Biel/Bienne railway station

Biel/Bienne
Biel/Bienne
	The main entrance to the station on the northern side
General information
Location	Bahnhofplatz; Biel/Bienne; Switzerland
Coordinates	47°7′58.386″N 7°14′34.505″E / 47.13288500°N 7.24291806°E
Elevation	437 m (1,434 ft)
Owned by	Swiss Federal Railways
Line(s)	Basel–Biel/Bienne line; Biel/Bienne–Bern line; Biel/Bienne–La Chaux-de-Fonds line; Biel–Täuffelen–Ins line; Jura Foot line;
Platforms	10 (2 side platforms and 4 island platforms)
Tracks	12
Train operators	Aare Seeland mobil; BLS AG; Swiss Federal Railways;
Connections	PostAuto/CarPostal buses; Biel/Bienne trolleybuses (VB/Tpb); BSG ships;
Construction
Platform levels	2
Parking	140
Architect	Moser und Schürch (1923); Johann Jenzer (1864); Karl Etzel and Ludwig Maring (1857)
Other information
Station code	BI
Fare zone	libero: 300
Website	Bahnhof Biel / La gare de Bienne
History
Opened	1923 (1859 at different location)
Passengers
2022	46,000 per working day (BLS,SBB (excluding ASM))
Rank	12 of 1160
Services
Neuchâtel towards Geneva Airport	Solothurn towards Rorschach
Location
	Biel/Bienne Location within Switzerland Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (Canton of Bern)

Biel/Bienne railway station (German: Bahnhof Biel; French: Gare de Bienne) serves the bilingual municipality of Biel/Bienne, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland.

It is a major railway junction on the Swiss railways network. It lies on one of the two busiest major railway lines between the northeastern (St. Gallen/Zürich) and southwestern Switzerland (Geneva); the other goes via Bern. An InterCity between St. Gallen and Genève-Aéroport only takes 3:58h with one of its tilting train compositions (in 2024). The other major line is between Basel and Lausanne/Geneva; via Delémont it also connects the canton of Jura with the Swiss railway network. And third, it also connects the French-speaking part of canton of Bern (the Bernese Jura) and La Chaux-de-Fonds (NE) in the west with Bern in the east.

All trains of these lines meet in Biel/Bienne at a quarter after and a quarter before o'clock in a half an hour frequency according to the Swiss-wide applied clock-face scheduling, so that seamless changes of just a few (2–5) minutes between trains of all these lines are easily possible.

It is located in the center of Biel/Bienne and is therefore part of the fare zone 300 of the libero fare network.

Biel/Bienne's railway station is the twelfth busiest station in Switzerland with 46,000 passengers per working day (in 2022).

Services[edit]

Long-distance[edit]

The following long-distance trains call at Biel/Bienne:^[4]

InterCity:
- half-hourly service over the Jura Foot line to Geneva Airport or Lausanne and Zürich Hauptbahnhof or Rorschach.
- hourly service over the Basel–Biel/Bienne line to Basel SBB.
InterRegio: half-hourly service over the Biel/Bienne–Bern line to Bern.

Regional[edit]

The following regional trains call at Biel/Bienne:^[4]

RegioExpress:
- hourly service over the Basel–Biel/Bienne line from Biel/Bienne to Meroux (in France).
- hourly service over the Biel/Bienne–La Chaux-de-Fonds line to La Chaux-de-Fonds.
- daily service over the Biel/Bienne–Bern line on weekends during the high season to Brig.
Regio:
- hourly to half-hourly service over the Jura Foot line to Neuchâtel.
- half-hourly service over the Biel–Täuffelen–Ins line to Ins.
- hourly service over the Biel/Bienne–La Chaux-de-Fonds line to La Chaux-de-Fonds and Moutier via Sonceboz-Sombeval.

S-Bahn[edit]

The following Bern S-Bahn trains call at Biel/Bienne:^[4]

S3: half-hourly service over the Biel/Bienne–Bern line to Belp.
S20: half-hourly service to Solothurn, with every other train continuing from Solothurn to Olten.
S31: rush-hour service over the Biel/Bienne–Bern line to Belp.

References[edit]

^ "Liniennetz Biel und Umgebung - Plan du réseau Bienne et environs" (PDF) (in German and French). Libero. 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
^ "Zonenplan" (PDF) (in German). Libero. 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
^ "Passagierfrequenz (2022)". Biel/Bienne, Switzerland: SBB CFF FFS. 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2024 – via data.sbb.ch – SBB DATA PORTAL.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Abfahrt: Bahnhof/Gare de Biel/Bienne" (PDF). Swiss Federal Railways (in German and French). 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024.

Notes[edit]

Boss, Paul (1997). Das war der alte Bahnhof [That was the old Station] (in German). Bern: Benteli Verlag. OCLC 603800392.
Stutz, Werner (1976). Bahnhöfe der Schweiz [Railway Stations of Switzerland] (in German). Zürich: Verlag Berichthaus. p. 162. ISBN 3-85572-018-5.

External links[edit]

Media related to Biel/Bienne railway station at Wikimedia Commons
Biel/Bienne railway station – SBB

[1] "Liniennetz Biel und Umgebung - Plan du réseau Bienne et environs" (PDF) (in German and French). Libero. 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024.

[2] "Zonenplan" (PDF) (in German). Libero. 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024.

[SBB-3] "Passagierfrequenz (2022)". Biel/Bienne, Switzerland: SBB CFF FFS. 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2024 – via data.sbb.ch – SBB DATA PORTAL.

[abfahrt-4] "Abfahrt: Bahnhof/Gare de Biel/Bienne" (PDF). Swiss Federal Railways (in German and French). 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024.

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