The Mattstetten–Rothrist new line (''Neubaustrecke Mattstetten-Rothrist'') is Switzerland's first railway to reach speeds above 160 km/h (100mph) in regular operations, running between Mattstetten and

Rothrist Rothrist is a municipality in the district of Zofingen in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History Originally an Alamanni settlement, the modern village of Rothrist is first mentioned in 1263 as ''Routris''. The '' Herrschaft'' rights wer ...

. It forms most of the Olten–Bern railway line, which makes up over half of the trunk route connecting Switzerland's main city,

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich () i ...

and its capital, Bern. The new line opened on 12 December 2007, as the centrepiece of the

Rail 2000 Rail 2000 (German: ''Bahn 2000''; French: ''Rail 2000'', Italian: ''Ferrovia 2000'') is a large-scale project of the Swiss Federal Railways (SFR) established in 1987 to improve the quality of the Swiss rail network for the New millennium. It ...

project, a comprehensive upgrade of Swiss railways. The line is almost long, with one branch. At Wanzwil junction, a upgraded former local line to

Solothurn , neighboring_municipalities = Bellach, Biberist, Feldbrunnen-Sankt Niklaus, Langendorf, Rüttenen, Zuchwil , twintowns = Heilbronn (Germany), Kraków (Poland), Le Landeron (Switzerland) Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; ...

connects to the rest of the

Jura foot railway line The Jura Foot Line (french: ligne du Pied-du-Jura, german: Jurafusslinie) or Jura South Foot Line, is a railway line in Switzerland. It runs from Olten along the foot of the southern Jura range through Solothurn, Grenchen, Biel/Bienne, Neuch ...

(to Biel/Bienne, Neuchâtel, Yverdon and Geneva). The line has a maximum speed of and has reduced the travel time between major Swiss hubs of Bern, Basel and Zurich to under an hour, allowing the regular interval timetable (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

: ''Taktfahrplan'') to be implemented, where both express and stopping trains on all lines arrive and leave on the hour at Bern and Zurich stations, allowing a great number of convenient connections. The line was the longest new line built in Switzerland since 1926. Construction began in April 1996 and the last piece of rail was put into place on 30 April 2004 at the Bern-Solothurn canton border at Inkwil on the connection to Solothurn. The Mattstetten–Rothrist was the first in Switzerland to put the

European Train Control System The European Train Control System (ETCS) is the signalling and control component of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). It is a replacement for legacy train protection systems and designed to replace the many incompatible ...

(ETCS) into regular operation. This was originally planned for December 2004 but had to be repeatedly postponed because of technical problems. On 2 July 2006 testing at night was started and trains ran from 22:30 at up to with ETCS; from 23 July testing started at 21:30. Switching from conventional signalling with external signals to in-cab ETCS signalling was successively brought into operation and on 18 March 2007, trains began to run with full ETCS Level 2 signalling at up to ; since December 2007 they have run at up to . The ETCS trackside equipment consists of a Radio Block Center, the required

balise A balise is an electronic beacon or transponder placed between the rails of a railway as part of an automatic train protection (ATP) system. The French word '' balise'' is used to distinguish these beacons from other kinds of beacons. Balise ...

s and an electronic interlocking.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mattstetten-Rothrist New Line Railway lines in Switzerland High-speed railway lines in Switzerland Railway lines opened in 2007 2007 establishments in Switzerland