Bellinzona railway station

Bellinzona
Three-story building with two-story wings
The station building in 2006
General information
LocationViale Stazione 36
Bellinzona
Switzerland
Coordinates46°11′43.584″N 9°1′46.218″E / 46.19544000°N 9.02950500°E / 46.19544000; 9.02950500
Elevation241 m (791 ft)
Owned bySwiss Federal Railways
Line(s)Gotthard line
Distance150.9 km (93.8 mi) from Immensee[1]
Platforms3
Tracks7
Train operators
ConnectionsAutopostale bus services
Other information
Fare zone20/200 (Arcobaleno)
History
Opened6 December 1874 (1874-12-06)
Electrified29 May 1921 (1921-05-29)
Passengers
201816,900 per working day[2]
Services
Preceding station Swiss Federal Railways Following station
Arth-Goldau EuroCity Lugano
Arth-Goldau Lugano
Arth-Goldau IC 2 Lugano
Terminus
Altdorf
towards Basel SBB
IC 21
Preceding station Südostbahn Following station
Castione-Arbedo
towards Basel SBB
IR 26 Giubiasco
towards Locarno
Castione-Arbedo IR 46
Preceding station TILO Following station
Castione-Arbedo
towards Airolo
S10 Giubiasco
S50 Giubiasco
Castione-Arbedo
Terminus
S20 Giubiasco
towards Locarno
Location
Map

Bellinzona railway station (Italian: Stazione di Bellinzona) serves the town of Bellinzona, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is on the Swiss Federal Railways' Gotthard line.[1] The station is nicknamed Porta del Ticino ("Gate of Ticino") since the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016.[3]

History

[edit]

The station was opened in 1874, as part of the opening of the Ticino valley railway, with its Biasca – Bellinzona – LuganoChiasso line, and its Bellinzona – Locarno line. In 1882, upon the opening of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel, and the related commencement of services on the line from Airolo to Biasca, Bellinzona was connected with the north, and with German-speaking Switzerland.

In 2008, the SBB Cargo facility at Bellinzona hit the headlines, when its workers went on strike, after SBB Cargo had prescribed rigorous reduction measures for the site.[4]

With the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016, travel times from Lucerne to Bellinzona fell by 45 minutes.[5] The opening of the Ceneri Base Tunnel in December 2020 reduced travel times from Bellinzona to Lugano by 15 minutes.[6]

Facilities

[edit]

The station has five through platform tracks, served by a side platform and two island platforms, connected by both a pedestrian subway and a footbridge. There are also transit and overtaking tracks for goods trains.

The station building is on the side platform, and is flanked at each end of the station by two terminal platform tracks; the terminal track to the south is in occasional use by terminating passenger trains, but the one to the north is normally used to stable the Bellinzona tunnel rescue train.

Services

[edit]

Passenger traffic at the station is handled by the Südostbahn and Swiss Federal Railways, which serve the station with long-distance trains, and by Treni Regionali Ticino Lombardia (TiLo), which operates various local and regional trains.

As of the December 2021 timetable change, the following services stop at Bellinzona:[7]

Regional bus routes of the Autopostale terminate on the station forecourt, providing links to various destinations. Autopostale also operates Bellinzona's city bus network, and all city services call at the station.

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Eisenbahnatlas Schweiz. Verlag Schweers + Wall GmbH. 2012. p. 59. ISBN 978-3-89494-130-7.
  2. ^ "Passagierfrequenz (2018)". Berne, Switzerland: SBB CFF FFS. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-06 – via data.sbb.ch – SBB DATA PORTAL.
  3. ^ ""Aperta" la Porta del Ticino". rsi.ch. Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI). 15 October 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  4. ^ "Streik bei SBB Cargo in Bellinzona geht weiter" [Strike at SBB Cargo in Bellinzona continues]. Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). 13 March 2008. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  5. ^ Monnat, Lucie (11 December 2014). "Le tunnel de base du Gothard révolutionnera le rail dans deux ans". 24 heures. Lausanne. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  6. ^ "Aperta ai treni la Galleria di base del Monte Ceneri". TVSvizzera (in Italian). 13 December 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Göschenen - Airolo - Bellinzona - Chiasso - Milano" (PDF) (in Italian). Bundesamt für Verkehr. 16 November 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2021.

References

[edit]
  • Moser, Beat; Pfeiffer, Peter (2004). SBB Gotthardbahn (in German). Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany: Eisenbahn-Journal (Verlagsgruppe Bahn GmbH). ISBN 3-89610-121-8.
[edit]