The Lake Line (), as it is referred to by the

SBB SBB may refer to: Arts and entertainment * SBB (band), a Polish progressive rock band, or their self-titled albums: ** ''SBB'' (1974 album) ** ''SBB'' (1978 album, Amiga) * Seán Bán Breathnach, also known as SBB, Irish TV personality * ''Saa ...

in English, is the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

railway line running from Rorschach via

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 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 ...

(Germany),

Kreuzlingen Kreuzlingen () is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. It is the seat of the district and is the second-largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of about 22 ...

Steckborn Steckborn is a municipality in Frauenfeld District in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. It is located on the south-western arm of Lake Constance known in German as the Untersee ("Lower Lake"). History The area around Steckborn was alrea ...

Stein am Rhein Stein am Rhein (abbreviated as Stein a. R.) is a historic town and a municipality in the canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland. It is located at the outfall of Lower Lake Constance on the High Rhine river, about halfway between the town of Scha ...

and

Diessenhofen Diessenhofen is a village and a municipality in Frauenfeld District in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. The village is situated on the south shore of the High Rhine just opposite the German town of Gailingen am Hochrhein. History Diessenhof ...

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; ; ; ; ), historically known in English as Shaffhouse, is a list of towns in Switzerland, town with historic roots, a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of Schaffh ...

. The scenic route follows the southern border 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 ...

() and the

High Rhine High Rhine (, ; kilometres 0 to 167 of the Rhine) is the section of the Rhine between Lake Constance () and the city of Basel, flowing in a general east-to-west direction and forming mostly the Germany–Switzerland border. It is the first of fo ...

(). It forms the Swiss section of the ring railway around Lake Constance.

History

The Lake Line was built in four sections (see below) between 1869 and 1895. The loop via

crosses the border between Switzerland and Germany twice. The sections of the Lake Line were built by two

railway companies This is an incomplete list of the world's railway operating companies listed alphabetically by continent and country. This list includes companies operating both now and in the past. In some countries, the railway operating bodies are not compan ...

, the

Swiss Northeastern Railway The Swiss Northeastern Railway (''Schweizerische Nordostbahn''; NOB) was an early railway company in Switzerland. It also operated shipping on Lake Constance (''Bodensee'') and Lake Zürich. Until the merger of the Western Swiss Railways into the ...

(NOB) and the

Swiss National Railway The Swiss National Railway (German: ''Schweizerische Nationalbahn'', SNB) was a railway company in Switzerland. The Swiss National Railway was created in 1875 from the merger of the two companies, the ''Winterthur–Zofingen Railway'' and the ''Zo ...

(SNB). The SNB were taken over by the NOB in 1878, and in 1902 the latter was transferred into the

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...

(SBB). In 1996, the line was taken over by the '' Mittelthurgaubahn'' following a competition. They introduced half-hourly fixed-interval services and modernised both track and rolling stock. When ''Mittelthurgaubahn'' went bankrupt in 2003 the line went into the possession of SBB's subsidiary THURBO, which had been intended as a joint venture between the SBB and ''Mittelthurgaubahn''.

Rorschach–Romanshorn

On 15 October 1869, the section from to was opened by the NOB. It connected to the already existing railway between Rorschach and of the

United Swiss Railways The United Swiss Railways (''Vereinigten Schweizerbahnen''; VSB or V.S.B.) was a former railway company in Switzerland. It was the smallest of the five main railways that were nationalised from 1902 to form the Swiss Federal Railways. Foundation ...

(VSB), which opened in 1856. Between Rorschach and Rorschach Hafen, the NOB built its own track next to the VSB track and this section is still

double-track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...

ed today while the rest of the line is single-tracked (except for stations where trains cross regularly). In 1893, the line was connected to the

Thur Valley Railway Thur may refer to: *Thur (France), a river in Alsace, France *Thur (Rhine), a river in East Switzerland *Thursday, as an abbreviation *''Thur.'', taxonomic author abbreviation for French botanist Gustave Thuret (1817–1875) *Thür, a municipality ...

so that trains could operate between and Rorschach without reversing direction in Romanshorn. The NOB line competed with the Rorschach–St. Gallen railway and St. Gallen–Winterthur railway lines of VSB. Between 1869 and 1976,

train ferries A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles, as well as their cargoes and passengers. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to t ...

operated from Romanshorn to other ports of

Romanshorn–Kreuzlingen Hafen–Konstanz

On 1 July 1871, not quite two years after the Rorschach–Romanshorn section started operations, the Romanshorn– line opened by the NOB. It connects to 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 ...

(between

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

and Konstanz), which opened in 1863. With the incorporation of Emmishofen into the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Kreuzlingen in 1928, the former Emmishofen railway station changed its name to , and the former Kreuzlingen railway station became .

Etzwilen–Kreuzlingen–Konstanz

The section along the lower Lake Constance (''Untersee'') was bult by the SNB, whose goal was to build an independent railway line between Lake Constance and

Lake Geneva Lake Geneva is a deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France. It is one of the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lakes in Western Europe and the largest on the course of the Rhône. Sixty percent () ...

(''Lac Leman''). The section between and Konstanz/Kreuzlingen Hafen opened on 17 July 1875, on the same day as SNB's Winterthur–Etzwilen railway and

Etzwilen–Singen railway The Etzwilen to Singen railway is a heritage railway between Etzwilen in the Swiss canton of Thurgau and Singen in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, crossing the eastern part of the canton of Schaffhausen. Passenger train services existed ...

lines. The SNB went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

in 1878 and its railway lines were taken over by the NOB.

Schaffhausen–Etzwilen

The westernmost section between the city of

and Etzwilen was built by the NOB in order to connect the village of

, located in the eastern part of the

canton of Schaffhausen The canton of Schaffhausen, also canton of Schaffhouse (; ; ; ), is the northernmost Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Switzerland. The principal city and capital of the canton is Schaffhausen. The canton's territory is divided into three non-co ...

, with the capital of said

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

. The section between Etzwilen and opened on 1 November 1894. The final section between Feuerthalen and , which features a

steel bridge The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double-deck vertical-lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States, opened in 1912. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries ...

over the

and the Emmersberg tunnel, opened on 2 April 1895 due to delays in construction of the tunnel.

Electrification

The sections of the Lake line are

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

since the following dates:

Services

There is currently no service operating on the entire line. sections of the Lake Line are operated by the following regional train services, of which most belong to the

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 ...

: * of St. Gallen S-Bahn between Romanshorn and Schaffhausen (operated by Thurbo) * of St. Gallen S-Bahn between Romanshorn and Rorschach (operated by Thurbo) * and of St. Gallen S-Bahn between Kreuzlingen and Konstanz (operated by Thurbo) * of St. Gallen S-Bahn between Rorschach Hafen and Rorschach (operated by

Appenzell Railways Appenzell Railways (, AB) is a Swiss railway company with headquarters in Herisau. It operates a network of railways and a bus line in the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, St. Gallen and Thurgau. It was founded in 2006 ...

) * of

Zürich S-Bahn The Zurich S-Bahn () system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Aargau, Glarus, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, ...

between Etzwilen and Stein am Rhein (operated by Thurbo) * between Konstanz and Romanshorn (operated by Thurbo) The section between Kreuzlingen and Konstanz is also used by InterRegio service of

(SBB).

References

{{Lake Constance, state=collapsed Railway lines in Switzerland Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg Cross-border railway lines in Germany Cross-border railway lines in Switzerland Railway lines opened in 1869