The Zug–Luzern railway is a mainline railway line in Switzerland, connecting the cities of
Zug
Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; ; ; ; )Named in the 16th century. is the largest List of cities in Switzerland, town and capital of the Swiss canton of Zug. Zug is renowned as a hub for some of the wealthiest individuals in the wor ...
and
Lucerne
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 ...
. It was opened on 1 June 1864 by the
Zürich–Zug–Lucerne Railway (''Zürich-Zug-Luzern-Bahn''). The
Zürich–Zug railway was opened by the same company at the same time.
Route
The line was connected until 1970 at a triangular junction (
"wye") at Kollermühle with the
branch to Zurich Altstetten so that trains could run directly from Lucerne to Zurich. The station was a terminal station until the opening of the
Thalwil–Arth-Goldau railway
The Thalwil–Arth-Goldau railway is a Swiss railway that acts as a feeder route to the Gotthard Railway (''Gotthardbahn'', GB). It was opened for this purpose on 1 June 1897, with the Thalwil railway station, Thalwil–Zug railway station, Zug se ...
. With the introduction of the new line, the station was rebuilt with a station building between the diverging lines. The Zug reversing loop, which made it possible to run from both directions into the station, was also built at that time. This was closed in 1990.
The line was electrified at
15 kV 16 Hz AC on 9 October 1922.
Double track was opened between Zug and Cham on 5 May 1990. There have been two tracks between Kollermülle station and the branch to the Zug loop since the opening of the line, but these were used separately, that is one was used for services to/from Affoltern and the other to/from Rotkreuz. Up to that time, the trains from Affoltern always ran via the Zug loop.
An isolated section of double track was opened between Ebikon station and
Rotsee on 29 May 1994. The line between the stations of Ebikon and Gisikon-Root has also been double-track since 27 September 1995.
When the line between Gisikon-Root and Rotkreuz was doubled, some bends were straightened so that the line speed could be increased. This section has been double-track since 11 May 1996.
The line between Cham and Rotkreuz has been double track since 14 December 2008. Before that, not even the Cham–Hünenberg Zythus section had been doubled. There was only a second track south of Zythus to Hünenberg Chämleten station, which ended at a dead-end track.
History
The railway was opened on 1 June 1864 by the
Zürich–Zug–Lucerne Railway.
The opening of the Thalwil–Arth-Goldau line had, with the exception of the reconstruction in the area of Zug station, no great impact for the line itself, but trains running between Zürich and Lucerne continued to use the Zug–Lucerne section. Only the operation of passenger trains running towards the Gotthard fell away between Kollermühle and Rotkreuz. Most freight trains from Zürich to Rotkreuz continued to run via the rail triangle. When it was decided to transfer the former shunting yard on the approach to Zürich Hauptbahnhof to Zürich Mülligen (only fast goods and postal traffic) and to Limmattal marshalling yard, it was clear that this traffic would be eliminated. For this reason, on 19 November 1970, the side of the rail triangle that connected
Steinhausen with
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
*** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
* Cham Albani ...
was closed and dismantled. Freight trains now run via the
Rupperswil–Immensee railway line to Rotkreuz.
The introductions of two S-Bahn systems had some impact on the line. The introduction of the
Zürich S-Bahn in 1990, when the Zug loop was closed, had less impact.
By contrast, the introduction of the 2004
Zug Stadtbahn
The Zug Stadtbahn () is an S-Bahn-style commuter rail network centred on Zug, Switzerland.
Opened on 12 December 2004, the network forms part of the Central Switzerland S-Bahn project (), which also includes the Lucerne S-Bahn ().
Lines
, the n ...
in 2004 had a massive impact on the Zug–Luzern line, which underwent a major refurbishment so that services could be introduced between Zug and Baar at quarter-hourly intervals. In addition, five additional stations were established.
References
Footnotes
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zug-Lucerne railway
Railway lines in Switzerland
Railway lines opened in 1864
1864 establishments in Switzerland