News analysis
Basle rail hub: gateway or bottleneck?
A tri-national railway congress has recently been held in Basle for the first time, with the aim of redefining this Swiss border city’s future role as a railway hub. Anitra Green examines the prospects for development.
ASLE lies in a unique position on a huge bend in the Rhine at the junction of three countries: Switzerland, France and Germany. Ever since Roman times it has been an important frontier settlement, river crossing point and trading post. The first bridge was built here in 1225 as the only fixed crossing of the Rhine between Lake Constance and the sea. When the first railway from Strasbourg to Basle was completed in 1844, it was quickly followed by a Swiss connection in 1854 and a German line in 1855, Basle’s future as an important railway node was assured.
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A lot of water has flowed under the city’s Rhine bridge since then. With the leap in world trade during the last century, the increasing importance of logistic and transport chains and a growing desire for mobility by the population at large, Basle’s location as a gateway is more important than ever. But there are some snags - for there are three national cultures, three railway systems and three different modes of transport (four if you count air) which will have to cope with a projected increase of 74% in international freight traffic and 46% in passenger traffic by 2030.
It was to explore these issues that the first Railway Hub Basle Congress, BK13, was held. Organised by the local chambers of commerce and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), it attracted politicians, academics and industrial leaders from all three
countries. The aims were clear: securing transshipment facilities between inland
waterways, rail and road achieving a balance between local and international rail traffic, which all use the same
tracks, and establishing a cross-city line. It rapidly became clear that the infrastructure is critical, and it is essential to upgrade
and redesign it to solve bottlenecks and avoid future problems. “It’s like a funnel,” explains Mr Hans-Peter Wessels, head of Basle’s building and traffic department. “We have freight trains from France, traffic from the Basle region, the port of Basle railways and freight trains from Germany, which all have to pass through Basle.” And this is in addition to high-speed and regional passenger trains. While the French and Swiss stations in Basle have been under one roof from an early stage, the German station is still separate, being connected to the main station by a bridge over the Rhine. A second
IRJ June 2013
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