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Strasbourg–Basel railway
Strasbourg–Basel railway
	Map of the line
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	SNCF
Locale	France (Alsace), Switzerland (Basel-Stadt)
Termini	Strasbourg; Basel SNCF;
Service
System	SNCF
Operator(s)	SNCF
History
Opened	1840 - 1844
Technical
Line length	141.3 km (87.8 mi)
Number of tracks	Double track
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	25 kV 50 Hz
Operating speed	220 km/h (140 mph)
Route map
Route map
	Legend
	502.0
	0.0
	Line from Saverne
	Line to Saint-Dié

The railway from Strasbourg to Basel is a French and Swiss 141.3-kilometre long railway line. It is used for passenger (express, regional and suburban) and freight traffic. The railway was opened in 1840–1844.^[3] It was the first railway line to serve Switzerland.

Main stations

Gare de Strasbourg
Gare de Colmar
Gare de Mulhouse
Basel SNCF and Basel SBB railway station

Line history

The concession for the railway Strasbourg–Basel was granted to the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Strasbourg à Bâle, founded by the Koechlin brothers, in 1838.^[4] The first sections that were opened in 1840 led from Benfeld to Colmar, and from Mulhouse to Saint-Louis near the Swiss border. In 1841 Koenigshoffen (near Strasbourg) and Benfeld were connected, and Colmar was connected to Mulhouse. Finally in 1844 the sections between Strasbourg and Koenigshoffen, and between Saint-Louis and the France–Switzerland border were opened.^[3] With its southern terminus at Basel St. Johann, it was the first railway line to serve Switzerland, before the Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn.^[5] The assets of the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Strasbourg à Bâle were bought by the Chemins de fer de l'Est in 1854.^[4] On June 15, 1860, the line was extended south to Basel Centralbahnhof (now Basel SBB), its present terminus.^[5]

Keeping right

The line was, from the start, planned and opened as a double track route, with trains travelling on the right. It had been intended to switch to running the trains on the left side of the double track once the line had been extended and connected with the main Paris-Strasburg line, but this was not done.^[6] After the transfer of Alsace into Germany in 1870, the region's railways were integrated into the German rail network, where travelling on the right-hand track of any double track was already standard procedure, so there was no longer any pressure for railways to switch to the French convention of running trains on the lefthand track. In 1919 and again in 1945 the region reverted to French control, but on the Strasburg-Basel line, as in the rest of Alsace where twin tracks are involved, trains continue to travel on the right.

References

^ "RFF - Map of all railway lines" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-18.
^ "RFF - Map of electrified railway lines" (PDF).
^ ^a ^b Direction Générale des Ponts et Chaussées et des Chemins de Fer (1869). Statistique centrale des chemins de fer. Chemins de fer français. Situation au 31 décembre 1869 (in French). Paris: Ministère des Travaux Publics. pp. 146–160.
^ ^a ^b Joanne, Adolphe (1859). Atlas historique et statistique des chemins de fer français (in French). Paris: L. Hachette. p. 39.
^ ^a ^b Wägli, Hans G.; Jacobi, Sébastien (2010). Schienennetz Schweiz - Bahnprofil Schweiz CH+ [Swiss rail network] (in German) (3rd ed.). Zürich: AS Verlag. p. 15. ISBN 978-3-909111-74-9.
^ De l'exploitation des chemins de fer Page 132 François Prosper Jacqmin 1867