Bellinzona railway station

Bellinzona
Bellinzona
	The station building in 2006
General information
Location	Viale Stazione 36; Bellinzona; Switzerland
Coordinates	46°11′43.584″N 9°1′46.218″E / 46.19544000°N 9.02950500°E
Elevation	241 m (791 ft)
Owned by	Swiss Federal Railways
Line(s)	Gotthard line
Distance	150.9 km (93.8 mi) from Immensee
Platforms	3
Tracks	7
Train operators	Südostbahn; Swiss Federal Railways; Treni Regionali Ticino Lombardia;
Connections	Autopostale bus services
Other information
Fare zone	20/200 (Arcobaleno)
History
Opened	6 December 1874
Electrified	29 May 1921
Passengers
2018	16,900 per working day
Services
Arth-Goldau towards Zürich Hauptbahnhof	Lugano towards Bologna Centrale, Genova Piazza Principe, Milano Centrale or Venezia Santa Lucia
Location
Location

Bellinzona railway station (Italian: Stazione di Bellinzona) serves the town of Bellinzona, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is on the Swiss Federal Railways' Gotthard line.^[1] The station is nicknamed Porta del Ticino ("Gate of Ticino") since the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016.^[3]

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-speaking 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.^[4]

With the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016, travel times from Lucerne to Bellinzona fell by 45 minutes.^[5] The opening of the Ceneri Base Tunnel in December 2020 reduced travel times from Bellinzona to Lugano by 15 minutes.^[6]

The station at the opening of the Gotthard line in 1882
2017 Arriving train on the same track as in 1882

Facilities

The station has five through platform tracks, served by a side platform and two island platforms, connected by both a pedestrian subway and a footbridge. There are also transit and overtaking tracks for goods trains.

The station building is on the side platform, and is flanked at each end of the station by two terminal platform tracks; the terminal track to the south is in occasional use by terminating passenger trains, but the one to the north is normally used to stable the Bellinzona tunnel rescue train.

Services

Passenger traffic at the station is handled by the Südostbahn and Swiss Federal Railways, which serve the station with long-distance trains, and by Treni Regionali Ticino Lombardia (TiLo), which operates various local and regional trains.

As of the December 2021 timetable change,^[update] the following services stop at Bellinzona:^[7]

EuroCity / InterCity: half-hourly service between Arth-Goldau and Lugano; hourly service to Bologna Centrale, Genova Piazza Principe, Milano Centrale, Milano Porta Garibaldi, or Venezia Santa Lucia; hourly to half-hourly service to Zürich Hauptbahnhof; and service every two hours to Basel SBB.
InterRegio: hourly service between Locarno and Arth-Goldau; trains continue to Basel SBB or Zürich Hauptbahnhof.
S10 / S50: half-hourly service between Biasca and Mendrisio and hourly service to Chiasso, Como San Giovanni, or Malpensa Aeroporto Terminal 2. One train per day continues to Airolo.
S20: half-hourly service between Castione-Arbedo and Locarno.
Gotthard Panorama Express: daily tourist oriented service via the original high level Gotthard tunnel, with connecting boat service on Lake Lucerne to Lucerne.

Regional bus routes of the Autopostale terminate on the station forecourt, providing links to various destinations. Autopostale also operates Bellinzona's city bus network, and all city services call at the station.

Station building with regional bus stops
Station building and platforms from the footbridge, looking south
Station platforms and railway works from the footbridge, looking north
Gotthard Panorama Express trainset

Notes

^ ^a ^b Eisenbahnatlas Schweiz. Verlag Schweers + Wall GmbH. 2012. p. 59. ISBN 978-3-89494-130-7.
^ "Passagierfrequenz (2018)". Berne, Switzerland: SBB CFF FFS. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-06 – via data.sbb.ch – SBB DATA PORTAL.
^ ""Aperta" la Porta del Ticino". rsi.ch. Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI). 15 October 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
^ "Streik bei SBB Cargo in Bellinzona geht weiter" [Strike at SBB Cargo in Bellinzona continues]. Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). 13 March 2008. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
^ Monnat, Lucie (11 December 2014). "Le tunnel de base du Gothard révolutionnera le rail dans deux ans". 24 heures. Lausanne. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
^ "Aperta ai treni la Galleria di base del Monte Ceneri". TVSvizzera (in Italian). 13 December 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
^ "Göschenen - Airolo - Bellinzona - Chiasso - Milano" (PDF) (in Italian). Bundesamt für Verkehr. 16 November 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2021.

References

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

External links

[saw-1] Eisenbahnatlas Schweiz. Verlag Schweers + Wall GmbH. 2012. p. 59. ISBN 978-3-89494-130-7.

[SBB-2] "Passagierfrequenz (2018)". Berne, Switzerland: SBB CFF FFS. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-06 – via data.sbb.ch – SBB DATA PORTAL.

[3] ""Aperta" la Porta del Ticino". rsi.ch. Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI). 15 October 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.

[4] "Streik bei SBB Cargo in Bellinzona geht weiter" [Strike at SBB Cargo in Bellinzona continues]. Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). 13 March 2008. Retrieved 2010-09-09.

[5] Monnat, Lucie (11 December 2014). "Le tunnel de base du Gothard révolutionnera le rail dans deux ans". 24 heures. Lausanne. Retrieved 5 September 2016.

[6] "Aperta ai treni la Galleria di base del Monte Ceneri". TVSvizzera (in Italian). 13 December 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2021.

[fpf631-7] "Göschenen - Airolo - Bellinzona - Chiasso - Milano" (PDF) (in Italian). Bundesamt für Verkehr. 16 November 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2021.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]