Lake Constance Belt Railway () is the name used for several contiguous railway lines, either around the entire Upper Lake of

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

(''Bodensee'') or only along its northern shore. It was coined around 1900, when the trinational railway ring around the lake (

Konstanz Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...

–

Radolfzell Radolfzell am Bodensee (, ) is a town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located at the western end ( Zeller Lake) of Lake Constance, approximately northwest of the city of Konstanz (Constance). It is the third largest town, after Ko ...

–

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...

–

Lindau Lindau (, ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major Town#Germany, town and Lindau (island), island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital ...

–

Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...

– Rorschach–

Romanshorn Romanshorn is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Arbon (district), Arbon in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. History Romanshorn was probably settled in the 7th century, and is first menti ...

–Konstanz) was completed, but today the term is only used for the line from Radolfzell to Lindau in southern Germany.

Railway lines

In its original meaning, the belt railway consists of the following sections in southern Germany, northwestern Austria and northeastern Switzerland: * –, part of the

High Rhine Railway The High Rhine Railway () is a Deutsche Bahn railway line from in the city of Basel to on Lake Constance. It was built by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways as part of the Baden Mainline, which follows the Rhine upstream from Mannheim ...

line (opened in 1863) * Radolfzell– Stahringen, part of the

Radolfzell–Mengen railway The Radolfzell–Mengen railway (also called in German the Hegau-Ablachtal-Bahn—Hegau–Ablach Valley Railway) is a branch line in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It runs from Radolfzell via Stockach to Mengen, Germany, Mengen. The line ...

line (opened in 1867) * Stahringen–Friedrichshafen railway line between Stahringen and (opened in 1895–1901) * Friedrichshafen–Lindau railway line between Friedrichshafen Stadt and the junction near (opened in 1899) * Lindau-Aeschach junction–, part of the

Buchloe–Lindau railway The Buchloe–Lindau railway is a double-track, largely non-electrified main line in the German state of Bavaria. It runs through the Allgäu from Buchloe to Lindau in Lake Constance via Kaufbeuren and Kempten. Together with the connecting Munich� ...

line (opened in 1854) * Lindau-Insel–Wolfurt-Lauterach Nord, part of the Lindau–Bludenz railway line (opened in 1872). This line crosses the Germany–Austria border * St. Margrethen–Lauterach line between the Lauterach Nord junction (

Wolfurt Wolfurt is a municipality in the western Austrian state of Vorarlberg. Population Transport Wolfurt railway station is an intermediate stop on the Vorarlberg railway line () traversing Vorarlberg in a north-south direction. This railway stat ...

) and (opened in 1873). This line crosses the

Austria–Switzerland border The border between the modern states of Austria and Switzerland is divided into two parts, separated by the Principality of Liechtenstein, with a total length of . The longer, southern stretch runs across the Grison Alps and the shorter one fo ...

* St. Margrethen–, part of the Chur–Rorschach railway lline (opened in 1858) * Rorschach–Konstanz, part of the Lake Line (opened in 1869–1871), which crosses the Switzerland–Germany border The lines mostly run parallel to the lake shore. Only the Konstanz–, – and – sections run through the

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning the 'land behind' a city, a port, or similar. Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated wi ...

Services

The lines are operated by

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

services of

Bodensee S-Bahn Bodensee S-Bahn is an international marketing effort grouping various regional rail services (S-Bahn, R/RB, RE, RE/REX) around Lake Constance () in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Cross-border rail and bus services along with Lake Constance ...

, which includes lines of

Vorarlberg S-Bahn Vorarlberg S-Bahn () is a label for regional rail services in the westernmost Austrian States of Austria, state of Vorarlberg. The S-Bahn services also connect to stations in the Germany, German town of Lindau, the Switzerland, Swiss towns of S ...

(

ÖBB The Austrian Federal Railways ( , formally or () and formerly the or ''BBÖ'' ), now commonly known as ÖBB (), is the national railway company of Austria, and the administrator of Liechtenstein's railways. The ÖBB group i ...

) and St. Gallen S-Bahn ( SOB, Thurbo) and several

regional train Regional rail is a public rail transport service that operates between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops than inter-city rail, and unlike commuter rail, operate beyond the limits of urban areas, connecting smaller cities a ...

(RB) services (e.g.

DB Regio DB Regio AG () is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and therefore part of the DB Regio business segment, which also includes DB Regionn ...

, SWEG) in southern Germany.

References

{{Lake Constance, state=collapsed Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg Railway lines in Bavaria Railway lines opened in 1895 1895 establishments in Germany Cross-border railway lines in Austria Cross-border railway lines in Germany Cross-border railway lines in Switzerland