Gotthard railway
The Gotthard railway is the Swiss trans-alpine railway line from northern Switzerland to the canton of Ticino. It is named for the Saint-Gotthard Massif, through which it passes. The line forms a major part of an important international railway link between northern and southern Europe, especially on the Rotterdam-Basel-Genoa corridor. Construction was financed by the Gotthard Railway Company.
The railway comprises an international main line through Switzerland from Basel or Zürich to Immensee to Chiasso, together with branches, from Immensee to Lucerne and Rotkreuz, from Arth-Goldau to Zug or Pfäffikon SZ, and from Bellinzona to Chiasso via Locarno and Luino. At Chiasso, the line connects to the Milan–Chiasso railway, which runs across the Swiss–Italian border. The main line, the second-highest standard railway in Switzerland, penetrates the Alps using the Gotthard Tunnel at above sea level. The line then descends as far as Bellinzona, at above sea level, before climbing again to the pass of Monte Ceneri, on the way to Lugano and Chiasso. The extreme differences in altitude necessitate the use of long ramped approaches on each side, together with seven spirals.
Construction of the line started in 1872, with some lowland sections opening by 1875. The full line opened in 1882, following the completion of the Gotthard Tunnel. The line was incorporated into the Swiss Federal Railways in 1909 and electrified in 1922. The line has 36 tunnels totaling 31,216 meters.
The approaches to the existing tunnel continue to restrict speed and capacity on this important international route, and in 1992 it was decided to build a new lower level route on the Gotthard axis as part of the NRLA project. This route involved the construction of the new Gotthard Base Tunnel and Ceneri Base Tunnel. The Gotthard Base Tunnel was completed and integrated into the existing route in 2016, while the Ceneri Base Tunnel opened in 2020.
History
Conception
By the early 1870s, northern Switzerland had a significant network of railways, with links to the adjoining railways of Germany and France. To the west, a line had reached, in the upper Rhone valley, from Lausanne. In the central north, lines linked Olten, Lucerne, Zug and Zürich. However, no line had yet reached through the Alps to southern Switzerland or the border with Italy. All north-to-south rail traffic had to pass either to the west or east of Switzerland through the Mont-Cenis, Semmering or Brenner railways.A north-south route through Switzerland had been discussed as far back as 1848. An international conference in Bern in 1869 had decided that the best route would be via the valleys of the rivers Reuss and Ticino, linked by a tunnel under the Gotthard Pass. The selected route was an ancient one that pilgrims and traders had used since at least the 13th century.
Treaties for the construction of the line were signed with the Kingdom of Italy, in 1869, and the German Empire, in 1871. The Gotthard Railway Company was incorporated in Lucerne in 1871. To the overall costs of CHF 238 million the Italian government eventually contributed CHF 58 million, with Germany contributing CHF 30 million.
Construction and opening
Construction of the Gotthard railway started in 1872, and the first lowland sections from Biasca to Locarno and Lugano to Chiasso were opened by 1874.The whole line was inaugurated with festivities in Lucerne and Chiasso from 21 May to 25 May 1882. Scheduled operations started on 1 June. At the time, the Gotthard Rail Tunnel was the world's longest rail tunnel. Soon after construction, the army secured the line with fortresses and ways to block the tunnel in case of an invasion.
At the same time, the Aargauische Südbahn completed the section from Rotkreuz to Immensee, which provided a rail link from Aarau. The additional feeder lines from Lucerne to Immensee, and from Zug to Arth-Goldau were completed in 1887.
Early railway operations
The Gotthard railway timetable from 1899
The Gotthard railway graphic timetable contains a great variety of information with regards to material and especially operational aspects in the year 1899, 17 years after the inauguration of the Gotthard tunnel and completion of the railway. The map key and captions to each column are to be found at the top of the page. From left to right information is given on the location of each station's elevation in relation to sea level, the longitudinal profile, signal lights, tunnels and their length, for each route section on southbound journeys the greatest gradient, distances, employed telegraphs and their networking, signal bells and their connection, telephones, block stations, track layout of the respective station and their equipment, total usable length of the remaining tracks, the longest side track, station names and distances between them, distance to point of origin and between main stations. Departure and arrival times are displayed within the graphic timetable.Information can be drawn as to the tunnel's apex which lies at above sea level and the fact that the tunnel does not run in a straight line but rather in a slope down from either side of its apex. The tunnel was designed in such a way that inflowing water would be able to drain. From the railway station of Göschenen to the tunnel's apex the train lines ascend at an angle of 6‰ and descend at 2‰ from the apex to the village of Airolo. The tunnel's length is indicated to be, its apex being at kilometre 80. The old Gotthard railway's distances were measured from the town of Immensee, as clearly indicated on the graphic timetable.
Electrical telegraphs and signal bells are listed to the right of the distance column and a detailed description thereof is to be found in the sections The Gotthard railway Telegraph Network and The Gotthard railway Signal Bells.
The track layout of each station shows that in 1899 the Gotthard railway ran on double-tracks from the villages of Flüelen to Giubiasco. Facing north the picture on the right shows the watchman's house at the Mondascia bridge depicts the double tracks and advance signal to the entry signal before Biasca, mentioned in the timetable. The next picture on the right shows the Pianotondo viaduct and the Pianotono spiral tunnel's upper gate with its watchman's house, which came into use during the days of the double-track steam service, roughly at the time of the graphic timetable's validity.
The graphic timetable sees two tracks running southwards from Giubiasco. One is signposted "Chiasso", the other "Luino/Locarno". From this point onwards the railway runs on single tracks. Giubiasco's neighbouring stations to the south, Rivera-Bironico and Cadenazzo, are all on single tracks. At each underpass on the Ceneri section it is clearly visible to this day that these were built at greatly different points in time. The Giubiasco-Al Sasso and Al Sasso-Rivera sections were equipped with double tracks in 1922 and 1934 respectively.
The graphic timetable is a two-dimensional image of the train journeys. Time is displayed horizontally from midnight XII o'clock to midnight XII o'clock. The stations along the journey, from Zug and Lucerne to Chiasso, Locarno and Luino are displayed vertically. The first scheduled train, an express train with first-, second- and third-class carriages, leaves Bellinzona at 03:17. Train number 55 is powered by a steam locomotive and, according to the timetable, does not make a scheduled stop at Giubiasco, Rivera-Bironico and Taverne. Arrival at Lugano is scheduled at 04:09, from where it leaves again at 04:14. In 1899 the entire train journey from Bellinzona to Lugano was scheduled to be 52 minutes. Today, the same journey on one of the EuroCity trains takes 27 minutes. The illustrations shows that between Giubiasco and Rivera Bironico trains do not pass each other as in 1899 this was, as mentioned above, a single track line. This information can thus be drawn from both the stations' track layout and the graphic timetable. Also visible on the graphic timetable is the fact that between Osogna and Biasca, trains do however pass each other along their journeys, being a double-track line. Further, the Arth-Rigi-Bahn's trains, are also listed in the Gotthard railways' timetable. The timetable's scale is 15 mm/hour horizontally and 1.75 mm/km vertically.