Zofingen–Wettingen railway line

Zofingen–Wettingen railway line
Overview
Owner	Swiss Federal Railways
Line number	514 Zofingen–Lenzburg 650.1 Lenzburg–Mägenwil
Termini	standard gauge
Electrification	15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Route map Legend km elev from Lucerne 0.0 Zofingen to Olten 2.3 Küngoldingen 4.9 Walterswil-Striegel 6.6 Safenwil Kölliken hazardous waste landfill 9.3 Kölliken Oberdorf 10.9 Kölliken WSB to/from Aarau 13.9 Oberentfelden former WSB to/from Aarau 16.7 67.5 Suhr former line to Aarau WSB to Aarau Migros distribution centre 63.3 Hunzenschwil from Aarau 59.8 Lenzburg Seetal line to Luzern former Seetal line to Wildegg 57.9 Gexi junction to Rotkreuz from Rotkreuz 55.6 Othmarsingen to Brugg 53.8 Mägenwil Brugg-Mellingen road (66 m) Mellingen bridge (193 m) over the Reuss 50.7 Gruemet junction to Killwangen-Spreitenbach Baden-Mellingen bridge (74 m) 50.1 Mellingen 47.4 Dättwil 44.2 Baden Oberstadt from Baden old Zürich–Baden line lower Limmat bridge (129 m) (Limmat) 42.7 Wettingen to Zürich to Zürich Seebach Source: Swiss railway atlas[1]

The Zofingen–Wettingen railway line is a standard-gauge line in Switzerland. It was opened on 6 September 1877 between Zofingen and Baden Oberstadt together with the

with the nationalisation of the company in 1902.

History

The line was built by the SNB with one track and was intended to compete with the

(Schweizerische Centralbahn; SCB).

The lack of traffic due to competition from existing rail companies and the economic crisis triggered by the Panic of 1873 (or Gründerkrach, German for "foundation crash", referring to the foundation of the German Empire in 1871) caused the SNB to declare bankruptcy after only four months of continuous operation, after which the NOB acquired its network from the bankrupt estate on 1 October 1880. The Zofingen–Suhr section was sold to the SCB.

As part of the electrification of the former Aargau Southern Railway, the Lenzburg–Gexi section was wired on 5 May 1927, followed by the Gexi–Othmarsingen section on 28 May 1932 and the Zofingen–Suhr–(Aarau) section on 6 July 1946. Special barriers had to be installed at the two intersections with the Wynental and Suhrental Railway (WSB), since that railway was electrified at 750 volts DC. The Suhr–Lenzburg and Othmarsingen–Wettingen sections were electrified on 17 December 1946, completing the electrification of the whole Zofingen–Wettingen line.

Route

The line runs from Zofingen via Striegel to Suhr and thus bypasses the area around Olten in the

(Seetalbahn) to Wildegg, continuing via Othmarsingen, Mellingen and Baden Oberstadt to Wettingen.

The

, which opened in 1975. The new line branches off towards the Heitersberg Tunnel from the line towards Wettingen in Gruemet, to the east of the Reuss bridge at Mellingen.

Operations

Passenger traffic from Lenzburg to Wettingen over the national railway line was discontinued in 2007. The Gruemet–Wettingen line is only used regularly by freight traffic to serve the Mellingen tank farm and the sidings in Baden Oberstadt. If the

is closed due to maintenance work or single-track operation is necessary, it is still used as a backup route (mostly running from west to east).

The Lenzburg–Zofingen section is served every half an hour until 8 pm, then every hour, by line S28 of the Aargau S-Bahn and is commonly referred to as the Nazeli (from Nationalbahn).^[2][3]

The whole line has been approved for D4 freight traffic (22.5 t axle load, 8.0 t/m linear load) since 5 July 2009.^[4]

References

Footnotes

Sources

• Wägli, Hans G. (1998). Schienennetz Schweiz (in German). Zürich: AS Verlag.
  ISBN 3-905111-21-7
  .