Aarau WSB railway station (original) (raw)

Railway station in Switzerland

Aarau WSB
White train on double track with two-story station building in the backgroundAn Aargau S-Bahn S14 service at Aarau WSB in 2013
General information
Location AarauSwitzerland
Coordinates 47°23′27.5″N 8°03′09.7″E / 47.390972°N 8.052694°E / 47.390972; 8.052694
Owned by Aargau Verkehr
Line(s) Schöftland–Aarau–Menziken line
Train operators Aargau Verkehr
Services
Preceding station Aargau S-Bahn Following station Binzenhoftowards Schöftland S14 Aarau Torfeldtowards Menziken
LocationAarau WSB is located in SwitzerlandAarau WSBAarau WSBLocation within SwitzerlandShow map of SwitzerlandAarau WSB is located in Canton of AargauAarau WSBAarau WSBAarau WSB (Canton of Aargau)Show map of Canton of Aargau

Aarau WSB railway station (German: Bahnhof Aarau WSB) is a railway station in the municipality of Aarau, the capital city of the Swiss canton of Aargau. It is the principal intermediate point on the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge Schöftland–Aarau–Menziken line of Aargau Verkehr. The station is the main point of transfer to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) lines, and is situated across Hintere Bahnhofstrasse from the south side of the SBB station. The station buildings and platforms of both stations are connected by a common pedestrian subway.[1][2]

The station has three tracks, served by a side platform and an island platform.[1][2]

The Schöftland–Aarau–Menziken line was constructed as two separate lines by two different companies, the Aarau-Schöftland Railway (AS) that opened in 1901, and the Wynental Railway (WTB) that opened in 1904. Initially both lines had their starting point in the street on the north side of the SBB station. In 1924, the WTB opened its own terminal station on the current WSB station site south of the SBB railway lines, whilst the AS continued running through the city streets to its stop on the north side, thus meaning that the direct connection between WTB and AS was lost.[3][4]

In 1958 the AS and WTB companies were merged to form the Wynental- und Suhrentalbahn (WSB) company.[3] In 1967, the former AS branch was relocated from its city centre street track into a 260-metre (850 ft) tunnel leading to the former WTB station on the south side of the SBB station, which thus became a through station and adopted the current name.[_citation needed_] In 2010 the section of the former WTB line between the station and Suhr, which ran in the street, was closed and replaced by a new route operating on the right of way of the closed SBB standard gauge branch that roughly paralleled the former route.[5] In 2018 the WSB became part of the Aargau Verkehr AG (AVA), but the station retained its WSB suffix.[6]

The following services stop at Aarau WSB:[7][8]

  1. ^ a b "Location plan and contact". SBB. Archived from the original on 23 November 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Maps of Switzerland" (Map). map.geo.admin.ch. Swiss Confederation. 2021. Retrieved 2021-11-24.
  3. ^ a b Peter J. Walker (1964). Rails through the Suhre and Wyna Valleys, Switzerland. London: Light Railway Transport League. ISBN 0900433256.
  4. ^ "Maps of Switzerland" (Map). map.geo.admin.ch. Swiss Confederation. 1931. Retrieved 2021-11-24.
  5. ^ Hartmann, Silvan (14 Oct 2010). "Die Mängelliste der WSB ist vier Seiten lang" [The list of shortcomings of the WSB is four pages long]. az Aargauer Zeitung (in German). Aarau: AZ Medien. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 Mar 2012.
  6. ^ Helbling, Uls (19 June 2018). "Historisches Ereignis: Die Fusion aller Aargauer Bahnen ist geschafft". Aargauer Zeitung (in Swiss High German). Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  7. ^ "Aarau - Schöftland (S14)" (PDF). Bundesamt für Verkehr. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  8. ^ "Aarau - Menziken (S14)" (PDF). Bundesamt für Verkehr. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2020.