2024 - New tram in the Limmattal - The Limmattalbahn brought Zurich and Aargau together

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The last rails of the Limmattalbahn were welded in Spreitbach. The railway project strengthened cooperation.

Trams are already on the Limmattalbahn route from Altstetten to Schlieren. From the timetable change in December, you can travel continuously to Killwangen. This Monday, the rails that were built from the canton of Zurich were connected to those from Aargau. In a symbolic act, the tracks in Spreitenbach were welded. This means that after four and a half years of construction, the rails have been laid over 13.4 kilometers from Altstetten to Killwangen.

Legend:

The rails were welded in Spreitenbach. Now the 13.4 kilometer route is continuous.

SRF

The final concreting work was carried out in the next few days, and the main work should be completed before Easter, explains site manager Regula Meier. Then the rails are sanded underneath and the electronics are connected. The work should be finished in mid-June so that the test drives can start on July 11th.

Route length: 13.4 kilometers
Stops: 27
Vehicle capacity: 260 people
Maximum speed: 60 km/h
Costs: CHF 755 million (1/2 paid by the canton of Zurich, 1/6 by the canton of Aargau, 1/3 by the federal government)
The Schlieren–Killwangen section will open when the timetable changes on December 11, 2022. Aargau Verkehr then runs the entire Altstetten–Killwangen line with its own vehicles.
Quarter hourly from December 2022

VBZ trams have been operating on the Altstetten – Schlieren section since August 2019. From December, the route between Killwangen-Spreitbach and Zurich Altstetten stations will be operated by Aargau Verkehr. The trams of the new line 20 come from the manufacturer Stadler Rail. They serve the 27 stops every quarter of an hour.

In the end, time was running out, says Limmattalbahn Managing Director Daniel Issler. This was mainly because the completion of the “Tivoli Garden” stop was delayed. The bus stop is inside a building of the new development at the Tivoli shopping center. In the entire Limmattalbahn project, 230 objections had to be processed. According to Issler, an agreement was finally reached with most of the objectors.

The Aargau government would like to further expand the Limmat Valley Railway. The route is to be extended by around nine kilometers from Killwangen via Wettingen to Baden. The Great Council has already included this expansion in the structural plan.

However, these plans are not met with approval everywhere. The mayor of Baden also recently commented critically on this in the “Badener Tagblatt”. Markus Schneider doubts the benefit.

There is resistance, among other things, to the planned route of the extension. The train is to be routed over the Baden High Bridge and through a busy tunnel.