Occidentale''; SOS). The Federal Government also participated in the merger by means of a voluntary share purchase. The

Pont–Vallorbe Railway The Pont–Vallorbe Railway (; PV) was a Swiss railway company that existed from 1886 to 1891. Its short railway line is now owned by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). The SBB operates the line from Vallorbe through to Le Brassus. The extension ...

(''Chemin de fer Pont–Vallorbe''), operated by the SOS, was purchased on 1 January 1891. The share capital of the new company was formed of

Swiss franc The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) iss ...

s (CHF) 52 million of

preferred stock Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt ins ...

and CHF 34 million of

common stock Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other C ...

. The preferred shares comprised 38 million existing JBL shares and 14 million SOS shares. The nominal value of an SOS ordinary share was reduced from CHF 500 to 200 and the amount of CHF 52.4 million exempted from the stock reconstruction was applied to

depreciation In accountancy, depreciation refers to two aspects of the same concept: first, an actual reduction in the fair value of an asset, such as the decrease in value of factory equipment each year as it is used and wears, and second, the allocation i ...

. The Swiss government was given the right to repurchase the JS.

Construction of the Simplon Tunnel

Although the Jura-Simplon Railway was a railway company for only 13 years, it helped break the impasse over the building of the

Simplon Tunnel The Simplon Tunnel (''Simplontunnel'', ''Traforo del Sempione'' or ''Galleria del Sempione'') is a railway tunnel on the Simplon railway that connects Brig, Switzerland, Brig, Switzerland and Domodossola, Italy, through the Alps, providing a shor ...

from

Brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...

to Iselle in Italy after decades of effort by

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

and

Romandy Romandy ( or ; Arpitan: ''Romandia'')Before World War I, the term French Switzerland () waalso used ( or , , ) is the French-speaking historical and cultural region of Switzerland. In 2020, about 2 million people, or 22.8% of the Swiss pop ...

. Studies prepared to support the construction of the tunnel had already been submitted by the SOS to the federal and cantonal authorities. In 1891, JS, as a new entrepreneurial railway company, presented the Federal Council with a definitive project for the Simplon Tunnel. On 25 November 1895, a treaty was signed with Italy for the construction of what would be the longest tunnel in the world. The construction costs for the single-track tunnel were estimated at CHF 58,820,000. The treaty obliged Switzerland to provide funding of CHF 15 million and Italy to provide funding of CHF 4 million. Italy was represented by four directors on the JS board. Construction began on the 19,803-metre-long tunnel in 1898. The tunnel was the longest railway tunnel in the world until the opening of the Seikan Tunnel in 1988.

Operations

The Jura–Simplon Railways operated several other railway lines: * Jougne–Vallorbe–Pontarlier line and Verrières–Pontarlier line of the French

Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée The Chemins Company is a dietary supplement manufacturer based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The company, founded in 1974 by James Cameron, became embroiled in a series of criminal investigations in 1994 after a woman died and more than 100 other ...

(PLM) * Bière–Apples–Morges railway (BAM) *

Bödelibahn The Lake Thun railway line is a railway line in the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Bern. It links the towns of Thun, Spiez and Interlaken, running principally along the southern shore of Lake Thun. The line was opened in 1893 by the Lake Thun Rai ...

(BB; from 1895) * Bulle–Romont railway (BR) * Cossonay–Gare–Ville funicular (CG) * Fribourg–Ins railway (''Chemin de fer Friborg-Morat-Anet'', FMA) *

Neuchâtel–Le Locle-Col-des-Roches railway The Neuchâtel–Le Locle-Col-des-Roches railway is a single-track standard-gauge line of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). History The line from Neuchâtel to La Chaux-de-Fonds, continuing to Le Locle, was built in four stages between 185 ...

(''Jura neuchâtelois''; JN) *

Pont–Brassus Railway The Pont–Brassus Railway (; PBr) was a railway company in the Swiss canton of Vaud. It built a standard gauge line from Le Pont parallel to the north shore of the Lac de Joux to Le Brassus. The line has been owned by the Travys regional tra ...

(PBr) *

(PV) * Travers–Buttes railway (''Régional du Val-de-Travers''; RVT) * Spiez-Erlenbach Railway (SEB) * Lake Thun Railway (''Thunerseebahn''; TSB) * Visp-Zermatt Railway (VZ) * Yverdon–Ste-Croix railway (YSteC) On 14 June 1891, the Jura–Simplon Railways suffered the

Münchenstein rail disaster The Münchenstein rail disaster on 14 June 1891 was historically the worst railway accident ever to affect Switzerland. A crowded passenger train fell through a girder bridge, killing more than seventy people and injuring many others. The accide ...

, the worst railway accident in Swiss history. The railway bridge over the

Birs The Birs (French: ''Birse'') is a long river in Switzerland that flows through the Jura region and ends as a tributary to the Rhine between Basel and Birsfelden. It is the most important river of the Swiss Jura. Course The Birs has its sour ...

, which was built by

Gustave Eiffel Alexandre Gustave Eiffel ( , ; Bonickhausen dit Eiffel; 15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway net ...

, collapsed below the village of

Münchenstein Münchenstein (Swiss German: ''Minggestai'') is a municipality in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland. Historical records Münchenstein is first mentioned in 1196 as ''Kekingen''. In 1270, it was mentione ...

under a train from Basel. Three carriages and the two locomotives crashed into the flooded Birs. 78 people were killed and 131 were injured. A soldier died of injuries sustained during the cleanup. The accident led to a stricter supervision of the railways. The railway bridges were systematically examined and the first building standards were created. In the Zollikofen train crash on 17 August 1891 in Zollikofen, a Bern–

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

express ran into an "extra" (not listed in the timetable) train waiting at a red home signal. The impact killed 14 passengers and injured 122 on the extra train. The accident was caused by mistakes at various operating points. The express has been released to run through an occupied section. A deactivated air brake also reduced the braking effect. Despite investing in the construction of the Simplon tunnel, JS was able to pay a

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders, after which the stock exchange decreases the price of the stock by the dividend to remove volatility. The market has no control over the stock price on open on the ex ...

every year. Jura-Simplon B3-4 Léman 1900.jpg, Train hauled by a B 3/4 on the shores of Lake Geneva with the Savoy Alps in the background. Kaiserstuhl Stationsbüro.JPG, Two officers of the JS in the office of Kaiserstuhl station. Gare de Bussigny 1900.JPG, "Water train" in Bussigny station Brünigbahn oberhalb Lungern.jpg, Train of Brünig Railway on the rack section above

Lungern Lungern is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Obwalden in Switzerland. It encompasses Lake Lungern and, besides the village of Lungern, the settlements of Bürglen, Kaiserstuhl and Obsee. Geograp ...

Posters

Thee Jura-Simplon Railway advertised with a series of

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

s. Some of them were designed by Hugo d’Alési. JS Plakat Genf-Basel

Plakat Jura-Simplon-Bahn 1890.jpg Jura-Simplon - Plakat Genfersee.jpg Plakat JSB Schweiz Rhone-Thal.jpg Plakat Jura-Simplon-Bahn 1895.jpg Plakat JSB Oberland.jpg

Nationalisation

During the construction of the Simplon tunnel, the national referendum of 20 February 1898 agreed to the nationalisation the Jura-Simplon railway and the other four main railways. The Jura-Simplon Railway was taken over by the

(SBB) on 1 May 1903 and it completed the Simplon Tunnel in 1906.

Graphic summary

Overview of the history of the ''Jura–Simplon Railways'' (T: takeover):

Infrastructure and vehicles

Stations

Bahnhof Brünig um 1900.jpg, Brünig station around 1900 Gare de Bussigny 1905.JPG, Bussigny station around 1905, with B 3/4 of the former JS Gare de Delémont 1897.jpg, Delémont station around 1897 Gare de Lausanne 1898.jpg, Lausanne station around 1898 Place de la gare à Neuchâtel.jpg, Neuchâtel station around 1897 Bahnhof Sarnen 1900.jpg, Sarnen station of the Brünig Railway around 1910 Bahnhof Vevey 1890-1900.JPG, Vevey station before its extension shortly after 1900 The stations of , and of the Central Railway (SCB) and of the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean (PLM) were shared by the Jura-Simplon Railway.

Network

The route network of 937 km ran from

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

and the Jura border crossings of

Delle Delle () is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in northeastern France. Delle is the last French town on the railway line from Belfort to Berne, in Switzerland. The railway station in Delle is served ...

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds (; archaic ) is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura Mountains at an altitude of 992 metres, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne, Biel/Bienne, and Fribourg, ...

Les Verrières Les Verrières () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel in Switzerland. History Les Verrières is first mentioned in 1344 as ''villa de Verreriis''. Jt was here ...

and

Vallorbe Vallorbe () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Jura-North Vaudois District, Jura-Nord Vaudois in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Vallorbe is first mentioned in 1139 as ''de valle ...

to Brig and

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

. In addition, the narrow-gauge

Brünig Railway Brünig or Bruenig may refer to: * The Brünig Pass, between the Bernese Oberland and Central Switzerland * The Brünig railway line, linking Interlaken and Lucerne in Switzerland * Elizabeth Bruenig (born 1990), American opinion writer and editor ...

from Lucerne to

Brienz Brienz ( , , ) is a village and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality on the northern shore of Lake Brienz, at the foot of the Brienzer Rothorn mountain, and in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. Besides the village of Brienz, th ...

was part of the 937 km-long route network. It consisted of the combined lines of its predecessor railways: * the lines of the Jura-Bern-Lucerne * the lines of the Western Swiss Railways * the

Duplication

The Jura-Simplon Railway continued the track duplication of its predecessors. When SBB took over JS in 1903, 131.20 km (14%) of the network was duplicated.

Rolling stock

The Jura-Simplon Railway named their rolling stock according to the then nationwide

classification system Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...

. The JS operated the following locomotives. The class name that was valid from 1902 is listed in brackets.

References

Notes

Footnotes

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jura-Simplon Railway Defunct railway companies of Switzerland 1903 disestablishments in Switzerland Swiss companies established in 1890 Railway companies established in 1890 Railway companies disestablished in 1903