The Bözberg railway line is a railway line in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, running between

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 ...

and

Brugg Brugg (sometimes written as Brugg AG in order to distinguish it from other ''Brugg''s) is a Switzerland, Swiss Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality and a List of towns in Switzerland, town in the canton of Aargau and is the seat of the Bru ...

via

Pratteln Pratteln (Swiss German: ''Brattele'') is a municipality in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland, located in the district of Liestal. History Pratteln is first mentioned around 1102-03 as ''Bratello''. Geography Pratteln has an area, ...

, Rheinfelden, Stein-Säckingen, Frick and the Bözberg Tunnel. At Brugg it connects to

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, 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 ...

via

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

and to the Gotthard Railway via the Aargauische Südbahn. The line was built by the Bötzberg Railway (), a joint venture of 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 ...

and

Swiss Central Railway The Swiss Central Railway (''Schweizerische Centralbahn''; SCB or S.C.B.) was one of the five major private railway companies of Switzerland. The SCB with a track length of 332 kilometres was integrated into the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) in ...

. Construction started in 1870 and it opened on 2 August 1875. It was taken over by

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 ...

in 1902. It is now an important freight line connecting

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

via the Gotthard.

History

A proposal was made in 1836 to build a railway line from Zürich to Basel via Laufenburg but it suffered from lack of finance and opposition in Basel. The section between Zürich and Baden opened on 9 August 1847 by the

Swiss Northern Railway The Swiss Northern Railway ( German: ''Schweizerische Nordbahn'', SNB), informally known as the ''Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn'', opened the first railway line within Switzerland in 1847, the Zürich–Baden line. This followed the extension of a Fre ...

(), which became known as the ''Spanisch-Brötli bahn'' ("Spanish bun railway"). The Aargau canton government proposed a continuation of the line via Brugg and the

Bözberg Pass Bözberg is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Brugg (district), Brugg in Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It ceased to exist in 1873, when it was split into the two new municipalities Oberböz ...

to Basel. In 1858 the Swiss Northeastern Railway opened a line from

Olten Olten (; High Alemannic: ''Oute'') is a town in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland and capital of the district of the same name. Olten grew into a town during the Middle Ages at the location of a bridge over the Aare. After a period of de ...

, connecting to the

's Hauenstein line to Basel. At the same time the Zürich–Baden line (which by that time had been merged into the Schweizerische Nordostbahn) was extended to connect with the Centralbahn's line at Brugg. Construction of an alternative route, known as the ''Bötzbergbahn'' (BöB) began in 1870 and it was opened on 2 August 1875 through the Bözberg Pass from

to Brugg via the Frick valley and the 2,526-metre-long Bözberg Tunnel by a joint venture of the Centralbahn and the Nordostbahn. This line is 49 km long, about 8 kilometers shorter than the line via Olten. Trains on it used the Centralbahn between Basel and Pratteln and the Nordostbahn between Brugg and Zürich. The single-track line was built with a maximum grade of 1.4%. In 1895, the section between Pratteln and Stein-Säckingen was double-tracked. No further double-tracking occurred before the Bözbergbahn was incorporated in the

on 1 January 1902. In November 1904, the section from Stein-Säckingen to Frick was double-tracked. In April 1905, this was followed by the double-tracking of the

Schinznach-Dorf Schinznach-Dorf is a former municipality in the district of Brugg in canton of Aargau in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014 the former municipalities of Schinznach-Dorf and Oberflachs merged into the new municipality of Schinznach.

–Brugg section, and finally in September 1905 double-tracking was completed on the section from Schinznach-Dorf through the tunnel to

Effingen Effingen is a former municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Brugg (district), Brugg in Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau in Switzerland. On 1 January 2022 the former municipalities of Bözen, Effingen, Elfingen and ...

and Frick. On 18 October 1926, the entire line from Pratteln to Brugg was electrified. Between Basel and Pratteln the Bözberg and Hauenstein lines share the same track. Congestion on this section was relieved by the opening of Adler Tunnel in 2003 between

Liestal Liestal (, Standard ), formerly spelled Liesthal, is the capital of Liestal District and the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland, south of Basel. Liestal is an industrial town with a Cobbled street, cobbled-street ...

and

Muttenz Muttenz is a municipality with a population of approximately 17,000 in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. It is located in the district of Arlesheim and next to the city of Basel. History Under the Roman Empire a hamlet called Montet ...

, which is now used by fast passenger trains.

Operation

Passenger services

General two inter-regional trains operate each way each hour between Zürich and Basel. One Regio S-Bahn Basel S1 service operates each way each hour between Frick and Basel, stopping at all stations. Intercity trains between Zürich and Basel operate on the faster route via the Heitersberg line, the Olten–Aarau line (but bypassing Olten) and the Hauenstein line. In 1993, the local rail services between Brugg and Frick closed, and public transport on the route is now only provided by

PostBus A postbus is a public bus service that is operated as part of local mail delivery as a means of providing public transport in rural areas with lower levels of patronage, where a normal bus service would be uneconomic or inefficient. Postbus servi ...

Aargau line 137 bus service. The stations at

Hornussen Hornussen is an indigenous Swiss sport played by two teams of 16 to 20 players which alternate in striking a puck known as a "Hornuss" (hornet) or "Nouss" and attempting to deflect it. When hit, the Hornuss can fly at up to 300 km/h (186.4 mp ...

, Effingen and Schinznach Dorf are no longer served by trains and the Villnachern station is served only two trains a day of Regio S-Bahn Basel.

Freight services

Freight trains operate every day over the line to connect with the Gotthard line. They are mostly hauled by two of the most modern freight locomotives of various railway companies or hauled by one Swiss Federal railways Re 420 (formerly ''Re 4/4 II'') paired with a Re 620 (formerly ''Re 6/6 II'')—this combination is known as ''Re 10/10''.

Future developments

The Swiss Federal Office of Transport has granted a permit for the construction of a replacement for the Bözberg railway tunnel. The new tunnel will form part of a scheme to increase the loading gauge on the freight route between

and

Chiasso Chiasso (; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Mendrisio (district), Mendrisio in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Ticino in Switzerland. As Extreme points of Switzerland, the southernmost of Switzerland's ...

via the new

Gotthard Base Tunnel The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT; , , ) is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland. It opened in June 2016 and full service began the following December. With a route length of , it is the world's longest railway and deepest traffic tunn ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bozberg Railway Line Railway lines in Switzerland Transport in Aargau Transport in Basel-Stadt Transport in Basel-Landschaft Railway lines opened in 1875 1875 establishments in Switzerland Swiss Federal Railways lines 15 kV AC railway electrification