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50-584: The public road that crosses the pass is closed in winter, but the Furka-Oberalp railway line, now part of the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn , runs year round and provides a limited shuttle for cars in winter (reservation required). When the road closes depends on snowfall and varies between the end of October and the beginning of December. The road opens again in spring, usually by the end of April but sometimes not until mid May. In winter,

100-463: A national icon. It is special in that it stops for just over a second at the end of each minute, to wait for a signal from the master clock which sets it going again — thus keeping all station clocks synchronised. The clock owes its technology to the particular requirements of operating a railway. First, railway timetables do not list seconds; trains in Switzerland always leave the station on

150-458: A short circuit on a long-distance power transmission line in central Switzerland led to a chain reaction. The entire Swiss railway network was out of service during rush hour and an estimated 200,000 people and 1,500 trains were stuck at stations or somewhere on the track. It turned out that the SBB power transmission network was overloaded and did not provide enough redundancy to tolerate the shutdown of

200-452: A simple FO inscription. With the opening of the new Furka tunnel approaching, the wooden coaches had to be replaced and the number of vehicles extended. The number of push-pull consists was extended to 9 long and 5 short ones. The coaches were of SIG2 type, also delivered to MOB. But now, the all-red-status should be left. A new livery in red with a white stripe was introduced and within a few years extended to existing modern rolling stock. For

250-530: A ski area extends to the Graubünden side, connecting the pass well into the Tujetsch territory to Dieni, near Rueras. The major European river Rhine springs from a source nearby ( Lai da Tuma ), which can be accessed by hiking two hours from Oberalp Pass. A multiday trekking route is signposted across Oberalp pass and along the young Rhine called Senda Sursilvana . Oberalpsee is located 20 m below, in

300-445: Is SBB. While the official Romansh name, Viafiers federalas svizras (VFF), can be found in federal laws and associated documents, as well as Romansh-language media, it is not used by the company itself. Swiss Federal Railways is divided into three divisions and eight groups. The divisions manage the relevant operational businesses. These divisions are: The former division Cargo became an independent group company at

350-637: Is a narrow gauge mountain railway in Switzerland with a gauge of 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ). It runs in the Graubünden , Uri and Canton of Valais . Since January 1, 2003, it is part of the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn when it merged with the BVZ Zermatt-Bahn . The line begins in Disentis in the canton of Graubünden, where there is a connection to

400-631: Is responsible for passenger traffic in Germany. It operates the Wiesentalbahn and the Seehas services. Other subsidiaries are THURBO , RegionAlps , AlpTransit Gotthard AG , Cisalpino , and TiLo (the latter in conjunction with Italian authorities). Swiss Federal Railways hold significant shares of the Zentralbahn and Lyria SAS . The Stiftung Historisches Erbe der SBB (" SBB Historic ")

450-637: Is the highest point on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn network. The Oberalp Pass passes the Oberalp ski area, which is part of the Gotthard Oberalp Arena. There are currently plans for the ski area to be linked up with Nätschen , the neighbouring mountain, which is also part of the Gotthard Oberalp Arena. Furka Oberalp Bahn [REDACTED] The Furka Oberalp Railway (German: Furka Oberalp Bahn )

500-657: Is the national railway company of Switzerland . The company, founded in 1902, is headquartered in Bern . It used to be a government institution , but since 1999 it has been a special stock corporation whose shares are held by the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss cantons . It is currently the largest rail and transport company of Switzerland; it operates on most standard gauge lines of the Swiss network . It also heavily collaborates with most other transport companies of

550-580: The Federal Assembly approved the purchase of Schweizerische Centralbahn (SCB) to operate trains on behalf of the federal government. The first train running on the account of the Swiss Confederation ran during the night of New Year's Eve 1900/New Year's Day 1901 from Zürich via Bern to Geneva , and received a ceremonial welcome upon arriving in Bern. SBB's management board was first formed in mid-1901, and added Schweizerische Nordostbahn (NOB) to

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600-808: The Rhätische Bahn (RhB). It then runs over the Oberalp Pass to Andermatt in the canton of Uri. Through the Furka Base Tunnel it reaches the Goms District area and Brig in the canton of Valais. In Brig, it connects to the BVZ Zermattbahn since 1930. The first half of the line was opened by the French company Brig-Furka-Disentis Bahn (BFD) in 1914. Trains could go as far as Gletsch , starting from Brig. Construction of

650-460: The Zentralbahn , in which SBB holds shares. In the 19th century, all Swiss railways were owned by private ventures. The economic and political interests of these companies led to lines being built in parallel and some companies went bankrupt in the resulting competition. On 20 February 1898 the Swiss people agreed in a referendum to the creation of a state-owned railway company. Later that year,

700-475: The BFD rolling stock, introduced in 1914 and consisting of For a long time, FO couldn't afford to buy new coaches and wagons and rebuilt many of these vehicles. Some of the large luggage and mail vans were rebuilt as passenger coaches, some became covered goods wagons. Two axle coaches got luggage compartments to provide for a well adapted transport capacity. When some coaches got new bogies from SWS, Schlieren in 1947,

750-723: The French-speaking part of Switzerland. Another integrated control centre will be opened in Zürich. All trains and most buildings have been made non-smoking since the timetable change of 11 December 2005. By the end of 2006, the corporation was handed over from the long-term CEO Benedikt Weibel to his successor Andreas Meyer . On 13 January 2019, Bloomberg reported that SBB was in talks with German aviation company Lilium GmbH to create air taxis to carry customers from train stations to their final destination. The Swiss Federal Railways clock designed by Hans Hilfiker has become

800-533: The Furka Pass used to be closed during winters. The mountain section was closed in the winter of 1981 and was replaced by a tunnel (length: 15.381 km or 9.557 mi) in 1982. The association called Verein Furka-Bergstrecke and the company Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke now run a heritage railway with steam locomotives on the old route. When FO was founded in 1925, it came in possession of

850-722: The Furka tunnel car shuttle trains , FO took delivery of A little addition could be made some years later, but the coaches now came from ACMV Vevey Finally FO got panoramic coaches as developed by MOB There was no departmental stock for a long time except for one snow plough, introduced 1917. 1943 and 55 some tram wagons were bought and added to service stock. With modern stock arriving, many coaches and wagons were reused in departmental stock. Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (German: Schweizerische Bundesbahnen , SBB ; French: Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses , CFF ; Italian: Ferrovie federali svizzere , FFS )

900-722: The Passenger division got all modern Re 460s and opted for multiple unit trains, mainline locomotives were bought only by the Cargo division, namely Re 482 "Traxx F140 AC" (2002), Re 484 "Traxx F140 MS" (2004) and Re 474 "ES64 F4" (2004). The first multiple units originated from the Seetalbahn , which was formed in 1922. Larger series were uncommon until after 1950: Be 4/6 (1923), De 4/4 (1927), BDe 4/4 (1952), RBe 4/4 (1959), RBDe 560 "NPZ" (1984) and RABe 520 " GTW " (2002). The first multiple unit trainsets were bought for

950-561: The Second World War necessarily brought new rolling stock. SLM delivered together with Six of the steam locomotives were after the War sold to France (two) and Vietnam (four) while four locomotives remained. In 1946 a small electric shunter Te 2/2 1041 (later 4926) was built by SLM and SAAS for Brig station. Later, two more locomotives were delivered by SLM and MFO The 1961 merger with Schöllenenbahn enlarged stock by Finally, after

1000-691: The Swiss Federal Railways announced its largest order of rolling stock; buying 59 double-deck EMUs ( Twindexx ) from Bombardier, plus an option for another 100 trainsets. The new trains were originally intended to be delivered starting in 2012, but due to several delays, deliveries began in 2017 and end by 2020. In addition, SBB has received and, as of 2016, is still in the process of delivering, New Pendolinos and has ordered 29 SMILEs , with an option for 92 more, expected to enter service in 2019. SBB uses three official languages: German, French, and Italian. The Romansh -speaking regions in

1050-710: The age of modern bogie-based locomotives without trailing axles started with the Re 4/4 (1946), followed by the Ae 6/6 (1952), Re 4/4 / Re 4/4 (1964–1971), Re 6/6 (1972), Re 450 (1989) and Re 460 / Re 465 "Lok 2000" (1992–1994). The delivery of the last Re 465 marked the end of the Swiss locomotive industries with the closure of the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works . The Swiss Federal Railways were split into three divisions: Passenger, Freight and Infrastructure, each with independent locomotive supply policies. Because

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1100-477: The beginning of 2019. SBB's eight groups manage the company and support the operational business of the divisions with service and support functions. These groups are: The corporation is led in an entrepreneurial manner. A performance agreement between Swiss Federal Railways and the Swiss Confederation defines the requirements and is updated every four years. At the same time the compensation rates per train and track-kilometre are defined. A subsidiary, SBB GmbH ,

1150-468: The canton of Grisons of Switzerland is served mostly by the Rhaetian Railway . Trains are branded "SBB CFF FFS". Stations are named and signposted exclusively in the language of the locality. Stations of bilingual cities are named and signposted in both local languages (e.g. Biel/Bienne and Fribourg/Freiburg). The timetable only uses such official names regardless of the languages of

1200-452: The cities was reduced to under one hour, resulting in good connections from these stations for most trains. Some connections between cities got two trains in each direction per hour or more, and the S-Bahn services were intensified to four or more trains per hour. Because of these changes 90% of the timetable was changed, 12% more trains were scheduled and travel times generally improved. It was

1250-662: The country serving Swiss cities such as Interlaken , Bern , Basel , Zurich , and Chur . Under the name TGV Lyria the French railway company SNCF operates TGV connections to Switzerland. Lyria SAS, a company established under French law, is a subsidiary of the French National Railway Company, SNCF, which owns 74%, and the Swiss Federal Railways, which owns 26%. TGV Lyria serves several Swiss cities including Geneva , Lausanne , Basel, Zurich, Bern, and Interlaken. It also provides services to certain locations including Brig ( Valais ), especially during

1300-464: The country, such as the BLS , one of its main competitors, to provide fully integrated timetables with cyclic schedules . SBB was ranked first among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index for its intensity of use, quality of service, and safety rating. While many rail operators in continental Europe have emphasised the building of high-speed rail , SBB has invested in

1350-482: The direction of Andermatt. A railway station is located next to the Oberalppass road. It is at the base of the Oberalp ski area. The station is owned and run by the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn . It has 3 platforms , one of which is a bay platform from Andermatt , and is often closed during the winter. The railway on both sides of the station is a single line, so Oberalppass is an important passing place. The station

1400-739: The entire power supply. In the same year, the Swiss Federal Railways received the Wakker Prize , an award given out by the Swiss Heimatschutz (an institution aiming to preserve significant buildings), which is usually only granted to communes, for their extraordinary efforts. The Swiss Federal Railways have many listed buildings from well-known architects such as Herzog & de Meuron , Santiago Calatrava , and Max Vogt . In May 2010, SBB's first integrated network control centre opened in Lausanne , to supervise all of SBB's network in

1450-490: The four cable Amsteg - Steinen power line due to construction work. So, the power grid was split in two parts, the northern half being overloaded and the southern half having a load reduction for the SBB power plants are situated in the southern part (the Alps ), while most of the power is needed in the northern part (the Swiss plateau ). The situation led to high voltage fluctuations and finally breakdown and emergency shutdown of

1500-442: The full minute. Secondly, all the clocks at a railway station have to run synchronously in order to show reliable time for both passengers and railway personnel anywhere on or around the station. The station clocks in Switzerland are synchronized by receiving an electrical impulse from a central master clock at each full minute, advancing the minute hand by one minute. The second hand is driven by an electrical motor independent of

1550-470: The greatest timetable change since the introduction of the Taktfahrplan . For this change to be possible, large parts of the infrastructure had to be modified and many stations were rebuilt, for instance the line from Ziegelbrücke to Sargans or Bern main station which got the "wave of Bern", a platform over the tracks to provide better access to the platforms and the city centre. On 22 June 2005

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1600-449: The introduction of the Taktfahrplan on the line Zürich–Meilen–Rapperswil in 1967: RABDe 12/12 "Mirage" (1965) and RABDe 8/16 "Chiquita" (1976). Multiple unit trainsets started to prevail in the 1990s, especially for commuter traffic: RABDe 500 "ICN" (1999), RABe 523 (et al.) " FLIRT " (2004), RABe 514 "DTZ" (2006), and RABe 503 (2008). While locomotive-hauled trains are rarely seen in commuter traffic nowadays, they are still

1650-662: The line Seebach – Wettingen together with the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO), using the future Ce 4/4 locomotives ("Eva" and "Marianne"). The electrification of the network started 1919, motivated by the coal shortages during the First World War , and new electric locomotives were introduced: Ce 6/8 / Ce 6/8 "Crocodile" (1920–1926), Be 4/6 (1920), Be 4/7 (1921), Ae 3/6 (1921), Ae 3/6 (1924), Ae 3/6 (1925), Ae 4/7 (1927) and Ae 4/6 (1941). A shift of paradigms happened in 1946, when

1700-586: The master clock. It requires only about 58.5 seconds to circle the face, then the hand pauses briefly at the top of the clock. It starts a new rotation as soon as it receives the next minute impulse from the master clock. This movement is emulated in some of the licensed timepieces made by Mondaine . Steam engines of the early days of the Swiss Federal Railways were, among others, the Ed 2x2/2 , E 3/3 , A 3/5 , B 3/4 and C 5/6 . The first electric trial runs using single-phase alternating current were made in 1903 on

1750-533: The merger, FO could begin with the modernisation of its rolling stock and took delivery of 1971/72 FO took delivery of 4 push-pull consists with motor luggage vans, one additional motor to compensate for the loss of locomotive 35, destroyed in a head-on collision, and four additional driving trailers to form small push-pull consists with the existing motor coaches 41–45. The coaches were of SIG1-type, also introduced on BVZ, SBB-Brünigbahn, BOB and MOB. All this rolling stock was, for motive power and coaches, all red with

1800-540: The music correspond to the acronyms SBB CFF FFS, transposed by means of the German notes "Es - B - B" (E ♭ , B ♭ , B ♭ ), "C - F - F" (C, F, F) and "F - F - Es" (F, F, E ♭ ). For the German acronym, as there is no "S" note, the "Es" was used. And for the last letter, it is the B ♭ /G ♭ chord that is played. The melody is played on a vibraphone . The melody played depends on which canton (or country onboard international services)

1850-495: The old bogies were reused to build 4 covered wagons. During the Second World War , three flat wagons had been built using underframes from coaches. 1949 these coaches came back to service with new underframes and bogies from SIG. FO always suffered from not having really enough vehicles but was lucky having two neighbouring companies where additional rolling stock could be leased for peak traffic. Electrification during

1900-466: The pre-recorded local language of the town. For stations of bilingual cities, the language of announcement changes at the time of stop: when trains travelling from the French-speaking region to the German-speaking region via the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne , announcements are made in French until arriving at Bienne, and then switch to German after departing from Biel. Upon arriving at big hubs,

1950-541: The reliability and quality of service of its conventional rail network, on both national and regional scales. In addition to passenger rail, SBB operates cargo and freight rail service, through its subsidiary SBB Cargo , and has large real estate holdings in Switzerland. The company is commonly referred to by the initials of its three official names (in German, French, Italian) – defined by federal law SR/RS 742.31 (SBBG/LCFF/LFFS) Art. 2 §1 – either as SBB CFF FFS , or used separately. The official English abbreviation

2000-655: The second part over the Furka Pass and Oberalp Pass was well under way when the war situation in France halted all works by 1915. The company lingered on, but was finally bankrupt in 1923. Two years later the railway had a new owner, called Furka Oberalp Bahn , founded by the cantons and the neighbouring railway companies. Construction work resumed, now with important federal funds, and on July 4, 1926 regular through services between Brig and Disentis could start. RhB trains reached Disentis under electric traction in 1922. In 1930

2050-585: The station or train is located in, and manual announcements play the three-language melody in the file above. SBB has the following services: Several services are currently operated by other railway companies , including subsidiaries of Swiss Federal Railways (e.g. Thurbo ). Some services are also jointly operated with other companies (e.g. Treno Gottardo ). SBB-CFF-FFS also operates international EuroCity (EC) and EuroNight (EN) trains while within Switzerland, while Deutsche Bahn operates Intercity Express (ICE) services to, from, and (a few services) within

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2100-762: The system on 1 January 1902. This date is now observed as the "official" birthday of SBB. The following railway companies were nationalised: Other companies were included later, and the rail network was extended. It is still growing today. On 1 January 1999 the Swiss Federal Railway has been excluded from the Federal Administration and became a fully state-owned (the federal state owns 100% of all shares) limited company regulated by public law (German: Spezialgesetzliche Aktiengesellschaft ). First class compartments were discontinued on 3 June 1956, and second and third class accommodation

2150-454: The timetable. Announcements in stations are usually made in local languages. However, in stations frequently used by foreigners (airports or tourism regions), in-station announcements are also made in English. On-board welcome announcements are made in all official languages of the regions served by that train, with the additional English ones onboard IC trains. Then the stops are announced in

2200-578: The tracks of the newly electrified BVZ reached Brig, which gave birth to the famous Glacier Express . The oncoming crisis and the war limited the number of tourists. Nevertheless the FO line was considered to be of strategic importance. This finally made funds available to electrify the line and purchase the necessary motive power. At the same time the Andermatt–Disentis line was protected against avalanches to allow winter services. The Schöllenenbahn (SchB)

2250-781: The train conductor takes the microphone to announce in all official languages of the regions served by that train (plus English onboard IC trains) that the train is arriving, if the train is on time or not, and next connections at the station. For instance, the main station in the German-speaking Zürich is signposted as Zürich HB (short for Zürich Hauptbahnhof) exclusively in German, while its French name (Zürich gare centrale), Italian name (Zurigo stazione centrale), and English name (Zürich Main Station) are used in websites and announcements in respective languages. Since 2002, SBB has used music in train announcements. The notes in

2300-683: The usual in intercity traffic. In 2011, Stadler's RABe 511 were introduced in Zürich's S-Bahn and in 2012 was introduced as a Regional Express between Geneva and Romont and Geneva and Vevey and Bern and Biel . Some of the most popular historic multiple unit trainsets are the Roten Pfeile ("Red Arrows") ( RAe 2/4 ) and the " Churchill-Pfeil " (RAe 4/8). In international traffic the Trans-Europ-Express (TEE) diesel trainsets appeared in 1957, but were replaced by four-systems electric trainsets RAe TEE in 1961. On 12 May 2010,

2350-487: The winter season, to provide a connection for tourists mainly visiting the south-eastern Swiss Alps. These connections are marketed under the name of TGV Lyria des Neiges . Since 2018, the SBB uses numbers and distinct colors for all its InterCity (IC) and InterRegio (IR) lines (like a subway network) to ease connections. The IC, IR and RE ( RegioExpress ) lines (including alternative routes) are as follows: The InterCity are mainline trains in Switzerland connecting

2400-501: Was founded in 2002. This foundation takes care of historic rolling stock and runs a technical library in Bern, document and photographic archives, and the SBB poster collection. All figures from 2021: The Swiss Federal Railways rail network is totally electrified. The metre gauge Brünigbahn was SBB's only non-standard gauge line, until it was out-sourced and merged with the Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn to form

2450-601: Was opened in 1917 from Göschenen up to Andermatt . It has a station connecting with the Gotthard railway line of the Swiss Federal Railways . Initially it was electrified with 1,200 V DC. In 1941, when electrification of FO started, SchB was converted to 11,000 V AC. In 1961, it merged with the Furka Oberalp Bahn. There are many avalanches between Realp and Oberwald . The section over

2500-495: Was reclassified as first and second class, respectively. In 1982 SBB introduced the Taktfahrplan ( clock-face schedule ), with trains for certain destinations leaving every 60 minutes, greatly simplifying the timetable. On 12 December 2004 the first phase of Bahn2000, an ambitious programme to improve the company's services, was put into effect. The core element was the Zürich - Bern - Basel triangle, where travel times between

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