Lausanne–Bern railway

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 on its establishment in 1902.

Lausanne–Bern railway
An EW IV commuter train on the Grandfey Viaduct
Overview
TerminiLausanne
Bern
Technical
Line length97.2 km (60.4 mi)
Number of tracks2
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8 12 in)
Electrification15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Route map

km
from Geneva and Biel
0.0
Lausanne
447 m
2.4
Pully-Nord
473 m
Viaduct of Conversion (177 m)
4.0
La Conversion
500 m
5.8
Bossière
524 m
8.3
Grandvaux
565 m
Grandvaux tunnel (392 m)
Cornallaz tunnel (494 m)
12.1
Puidoux
617 m
14.6
Moreillon
657 m
20.6
Palézieux
669 m
24.4
Oron
700 m
30.5
Vauderens
757 m
old route until 2001
Vauderens Tunnel (1.975 m)
old Vauderens Tunnel (921m)
35.4
Siviriez
737 m
40.2
Romont
707 m
45.0
Villaz-St-Pierre
706 m
49.6
Chénens
722 m
52.4
Cottens
713 m
55.4
Neyruz
687 m
57.5
Rosé
668 m
60.4
Matran
643 m
62.1
Villars-sur-Glâne
640 m
66.0
629 m
Fribourg/Freiburg Poya
609 m
72.2
Düdingen
596 m
75.5
Fillistorf
607 m
77.9
Schmitten
606 m
Mühletal tunnel (399 m)
80.3
Wünnewil
588 m
Flamatt tunnel (187 m)
84.1
Flamatt
552 m
Sense (75 m)
86.9
Thörishaus Dorf
575 m
88.2
Thörishaus Station
585 m
89.4
Oberwangen
575 m
91.0
Niederwangen
568 m
93.0
Bern Bümpliz Süd
562 m
94.1
Bern Europaplatz
562 m
94.9
Bern Weyermannshaus
Donnerbühl tunnel (400 m)
97.2
Bern
540 m
Source: Swiss railway atlas[1]

History

The Canton of Fribourg delayed the construction of the line from Bern to Lausanne in a bid to have it run through the city of Fribourg rather than on flatter land further west; in 1857 the Swiss government, the canton of Vaud and the West Switzerland Company gave in, allowing construction to commence on the line.[2] 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 Fribourg. The Bern–Thörishaus section was built by the Swiss Central Railway and the Thörishaus–Ballenwil section by the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern Railway (French: Chemin de fer Lausanne-Fribourg-Berne, LFB). It took another two years of hard work to complete the Grandfey Viaduct before the line from Fribourg and Lausanne 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 Swiss Federal Railways on its establishment in 1902.

Operations

The Lausanne–Bern railway is an important part of the connection from Luzern and Zürich to Geneva. It serves both long-distance and local traffic.

The line between Bern and Fribourg is used by line 1 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 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.[3]

References

  1. Eisenbahnatlas Schweiz [Swiss railway atlas]. Schweers + Wall. 2012. pp. 18–19, 30, 66, 70. ISBN 978-3-89494-130-7.
  2. Hans-Peter, Bärtschi (1998–2009). "Eisenbahnen, 2 - Die Bauperiode 1850-1870 (Railways, construction period 1850-1870)" (in German). Historischen Lexikon der Schweiz. Archived from the original on 5 July 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
  3. "unknown". Eisenbahn-Revue International (in German) (4): 174–181, 184f. 2010. Cite uses generic title (help)
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