The Swiss Railway Company
13 February 2020
Basel had the first Railway in Switzerland. In 1845, trains ran via Saint-Louis to Strasbourg, and in 1852, they ran to Paris. The “Spanisch-Bröstli-Bahn” between Baden and Zurich has operated since 1847.
In 1850, the country had only 25 kilometres of railways and three stations: Basel, Baden, and Zurich. Europe had more than 20,000 kilometres and more than 700 stations.
The sovereign cantons were unable and unwilling to develop the network until 1848.
The new Confederation and the visionary Alfred Escher (1819-1882) made it possible. Around 1860, there were 650 kilometres of railways, 1,300 kilometres in 1864 and 2,730 kilometres in 1870, mainly in the country’s north.
The Alpine region was different. The Gotthard was the first breakthrough. Alfred Escher chaired the Gotthardgesellschaft, founded in 1871.
The tunnel was completed in 1882, and in 1902, the Swiss Railway Company (SBB, CFF, FFS) was founded. The arduous venture of the Gotthard Tunnel was repeated in 2016.