Zurich Airport railway station () is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

serving

Zurich Airport Zurich Airport is the largest international airport of Switzerland and the airline hub, principal hub of Swiss International Air Lines. It serves Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, and, with its surface transport links, much of the rest o ...

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 ...

. The station is located underneath the ''Airport Centre'', the main ground-side passenger terminal of the airport, which is in the

canton of Zurich The canton of Zurich is an administrative unit (Swiss canton, canton) of Switzerland, situated in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton of Switzerland. Zurich is the ''de facto'' Capi ...

and the municipality of

Kloten Kloten is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Bülach District, district of Bülach in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland, and belongs to the Glatt Valley (). History Kloten is first mentioned in 1155 as ''Chlotun''. Geogra ...

History

When Zurich Airport first opened in 1948, the nearest railway was the single-track line from Oerlikon to

Effretikon Illnau-Effretikon is a Municipalities of the canton of Zürich, municipality in the district of Pfäffikon (district), Pfäffikon in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zurich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. It includes the villages of Illnau, ...

, forming a loop off the original main line of the Zurich to Winterthur line. This line passed through Kloten Balsberg and

stations, which are respectively and from the airport terminal. In 1980 and in order to improve access to the airport, a new main line was constructed between Oerlikon and Effretikon. The new line passed under the airport terminal, and the airport railway station was opened. Originally the station was planned to be served only by intercity trains, but it is now served by a mixture of long distance and suburban trains. The previous line from Oerlikon through Kloten Balsberg and Kloten to

Bassersdorf Bassersdorf (, High Alemannic: ''Baserschtoorff'') is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Zürich, located in the district of Bülach, and belongs to the Glatt Valley (German: ''Glattal''). History The name, mentioned in 1155 as ''Bazzelstorf ...

was retained, and is used by suburban trains that do not call at the airport and freight trains. The section from Bassersdorf to Effretikon was abandoned, and trains off the Kloten line now join the new line for this section of their journey. Other suburban trains use the original main line through

Dietlikon Dietlikon is a municipality in the district of Bülach in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland, and belongs to the Glatt Valley (German: ''Glattal''). History Dietlikon is first mentioned in 1124 as ''Dietlinchoven''.For a long time, the munic ...

Layout and facilities

Train

The station is situated on the airport railway line between Oerlikon and

, which forms one variant of the Zurich to Winterthur main line. The station, which is entirely underground, has two

island platform An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...

s serving four tracks, each with a length of . The platforms are linked to the ''Airport Centre'', which contains the station ticket office, by escalators and lifts. The ''Airport Centre'' also contains several floors of retail and catering facilities, as well as access, via check-in and security, to the ''Airside Center'' and gate lounges. Summary of track () usage: * Track 1:

EuroCity EuroCity (EC) is an international Train categories in Europe, train category and brand for European inter-city rail, inter-city trains that cross international borders and meet criteria covering comfort, speed, food service, and cleanliness. E ...

, , , towards ; towards . * Track 2: , , towards Winterthur. * Track 3: , , , , , towards . * Track 4: , , towards .

Bus and tram

The airport terminal complex also includes a bus station, served by regional bus lines (

PostAuto PostAuto Switzerland, PostBus Ltd. (known as in Swiss Standard German (), in Swiss French (), in Swiss Italian (), and in Romansh () is a subsidiary company of the Swiss Post, which provides regional and rural bus services throughout Switz ...

, VBG), and a station on the Glattal light rail system, served by VBZ/VBG lines and , which connect to the Zurich tram network. These can be accessed from the station via the ''Airport Centre''. ;Lines with selected stops: Line : (Löwenplatz –) Bahnhofplatz/ HB – Central –

ETH Eth ( , uppercase: ⟨Ð⟩, lowercase: ⟨ð⟩; also spelled edh or eð), known as in Old English, is a letter used in Old English, Middle English, Icelandic, Faroese (in which it is called ), and Elfdalian. It was also used in Sca ...

/ Universitätsspital – Seilbahn Rigiblick – Milchbuck – Sternen Oerlikon – Bhf. Oerlikon Ost –

Glattpark Glattpark is a large construction project in Switzerland that took shape in Opfikon, close to the border to Zürich. As part of the construction project a new neighbourhood was built by 2020; it is designed to provide room for 7,000 residents and ...

– Bhf. Glattbrugg – Bhf. Balsberg – Zurich Airport (Zurich BSicon_FLUG

) Line : – Glatt – Bhf. Wallisellen – Glattpark – Bhf. Glattbrugg – Bhf. Balsberg – Zurich Airport (Zurich BSicon_FLUG

)

Operation

The station is served by approximately 300 trains per day, formed of a mixture of

(EC)

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 ...

(IC) and

InterRegio The InterRegio, often shortened to IR, is a train categories in Europe, train category for mainly domestic train services in use in some European countries, with Swiss Federal Railways operating the most dense network. InterRegio trains are semi ...

(IR) trains, serving cities throughout Switzerland (and some in Austria and Germany), as well as

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, ...

trains on lines S2, S16 and S24. All trains in southern direction call at

Zürich Hauptbahnhof Zürich Hauptbahnhof, often shortened to Zürich HB or just HB, and known in English as Zurich Main Station, is the largest railway station in Switzerland and one of the busiest in Europe. It is a major railway hub, with services to and from a ...

, the city's main railway station, with, for most of the day, some 13 trains per hour (tph) taking between 9 and 13 minutes for the journey. Some trains also serve other stations in Zurich. The airport station is also linked to

Konstanz Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...

, just over the border in Germany, by an hourly Swiss InterRegio train. Several daily EuroCity trains call at the airport station en route from

Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...

(Austria), and several German cities as far as

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

(runs as

EuroCity-Express EuroCity Express, or short ECE, is a category of EuroCity, Eurocity train marketed by Deutsche Bahn that runs on two routes as of 2021. It was created to classify a newly introduced international high speed rail, high speed train service in a high ...

/ECE in Germany).

Services

the following services stop at Zürich Airport: *

: service every two hours between and , via . *

: ** / : half-hourly service between or and ; hourly service to . ** / : hourly service between and ; service every two hours from Spiez to and . *

: ** : hourly service between and . ** : hourly service to , via . ** : hourly service between and . *

: ** : half-hourly service to , via . ** : half-hourly service to , via . ** : half-hourly service between (via ) and ; trains continue from Winterthur to or .

Gallery

File:Kloten - Flughafen - Bahnhof 2011-12-25 17-17-40 (SX230).JPG, Wall art in the station File:Bahnhof Zürich Flughafen 01.jpg, Double-deck S-Bahn (left) and InterRegio (right) trains in the station File:Zurich 2011 646.jpg, A train to Basel in the station File:Kloten - Flughafen - Innenansicht 2011-01-22 13-28-30 (SX230).JPG, The Airport Centre at-grade level, one level above the station's offices and ticketing machines, and two levels above the tracks

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zurich Airport railway station Airport railway stations in Switzerland Railway stations in the canton of Zürich Swiss Federal Railways stations Railway stations in Switzerland opened in 1980