Zürich Main Station
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| Zürich HB Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Tracks "Long Distance" | 16* tracks 3 to 18, Street Level *2 tracks permanently closed |
| Tracks "S-Bahn" | 10 tracks 1+2, 21 to 24 underground tracks 51–54 Street level |
| Trains (daily number of arrivals and departures) |
Long Distance: 884 (tracks 3–18) S-Bahn: 442 (tracks 51–54) 1.281 (tracks 21–24) 308 (tracks 1+2, SZU) Total: 2.915 trains |
| Shunting moves (daily) |
about 5.000 (incl. yards) |
| Passengers (daily) | 360.000 |
| Switches and Signals | Switches: 799 dwarf Signals: 791 Main Signals: 177 |
Zürich Main Station (in German: Zürich Hauptbahnhof, often shortened to Zürich HB) is Zürich's central and biggest railway station. Extremely central in situation, it is also large in size and accommodates trains from not only all over Switzerland, but other countries in Europe as well, such as Spain and the neighbouring Countries France, Italy, Austria and Germany.
The ground floor has 20 tracks (Tracks 3 - 18 and 51 - 54). Tracks 3 - 18 are for trains coming from major areas in Switzerland as well as most, if not all, international trains, such as the EuroCity, Cisalpino, TGV and InterCityExpress. Tracks 51 - 54 are mostly used by regional trains.
One floor below lie two tracks (Tracks 1 and 2), for the exclusive usage of SZU S-Bahn trains, which head west towards Uetliberg and the western part of the canton of Zürich.
Another floor below, and there are four tracks catering mainly to regional trains in the canton. The S-Bahn trains use the four tracks (Tracks 21 to 24).
Until 1991, this station was a dead-end station which did not permit traffic to go through the station. In 1991, an underground passage was opened where trains can proceed to Zürich Stadelhofen. Formerly used only by the Zürich S-Bahn, it is now also used by the ICE tilting train.
Zurich HB is one of the busiest train stations in the world, served by more than 2700 daily trains.
The station is busy at all times, with trains running as early as 5 AM and into 1 AM late in the night. From Friday to Sunday, the trains run 24 hours nonstop.
Numerous trams, trolleybuses and buses link to the main station.
