Limmattalbahn: To Baden ... and beyond?

Soon work will begin on Limmattalbahn, a tram line extending from Zürich's western suburbs along the Limmat valley to Killwangen. But ambitions do not stop there: Communities further West have long been toying with the idea of extending the line into Baden. The propsal would be far from straightforward as there is no obvious preferred corridor. Costs would be about 50% higher per kilometer, especially due to the need to cross the river twice in order to serve Wettingen. The line would terminate at Baden station.

While recently googling to find whether there had been any new developments on this, I chanced upon this article in Aargauer Zeitung which even speaks of a further extension still. A tram could revive the former Nationalbahn railway line. The line between Wettingen and Mellingen last saw timetabled passenger service in 2007 but is still a strategic diversionary and freight route for SBB and will remain so until additional capacity becomes available through new alignment projects in circa 2030. Proposals see this line being diverted into Baden's main station through a new tunnel. The parallel road is blightd by regular congestion, so there is definitely a case for this. However, many of the more developments over the years have been on land away from the railway. Let's wait and see...


this item was added on 29.02.2016 (2951 days ago)
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