Bellinzona railway station

Bellinzona
The station building.
Location
Address	Viale Stazione 36 6500 Bellinzona
Municipality	Bellinzona
District	Lugano
Canton	Ticino
Country	Switzerland
Line(s)	Immensee – Chiasso (Gotthardbahn) Bellinzona – Locarno Bellinzona – Luino
Distance	180.45 km from Immensee
Elevation	335 m
Other information
Opened	1874 (1874)
Platforms	6
Owner	SBB-CFF-FFS
Line ops	SBB-CFF-FFS Treni Regionali Ticino Lombardia
Connections
	Ticino S-Bahn
	Postauto Local buses
Location map
Bellinzona railway station Bellinzona railway station (Switzerland)

Bellinzona railway station (Italian: Stazione di Bellinzona) serves the city of Bellinzona, near the southern end of the Gotthardbahn, in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is also the largest railway junction in Ticino.

Contents 1 History 2 Facilities 3 Operations 3.1 Long distance trains 3.2 S-Bahn 4 The future 5 See also 6 References

History

The station was opened in 1874, as part of the opening of the Ticino valley railway, with its Biasca – Bellinzona – Lugano – Chiasso line, and its Bellinzona – Locarno line. In 1882, upon the opening of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel, and the related commencement of services on the line from Airolo to Biasca, Bellinzona was connected with the north, and with German Switzerland.

In 2008, the SBB Cargo facility at Bellinzona hit the headlines, when its workers went on strike, after SBB Cargo had prescribed rigorous reduction measures for the site.^[1]

With the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2017, travel times between Bellinzona and German Switzerland will fall by about one hour.

Facilities

In addition to the reception hall, the station has three island platforms, one of which includes a shortened dead-end track, and thus serves as a side platform at the same level as the station building.

There are also transit and overtaking tracks for goods trains.

Operations

Passenger traffic at the station is handled by SBB-CFF-FFS, which serves the station with long distance trains, and by Treni Regionali Ticino Lombardia (TiLo), which operates the three lines of the Ticino S-Bahn.

Long distance trains

• EC Zürich HB – Zug – Arth-Goldau – Bellinzona – Lugano – Chiasso – Milano Centrale (six times daily)
• ICN Zürich HB – Zug – Arth-Goldau – Bellinzona – Lugano (– Chiasso) (every second hour, three train pairs to/from Chiasso)
• ICN Basel SBB – Olten – Luzern – Arth-Goldau – Bellinzona – Lugano (every two hours)
• IR Zürich HB – Zug – Arth-Goldau – Schwyz – Brunnen – Göschenen – Bellinzona – Locarno (every two hours)
• IR Basel SBB – Olten – Luzern – Arth-Goldau – Schwyz – Brunnen – Göschenen – Bellinzona – Locarno

S-Bahn

• S10 Biasca – Castione – Arbedo – Bellinzona – Lugano – Chiasso – Albate – Camerlata (Italy)
• S20 Bellinzona – Locarno
• S30 Bellinzona – Luino (Italy)

In addition, several bus lines operated by various companies link the station forecourt with nearby destinations.

The future

Despite the planned Bellinzona rail bypass, which has now been postponed due to lack of funds, the station is set to remain a long distance train stopping point, even after the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel.

Initial plans were to replace the present Bellinzona and Lugano railway stations with a new station, to be named Ticino South, as part of the Ceneri Base Tunnel construction project. The new station would have been situated in Camorino, at the intersection of the Gotthard axis of the new AlpTransit line and the old Gotthardbahn.

However, in May 2007 the SBB-CFF-FFS dissociated itself from those plans, and indicated support for the continued stopping of long-distance trains in the city centres of Bellinzona and Lugano.

See also

• AlpTransit
• Bellinzona railway workers strike of 2008
• Gotthardbahn

References

• Moser, Beat; Pfeiffer, Peter (2004). SBB Gotthardbahn. Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany: Eisenbahn-Journal (Verlagsgruppe Bahn GmbH). ISBN 3-89610-121-8.  (German)

This article is based upon a translation of the German language version as at September 2010. The original authors can be seen here.