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Basel SBB Bâle CFF | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central pass-through railway station | |||||
 Main north entrance | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Centralbahnplatz Basel Switzerland | ||||
| Coordinates | 47°32′49″N7°35′24″E / 47.54694°N 7.59000°E /47.54694; 7.59000 | ||||
| Elevation | 276 m (906 ft) | ||||
| Owned by | Swiss Federal Railways | ||||
| Line(s) | |||||
| Platforms | 9 | ||||
| Tracks | 22 (German:Gleise: 12 pass-through (3 non-stop), 7 SBB terminal, 3 SNCF terminal) | ||||
| Connections |
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| Construction | |||||
| Structure type | At-grade | ||||
| Architect |
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| Other information | |||||
| IATA code | ZDH | ||||
| Fare zone | |||||
| Website | Bahnhof Basel SBB | ||||
| History | |||||
| Opened | 19 December 1854; 170 years ago (1854-12-19) | ||||
| Rebuilt |
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| Previous names |
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| Key dates | |||||
| 1902-03 | Demolition of the first non-wooden station | ||||
| 1902-07 | Provisional railway station in place | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2023 | 105'900 per weekday[4] (SBB, SBB GmbH, SOB) | ||||
| Rank | 5 out 1'159 | ||||
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Basel SBB railway station (German:Bahnhof Basel SBB, or in earlier timesCentralbahnhof orSchweizer Bahnhof) is the centralrailway station in the city ofBasel, Switzerland. Opened in 1854, and completely rebuilt in 1900–1907, it is Europe's busiest international border station. Basel SBB is owned by theSwiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS). The other major railway station isBasel Badischer Bahnhof, operated by the German railway companyDeutsche Bahn, on the north side of theRhine from the city centre.
Trains operated by SBB CFF FFS use Basel SBB to link Basel with destinations within Switzerland and Italy, as doDeutsche BahnIntercity-Express (ICE) trains to and fromGermany, Zürich and Interlaken, mostSNCFTGV trains to and fromParis, and someregional trains to and fromAlsace. Additionally, the station is served by three lines of theBasel S-Bahn.
The 1907neo-baroquestation building is aheritage site of national significance.[5] It also containsBâle SNCF (shown in SBB CFF FFS online timetables as Basel SBB Gl. 30–35, and in other online timetables as Basel SNCF), which is located through aborder crossing and is used by other trains to and fromFrance. Directly outside the station building is the Centralbahnplatz, which is a major hub of theBasel tramway network, and the Basel terminus of a direct bus service to theEuroAirport.
The station area is situated at the southern side of the city centre, in an elongated area between theZoological Garden to the west and theBrüglinger Ebene [de] to the east.
The borders of four of Basel's districts come together at the station area. However, the area is, according to the Statistical Office, divided between only two districts: the station itself is located inGundeldingen [de], while most of the tracks on the eastern side of the station (including thegoods station), along with the Centralbahnplatz in front of the station (including theBIS Tower), are attributed to theSt. Alban quarter [de].
The Elisabethenanlage in front of the Centralbahnplatz belongs toVorstädte [de], while theMarkthalle [de] opposite Basel SNCF is part of theAm Ring [de] district.
The first railway to reach Basel, theChemin de fer Strasbourg Bâle [fr] (StB; Strasbourg Basel Railway), arrived there in 1844. The following year, 1845, theElsässerbahn (Alsatian Railway) built the first station in the Basel metropolitan area, within the city walls. Basel thereby became the first Swiss city to be connected to the new means of transport.[6]
After the arrival of the railway, there was a passionate debate in Basel about the pros and cons of the railway and its possible continuation towardsLucerne and from there through theGotthard towards Italy.[6]
Meanwhile, theRheintalbahn fromMannheim andKarlsruhe also approached Basel from the north; in 1851 it reachedHaltingen (a district ofWeil am Rhein), on the Swiss border.
In 1853, theSchweizerische Centralbahn railway company (SCB) was founded in Basel. Its purpose was the establishment of a link between the city of Basel and the economic centres of theMittelland cantons, and perhaps even also the expansion of the transport corridor fromLucerne to the Gotthard.
The Viaduktstrasse in Basel – including theBirsig Viaduct [de], which is adjacent to the Zoo Basel parking lot – was also the formation of theElsässerbahn until 1902. Today, the viaduct serves tram lines 1 and 8, as well as motor vehicle traffic, and a plaque on the bridge railing recalls its earlier role as a rail bridge.
In 1854, construction on the futureHauenstein railway line began. Right up until the opening of the first section of the route from Basel to Liestal, the controversial question of the site and design of the Basel railway station remained unresolved.
However, to accommodate the commencement of railway operations on 19 December 1854, theCentralbahn built a simple temporary timber structure, according to plans developed by chief architect Ludwig Maring. By the opening day, all of the temporary station buildings had been completed, including a timbertrain shed.
This modest provisional station, equipped with makeshift facilities, was made up of individual detached buildings and was used only for just under six years. The station site consisted of thestation building, agoods shed, a carriage andlocomotive shed and aturntable at therailhead. As the station building stood on the northeastern side of the station, alongside thestation yard, the station was not configured as aterminus.
The provisional station served only as the starting point of the SCB lines, and had no connection with either the French station or the Badischer Bahnhof, which was opened in 1855 as the terminus of the Rheintalbahn.
On 29 June 1857, theGrand Council of Basel-Stadt agreed to the construction of a link between the French line and theCentralbahn and the erection of athrough station in the field in front of theElisabethen-Bollwerk. The city bore the cost of the land purchase.
At the start of 1859, the SCB began construction work on the site of the new station, to a design by Maring. In addition to a passenger station, the new station yard featured a goods station relocated to the Gundeldingen district, and two new locomotive sheds, one of them for the SCB, and the other for theChemins de fer de l'Est, which had taken over the StB in 1854.
On 4 June 1860, railway operations began at the new Basel Centralbahnhof. However, it was not until May 1861 that all the new facilities were completed.
The Centralbahnhof was ajoint station, with the northern facade of its station building facing the newly created Centralbahnplatz. On each side of the station building were the boarding halls, each with two tracks – on the eastern side for the Swiss trains and on the western side and for the French trains. To the south of the station building were the goods shed and two large warehouses, with an access road from the Güterstrasse.
In subsequent years, modifications were made to the Centralbahnhof to enable it to deal with its substantially increasing traffic, including trains entering and leaving Basel along a number of new lines:
However, the Centralbahnhof eventually ran out of capacity to handle any further additional traffic.
In 1875, as a first measure of relief, themarshalling of freight trains was relocated to a makeshift yard to the east of the station, on an open field known as "auf dem Wolf". At around that time, discussions began with the aim of lowering the tracks and replacing the troublesome urbanlevel crossings on theElsässerbahn and at the Centralbahnhof. In 1874, provisional timber pedestrian bridges had already been built at Margarethenstrasse und Heumattstrasse; they were later replaced by iron structures. From 1879, the Pfeffingerstrasse passed underneath the station in a tunnel near the present location of the Peter Merian Bridge.
Finally, in 1898, following the referendum on the nationalisation of Switzerland's railways, theSwiss Federal Council decided to go ahead with the following:
The definitive project for a new Centralbahnhof in Basel was developed in 1899. On 16 March 1900, the Federal Council gave approval to the plans.
The lowering of the whole station area and the access lines required careful planning. The first step was the relocation of goods traffic to the Wolf station, and on 12 May 1901 the Alsace line was reopened in its new lower position and wide arc.
On the vacated, lowered, area south of the original Centralbahnhof, the provisional station was built, and on 2 June 1902 it went into operation.
Access to the provisional station was also from the south, via Güterstrasse. To facilitate access, various streets were extended, as were two tram lines. The provisional station remained in operation until 24 June 1907. The provisional facilities and access roads were then dismantled and the two tram lines laid into Güterstrasse. A station underpass to Gundeldingen was built roughly in the location of the provisional access road.
In 1902–1903, the old station was torn down.
In 1902, theSchweizerische Centralbahn was absorbed by the newly formed Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS). The new station, which from then onwards was referred to asSchweizer Bundesbahnhof orBasel SBB, was one of the new Federal Railways' first large building projects. Designed byEmil Faesch andEmmanuel La Roche, the new station was inaugurated on 24 June 1907.
The Basel SBB station building is characterized by its extraordinary length: Basel SNCF, with its customs facility for the international transit traffic, is "attached" to its western side. The asymmetrical layout of the station creates an external appearance representative of the federal buildings of the time. The station building is aligned to the centre line of the Centralbahnplatz, and features a huge glazedtudor arch window between two clock towers under curved domes.
Behind the facade, one might suspect a terminus, but that is not the case in Basel. Through the entrances in the clock towers, travellers reach the ticket hall under a timber-lined steel-arch structure. Like the rest of the interior, the ticket hall is broad and high. Large murals dating from the 1920s advertise tourist destinations in Switzerland. The ticket and currency exchange offices are embedded in the side wall. The baggage check-in and hand luggage storage facilities were formerly also located here, but today they are in the basement, and accessed by means of an escalator and stairs.
In the eastern part of the station, the baggage claim was formerly to be found where the travel centre is now located. The first/second class restaurants (now Migros) and the third class facility (now a brasserie/kiosk) were in the north west wing. The station was previously known for its station buffets, but these were gradually closed down in the 1990s. The high rooms, their walls decorated with murals, now house other commercial uses together with the sole remaining specialty restaurant.
A separate entrance, on the Centralbahnstrasse west of the Centralbahnplatz, leads to the Alsace-bound trains at Basel SNCF.
Initially, theplatform allocation at Basel SBB corresponded to the private railway age, because the platforms were separated according to the direction of travel. The station originally had 10 tracks, of which the threebay platforms 1 to 3 were previously reserved for local traffic. Tracks 1 to 10 are spanned by a five aisle train shed, which was created in 1905 byAlbert Buss & Cie. [de] of Pratteln in Basel. The train shed is 93 m (305 ft) wide, and has a length of 120 m (390 ft) (tracks 1/2), 230 m (750 ft) (tracks 3/4) and 200 m (660 ft) (tracks 5–10). Track 4 goes through to Basel SNCF, where it becomes track 30 and thecatenary can be switched from the Swiss operating current of 15kV 16.7HzAC to its French equivalent, 25 kV 50 Hz AC.
On the southern side of the station, a double track line, located at a lower level, connects the Basel and Muttenz marshalling yards with the line to France, and is devoted mainly to through freight trains.
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Due to the lowering of the tracks at the time of rebuilding, it was difficult to extend the station with additional tracks. On the South side, the platform system has nevertheless been augmented several times: tracks 11 and 12 have been added, thepedestrian underpass has been extended to Gundeldingen, and, in 2003, the new Passerelle was constructed to the new tracks 14 and 15. These changes, together with the introduction of aclock-face timetable in 1982 and theRail 2000 project, achieved an increase in the station's capacity. Finally, in June 2008, the new tracks 16 and 17 went into operation.
The Passerelle is an element of the new SBB CFF FFS commercial concept known as RailCity. Designed by architects Cruz and Ortiz, it runs over the tracks from the ticket hall at the western end of the train shed to the district of Gundeldingen, and links the platforms with each other. Awalkway with shopping opportunities, it is 185 m (607 ft) long, 30 m (98 ft) wide, and replaced the pedestrian underpass. Today, the former underpass is used for operational and logistical purposes.
With the construction of the Passerelle, the RailCenter and the information display were relocated from the ticket hall to the former luggage hall. Additionally, the 1987-built customer service ticket pavilion in the ticket hall was removed, and since then the ticket hall has been able to unfold its ambience to its fullest extent.
Meanwhile, in 1998 and 1999, a newsignal box was constructed on behalf of the SBB CFF FFS. The architects of this striking building wereHerzog & de Meuron.
About 1,000 trains depart from the station daily. Nearly every 90 seconds, a passenger train leaves or stops at the station. Additionally, freight trains still use the through tracks, and post office trains enter and exit the underground postal station.
AnICE departs from Basel SBB every hour toBerlin orHamburg and a number of other German cities. There is also a daily ICE International connection to Amsterdam. Several times a day,EuroCitys run toMilan, andTGVs toParis. Night connections exist with Berlin, and Hamburg. There used to be a direct connection toMoscow but as of 2014 this has been discontinued.
Several times hourly,InterCity trains run toZürich HB,Bern andOlten. At least hourly, Zürich–Chur, Olten–Lucerne–Bellinzona–Lugano, Olten–Bern–Interlaken/Visp–Brig, andDelémont–Biel/Bienne–Neuchâtel–Lausanne/Geneva can be reached.
As a border station, Basel SBB is also aligned with regional services to Germany, France, and Switzerland. TheBasel Regional S-Bahn network ranges from Frick/Laufenburg in the east, Olten in the south, and Porrentruy in the west to Mulhouse in the north west andZell im Wiesental in the north east.
As of the December 2022 timetable change,[update] the following services stop at Basel SBB:[7]
Buses at Basel SBB serve the station on Centralbahnhofstrasse:[8]
The station entrance and a platform is seen in the filmThe Cassandra Crossing (1976) which passes as the "Geneva railway station".[9]
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