The Lausanne–Bern railway is a mainline railway in Switzerland. The first part of the line was opened in 1860 and the original line was completed on 4 September 1862. The line was built by the Swiss Central Railway and the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern Railway, which were taken over 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 ...

on its establishment in 1902.

History

The

Canton of Fribourg The canton of Fribourg, also canton of Freiburg, is located in western Switzerland. The canton is bilingual, with French spoken by more than two thirds of the citizens and German by a little more than a quarter. Both are official languages in th ...

delayed the construction of the line from Bern to Lausanne in a bid to have it run through the city of

Fribourg or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...

rather than on flatter land further west; in 1857 the Swiss government, the canton of

Vaud Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...

and the West Switzerland Company gave in, allowing construction to commence on the line. On 2 July 1860, the line opened from Bern to the northern end of the 352 metre-long Grandfey Viaduct being built over the Saane river in Balliswil, near

. The Bern–Thörishaus section was built by the ''Swiss Central Railway'' and the Thörishaus–Ballenwil section by the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern Railway (, LFB). It took another two years of hard work to complete the Grandfey Viaduct before the line from Fribourg and

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

was open to traffic. Two rail tracks were consistently open to traffic from Olten to Lausanne from 4 September 1862. The line was taken over by the

on its establishment in 1902.

Operations

The Lausanne–Bern railway is an important part of the connection from

Luzern 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 ...

and

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 ...

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 ...

. It serves both long-distance and local traffic. The line between Bern and

is used by line S1 of the Bern S-Bahn. The line from Palézieux to Lausanne is to be used by line 2 and line 4 of the planned Léman Express. An attempt is currently being made to reduce the traveling time of the

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...

trains between Lausanne and Bern to 55 minutes by using a tilt compensation system in order to be able to integrate Lausanne as a hub in the regular interval timetable.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lausanne-Bern railway Railway lines in Switzerland Railway lines opened in 1860 1860 establishments in Switzerland Swiss Federal Railways lines