Expansion to double track – Groundbreaking every half hour in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley – News


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In order to save money, the SBB recently wanted to thin out the half-hourly service. Now comes the double track.

With a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday near Oberriet, SBB is opening a major construction site in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley. SBB is investing around CHF 250 million in new tracks on the St. Gallen – Sargans route. The aim is timetable stability and an express train every half hour in the Rhine Valley.

The sub-projects at Buchs and Oberriet were publicly available in January 2021. Objections could be settled quickly, says the mayor of Oberriet, Rolf Huber. The construction work should be completed in spring 2025. The dual track expansion was never up for discussion. In contrast to the half-hourly service of the regional express train (Rex).

Contradictory signals from the SBB

The dual track expansion will be financed from the federal government’s “Strategic Development Program (STEP) Expansion Step 2025”. It is a long-term project to strengthen regional transport in the canton of St. Gallen.

However, in the spring of 2022, the SBB suddenly announced that it would thin out the planned half-hourly service for the express train in the Rhine Valley – in order to save money. She justified this with the savings order in the amount of 80 million francs by the Federal Council. The outcry in the canton of St. Gallen was great. In June, SBB came back and promised to introduce half-hourly services from the end of 2024.

Vehement St. Gallen fight every half hour


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The Councilors of States Benedikt Würth (Die Mitte) and Paul Rechsteiner (SP) intervened in the Federal Council against the planned thinning out of the half-hourly interval for the Regionalexpress (Rex) express train. Transport Minister Simonetta Sommaruga stated: “That is not the intention of the Federal Council.”

Parallel to the efforts of the two councils of states, the St. Gallen cantonal council also sent a signal to the SBB. All factions jointly submitted an urgent initiative against the savings plans of the SBB. The responsible government councilor Beat Tinner (FDP) promised to work to ensure that express trains run in the Rhine Valley at least every half hour from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“If construction is going on, then the route should also be used,” Philipp Morf agrees. The former service planner at SBB, who today advises transport and logistics companies and authorities on optimization processes as a private entrepreneur, nonetheless voices mild criticism of part of the dual track expansion and of SBB communication.

Use and yield partially questioned

One thing is clear for Philipp Morf: Buchs needs to be expanded to two lanes. “This is about crossings with other express trains,” says Morf. This is the only way to introduce a half-hourly service between St. Gallen and Buchs and, for example, guarantee the crossing with the Railjet Zurich – Vienna.

Who takes the train for long distances with stops at all stations?

He is more critical of the expansion at Oberriet. The question is whether the slow S4 and the regional express Rex are ever needed every half hour. “Who takes the train that stops at every station for long distances?” he wonders. Morf is convinced that the S4 would be better used as a delivery train. Then, from his point of view, one track would have been enough.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, the SBB also called on the population to actually use the offer. Morf compares the expansion at Oberriet with the double-track expansion on Lake Zug near Walchwil, which was vehemently opposed.

Much-discussed dual track on Lake Zug


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At Walchwil ZG, the SBB built a 1.7-kilometer double track for around 100 million Swiss francs. She was highly controversial. Not only because of the year and a half long construction period with many train diversions. There were noise lawsuits up to the federal court. Above all, however, the benefit of the million dollar project was questioned. The double track was opened at the beginning of 2022.

The expansion has paid off for the SBB, as they confirm on request. Even if it would not have needed a double lane for the half-hourly long-distance traffic alone. Travelers have more and more convenient connections to the south and a better range of regional transport, the SBB sums up.

Opponents still doubt that the improvements are due to the double track expansion. Or that the cost-benefit ratio is right. With a project like this, the follow-up costs are very high. And the protection of the landscape was also brought up, says Philipp Morf, who followed the discussions as a private railway expert and former SBB service planner.

Morf also finds SBB communication difficult. So there are different signals and no uniform communication from SBB. Either the infrastructure area expresses itself, as at the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, where SBB emphasized that it builds what politicians decide. Or the passenger transport department says that the lines must be operated profitably and accordingly announces that the half-hourly service would be thinned out.

Joy in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley

For the St. Gallen Rhine Valley and the canton of St. Gallen, the start of the dual track expansion is a happy moment. In the political struggle for the distribution of STEP funds, they received a commitment for CHF 250 million, which will be used over the next three years. There are route closures at night and on some weekends.

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