Lake Constance Belt Railway (German: Bodenseegürtelbahn) is the name used for several contiguous railway lines, either around the entire Upper Lake of Lake Constance (Bodensee) or only along its northern shore.[1][2][3] It was coined around 1900, when the trinational railway ring around the lake (Konstanz–Radolfzell–Friedrichshafen–Lindau–Bregenz–Rorschach–Konstanz) was completed, but today the term is only used for the line from Radolfzell to Lindau in southern Germany.
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Railway lines edit
In its original meaning, the belt railway consists of the following sections in southern Germany, northwestern Austria and northeastern Switzerland:
- Konstanz–Radolfzell, part of the High Rhine Railway line (opened in 1863)
- Radolfzell–Stahringen, part of the Radolfzell–Mengen railway line (opened in 1867)
- Stahringen–Friedrichshafen railway line between Stahringen and Friedrichshafen Stadt (opened in 1895–1901)
- Friedrichshafen–Lindau railway line between Friedrichshafen Stadt and the junction near Lindau-Aeschach (opened in 1899)
- Lindau-Aeschach junction–Lindau-Insel, part of the Buchloe–Lindau railway line (opened in 1854)
- Lindau-Insel–Wolfurt-Lauterach Nord, part of the Lindau–Bludenz railway line (opened in 1872). This line crosses the Germany–Austria border
- St. Margrethen–Lauterach line between the Lauterach Nord junction (Wolfurt) and St. Margrethen (opened in 1873). This line crosses the Austria–Switzerland border
- St. Margrethen–Rorschach, part of the Chur–Rorschach railway lline (opened in 1858)
- Rorschach–Konstanz, part of the Lake Line (opened in 1869–1871), which crosses the Switzerland–Germany border
The lines mostly run parallel to the lake shore. Only the Konstanz–Ludwigshafen, Uhldingen-Mühlhofen–Friedrichshafen-Fischbach and Bregenz–Staad sections run through the hinterland.
The lines are operated by S-Bahn services of Bodensee S-Bahn,[4] which includes lines of Vorarlberg S-Bahn and St. Gallen S-Bahn and several regional train sevices (e.g. DB Regio, SWEG) in southern Germany.
References edit
- ^ "Bodensee". Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon (in German). 1905. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ "Bodensee". Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon (in German). 1911. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ Freiherr von, Röll (1912). "Württembergische Eisenbahnen". Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens (in German). p. 436. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ "S-Bahn Bodensee" (in German). Retrieved 2023-05-18.