The Ziegelbrücke–Linthal railway (formerly the Weesen–Linthal railway, also called the Glarnerlinie—), is a single-track
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 in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
line in the
Swiss cantons
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the . Two important periods in the development of ...
of
Glarus
Glarus (; ; ; ; ) is the capital of the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Since 1 January 2011, the municipality of Glarus incorporates the former municipalities of Ennenda, Netstal and Riedern.St. Gallen, connecting
Ziegelbrücke
Ziegelbrücke is a village situated on both sides of the Linth Channel in Switzerland. Ziegelbrücke is shared by the Municipalities of Switzerland, municipalities of Niederurnen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Glarus (canton), Glarus an ...
with Linthal.
It was opened in two stages and by two railway companies. The line from Weesen via to was opened on 15 February 1859 by the
United Swiss Railways
The United Swiss Railways (''Vereinigten Schweizerbahnen''; VSB or V.S.B.) was a former railway company in Switzerland. It was the smallest of the five main railways that were nationalised from 1902 to form the Swiss Federal Railways.
Foundation ...
(''Vereinigte Schweizerbahnen'', VSB). It was opened with the ––Weesen line. The line from Glarus via to was opened on 1 June 1879 by the
Swiss Northeastern Railway
The Swiss Northeastern Railway (''Schweizerische Nordostbahn''; NOB) was an early railway company in Switzerland. It also operated shipping on Lake Constance (''Bodensee'') and Lake Zürich. Until the merger of the Western Swiss Railways into the ...
(''Schweizerische Nordostbahn'', NOB).
The
Lake Zürich left-bank railway
The Lake Zurich left bank railway line (), is a railway line in Switzerland. It serves the left (or west) bank of Lake Zurich, connecting Zurich to Ziegelbrücke and Näfels.
The left-bank railway opened in 1875 and forms part of the Zurich– ...
, which was built by the NOB, was extended from to station on 20 September 1875. This line took over much of the traffic between Weesen and Näfels-Mollis, making the old line unprofitable. Therefore, the line was closed by 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) on 1 January 1931 and later dismantled. station was relocated on the occasion of the opening of the double-track line on 18 May 1969.
There was a connection in to the metre-gauge
Sernftal tramway
The Sernftal tramway (, SeTB) was an electrical narrow-gauge tramway in the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Glarus, which was operated by a private company. The line linked Schwanden railway station, on the Weesen-Linthal railway line, Weesen to Li ...
between 7 August 1905 and 31 May 1969.
The line was
electrified
Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...
Initially, all stations had at least one bay platform apart from the main platform (with only one turnout on one side). The only exception was Leuggelbach, which as a result has always been classified as a halt. The halt of was opened at the timetable change on 23 May 1982, when the clock-face timetable was also introduced. This new halt is located immediately adjacent to the base station of the Braunwald Funicular, which simplified the transfer from the rail network to the funicular to Braunwald.
No crossing loops were planned in , and Rüti, as they would have been difficult to install because of the bay platforms.
A rolling stock depot was established in Glarus with two locomotive sheds and a turntable. Glarus station was extensively renovated in 2016 and 2017 so that platform 2 is now accessible via an underpass and the locomotive sheds have been renovated. However, they are no longer used for storing trains and can only be used by non-electrically hauled rolling stock because of the lack of overhead lines. The former Glarus depot was replaced by the Ziegelbrücke depot.
The and Rüti stations were reclassified as halts on 2 June 1984. Mitlödi station was similarly reclassified at the 1985 timetable change.
Except for the track infrastructure in Schwanden, all sets of points and additional track infrastructure between Glarus and Linthal was upgraded at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. There is now only one track between Glarus and Linthal. The only remaining stations with crossing loops are , Glarus, Schwanden and Linthal. It is possible for trains to cross in Näfels-Mollis and Netstal and this can occur in case of disruption of normal services, but both stations only have one regular 55 cm-high platform each, so embarking and disembarking passengers would only be possible for one of the crossing trains. Currently (as of April 2018), the Netstal station has an old, non-standard platform on track 2 and this could be used during a disruption of operations, but it would require special provisions.
Operations
The route is served by hourly services on line S25 of
Zurich S-Bahn
The Zurich S-Bahn () system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Aargau, Glarus, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, ...
. It replaced the
Glarner Sprinter
The Glarner Sprinter was a List of named passenger trains, named passenger train of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). It ran from Zurich into the canton of Glarus, and was operated as a RegioExpress service. The train provided a commuter servi ...
in June 2014 and serves all stations (except Nieder- and Oberurnen) on this line as well as , , , and
Zürich HB
Zurich (; ) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The urban area was home to 1.45 ...
. This is the first time there have been hourly services to Zurich. Services on line S6 of the St. Gallen S-Bahn also run on the Ziegelbrücke–Schwanden route hourly, resulting in a combined half-hourly cycle. Some off-peak hour S6 services continue to Linthal.
Extension plans
An extension of the route to the south to in the
canton of Ticino
Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts and its capital city is Bellinzo ...
, connecting to the Gotthard Railway towards was considered around 1900. In 1963, the ''Schweizerische Aktionskomitee pro Tödi-Greina-Bahn'' (Swiss Action Committee for the Tödi-Greina Railway), which had representatives from several cantonal governments, commissioned a study to examine the feasibility of a
Tödi
The Tödi (), is a mountain massif and with the mountain peak Piz Russein the highest mountain in the Glarus Alps and the highest summit in the canton of Glarus, Switzerland. It is located on the border between the cantons of Graubünden, to the ...
–
Greina
The Greina (el. 2355 m.) (Italian: ''Passo della Greina'', Romansh: ''Pass Crap'') is a high mountain pass across the western Lepontine Alps, connecting Sumvitg in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland and Olivone in the canton of Ticino. ...