Hello,
I saw very informative responses to the "Tunnels" post from August 2016 and wanted to ask more specific question.
Does anyone know a way to travel from Richterswil to Biel (alternatively, from Zurich and to Bern/Neuchatel) by public transportation without tunnels? My mother cannot use tunnels for anxiety reasons.
Thank you for your help!
Only people with local knowledge will know the answer to your question.
Since you already live in Switzerland I would suggest a visit to your nearest staffed train station and ask the staff member there for advice.
How will she do with underground stations, like the one in Bern?
if all tunnels are out then this would take all day and need a number of buses as well as trains. If she can cope with short tunnels it's quite easy.
S-Bahn to Zurich Hbf (a pair of 900m tunnels either side of Enge station). This avoids the 9km used by fast trains.
Then the route via Brugg AG to Aarau (990m tunnel before Baden). Do not take the short route, it has a 5km tunnel!
Departing Aarau there is a 500m tunnel and after that it's clear to Biel.
Neuchatel is an extension of Biel and there is a 2400m tunnel after Biel.
Zurich-Bern is a very important route so they invested a lot of money making it faster - by tunnelling under hills instead of going around. And then they built over Bern station so it's very claustrophobic.
I would say this is impossible. There are tunnels, short and long everywhere. Even going by road there are many tunnels.
How is your mother going to get from the airport (Zürich?) to where you live (Richterswil?). The railway line at Zürich airport is in a tunnel, and the autobahn to the airport goes through a tunnel.
Thank you for your responses!
We'll avoid Bern and Neuchatel for now then.
SteveB, thank you in particular for your detailed information!!! It looks like only IR and S-Bahn go through Brugg? So we need to avoid IC... She actually does get off before Enge to avoid the Tunnel and take buses/trams. But to Zurich, this really isn't a huge issue because there are enough above the ground options from Enge to many different areas of Zurich.
Do you know exactly where the other tunnel is by Aarau? Just in case I can find an alternative option to avoid that segment also? But already avoiding a 5km tunnel is a great option, so thank you!
Also, is there a good website where I could find all these tunnels? I looked on sbb.ch but nothing. Wikipedia has a list but it's difficult to navigate through different city names and figure out which lines will go through which tunnels, etc. It would be good to know for future travels to other destinations ;)
Aarau tunnel is immediately west of the station. Don't forget Baden, there is a bus alternative but not as easy as the Zuich tram.
Website? There is probably a very technical one somewhere, I've got an old fashioned printed rail atlas!!
Yes, Baden and Aarau. I'll check it out. Thank you.
You're right! It completely escaped my mind to get an Atlas the old fashion way!!! I guess I'd actually have to hit a book store or find it on amazon... may be there is an App too...
Do you have a recommendation for a rail atlas? Which publisher is good etc in your experience?
the standard Swiss rail atlas is produced by Schweers + Wall see https://www.amazon.de/Eisenbahnatlas-Schweiz-Railatlas-Svizzera-Switzerland/dp/3894941308/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1502697080&sr=8-3&keywords=schweers+wall+eisenbahnatlas
but every decent bookshop in Switzerland with a transport section will sell it. Beware that very short tunnels won't be shown (eg where autobahns cross) and there is always the question about built over stations which are not technically tunnels but can be dark and claustrophobic (eg Basel SBB at platfom level in places)
Thank you very much!!!
