Sunday, 20 September 2015

Switzerland's Frauenfeld-Wil Bahn









Above Frauenfeld and (bottom) Frauenfeld Stadt


Wil

(All pics copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)


A fairly typical Swiss light railway which connects two towns and two SBB stations is the unpretentious Frauenfeld-Wil Bahn. It runs through flat scenery with nowhere spectacular en route, but the section of street running through Frauenfeld is nice! In 1987 the station at Frauenfeld Stadt was a nice substantial building  hopefully it's still there!

The line is metre gauge.


The Frauenfeld–Wil railway (GermanFrauenfeld–Wil-Bahn, FW) is a metre gauge (3 ft 3 38 in gauge) railway line[1] in Switzerland, which connects the town of Frauenfeld in the canton of Thurgau, to the town of Wil in the canton of St. Gallen, following the valley of the Murg river. The line is owned and operated by the Frauenfeld-Wil-Bahn AG, forms part of the Tarifverbund Ostwind, and operates as service S15 of the St. Gallen S-Bahn.
Plans to build a tramway between Frauenfeld and Wil were first made in the early 1850s. The rail line opened in 1887, and was electrified in 1921. Around 1.25 million passengers use the line every year.
Locals call the train "Wilerbähnli" or "Wiler Bähnli".

Operation

Trains run every 30 minutes, requiring 3 trains in operation at once, with trains crossing at the stations of Matzingen and Schweizerhof.
In 2011 the railway company ordered five new ABe4/8 low floor trains from Stadler Rail, to replace the old trains. However, there are plans for a 15 minutes interval in future and therefore some of the old trains will be retained. The first train was delivered in March 2013 and was tested for 3 months. It went into regular service on 26 June 2013.

Stations

15 stations are served by the line.
StationkmAltitude
Frauenfeld17.44404.6
From Frauenfeld there are trains to Winterthur and Weinfelden.
Frauenfeld Marktplatz16.85417since 1996
Lüdem15.13423
Murkart13.92431
Weberei Matzingen12.62440
Matzingen11.49447
Jakobstal9.81460
Wiesengrund9.01465
Wängi8.27470
Wängi GB (Service Station)7.95474
Rosental6.5487
Münchwilen Pflegeheim4.66509
Münchwilen TG3.89516
Schweizerhof (Service Station)2.66530
Wil0.00570.8
From Wil there are trains to WinterthurWeinfeldenSt. Gallen and Wattwil.

Freight Traffic

Freight trains ran on the line from 1907 until the early 2000s. This included transporter wagons from 1977 onwards.

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