The Käferberg Tunnel (german: Käferbergtunnel) is a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

in the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

city of Zürich A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

. The tunnel runs under the Käferberg hill from the western approaches to

Zürich Hauptbahnhof Zürich Hauptbahnhof (often shortened to Zürich HB, or just HB; ''Zürich Main Station'' or ''Zürich Central Station'') is the largest railway station in Switzerland. Zürich is a major railway hub, with services to and from across Switzerland a ...

to a portal to the south of Oerlikon station. It is long and carries twin

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

() tracks electrified at 15 k V AC 16 2/3 Hz using

overhead catenary An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

. Heading south from the southern portal of the tunnel, the railway first crosses the

River Limmat The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. The river commences at the outfall of Lake Zurich, in the southern part of the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, after 35 km reaching the river Aare. The confluen ...

and ''Hardturmstrasse'' on a concrete viaduct. Still on viaduct the line splits into two, with the right hand leg being a single-track viaduct that descends into Zürich Altstetten station. The left hand leg, still double track and on viaduct, runs into the upper level of Zürich Hardbrücke station, before continuing its descent into the Hauptbahnhof. The tunnel was opened in 1969. As built, only the Altstetten leg of the southern connecting lines existed, and the tunnel was only usable by freight and other trains that bypassed Hauptbahnhof station. In 1982, Hardbrücke station and its leg of the connecting lines opened, allowing the tunnel to be used by trains running between Hauptbahnhof and Oerlikon. Today the tunnel carries

Zürich S-Bahn The Zürich S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Zürich) system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zürich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Aargau, Glarus, ...

lines S5, S6, S7, S9, S15, S16 and S21, all of which operate via Hardbrücke. It also carries freight traffic, which runs via the Altstetten link. The Käferberg Tunnel is now one of three different routes from Oerlikon to Hauptbahnhof, each of which tunnels through the intermediate ridge and emerge from adjacent portals to the south of Oerlikon station. Like the Käferberg Tunnel, the

Wipkingen Tunnel The Wipkingen Tunnel (german: Wipkingertunnel) is a railway tunnel in the Swiss city of Zürich. The tunnel runs from the northern end of Wipkingen station to a portal to the south of Oerlikon station. It carries twin standard gauge () tracks e ...

(opened in 1856) connects to the Hauptbahnhof's western approaches, whilst the

Weinberg Tunnel The Weinberg Tunnel (german: Weinbergtunnel) is a railway tunnel in the Swiss city of Zürich. The tunnel runs from the western approaches to Zürich Hauptbahnhof railway station, east under the station and city centre before turning north and sur ...

(opened in 2014) accesses the Hauptbahnhof's lower level through platforms from the east.

References

External links

* Transport in Zürich Railway tunnels in Switzerland Tunnels completed in 1969 {{Switzerland-struct-stub