Lake Thun railway line
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Electrification | 15 kV 16.7 Hz AC supplied by overhead line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Lake Thun railway line is a
The line is 27.9-kilometre (17.3 mi) long, and is currently owned and operated by the
History
The history of the Lake Thun line is linked to that of the shipping services on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, which date back to at least 1834, when the first steamship was introduced. The two lakes are linked by a 5.5 km (3.4 mi) stretch of the Aare through Interlaken, but the river is not navigable, dropping some 6 metres (19.7 ft) and passing over several weirs.[1]
In 1872, the first part of the Bödeli Railway was built, from Därligen, on Lake Thun, to what is now Interlaken West station. In 1874, it was extended, via what is now Interlaken Ost station, to Bönigen, on Lake Brienz. The line was not connected to any other railway, and served to connect the shipping on the two lakes to each other, and to Interlaken. The route of the Bödeli Railway crosses the Aare twice, using bridges with little headroom beneath them, and it has been suggested that this was done deliberately in order to dissuade attempts to canalise the river and thus maintain the railway's role.[1][2]
From 1873, the Bödeli Railway also operated a train ferry on Lake Thun, providing a connection for freight to the Bern–Thun railway line at Thun. In 1890, the Lake Thun Railway company obtained a concession for a railway from Scherzligen in Thun, via Spiez, to an end-on connection with the existing Bödeli Railway at Därligen. This line started operation in 1893, and also leased the Bödeli Railway between Därligen and Interlaken Ost. The Bödeli Railway was fully incorporated into the Lake Thun Railway company in 1900.
In 1901, the Spiez to Frutigen line was opened, which was to become the first stage of the
Bönigen remained the eastern terminus of the line until 1969, when passenger service was cut back to Interlaken Ost station. However the BLS had built its main workshops alongside the line at Bönigen's western edge, and these remain open, along with the track between Interlaken and the workshops. The rest of line was removed, although the site of the lakeside terminus can still be identified.[3]
With the 2020 timetable change, BLS dropped service at the three intermediate stations between Spiez and Interlaken:
Route and infrastructure
The 27.9-kilometre (17.3 mi) long Lake Thun line commences at
.Near the intermediate
The line terminates just to the east of
The Lake Thun line is built to
References
- ^ a b c "History of navigation on Lakes Thun and Brienz". BLS AG. Retrieved 2012-12-13.
- ^ "The Bödeli Railway". Jungfraubahnen. Archived from the original on 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2008-01-24.
- ^ "Interlaken Ost–Bönigen". www.eingestellte-bahnen.ch (in German). Retrieved 2012-09-26.
- ^ "Bus wird ab Dezember 2020 den Zug ersetzen". Jungfrau Zeitung (in German). 24 October 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2020.