page_title: Brünig railway line
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Brünig railway line / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Bruenigbahn Meiringen Čeština: Bruenigbahn Meiringen Deutsch: Ein Zug der SBB Brünigbahn, gezogen von einer HGe 4/4 II, bei Meiringen.
context_page_description: The Brünig railway line is a Swiss narrow gauge railway line that links Lucerne, in central Switzerland, with Interlaken, in the Bernese Oberland. The line runs via Alpnachstad, Giswil, Meiringen and Brienz, and passes over the Brünig Pass, using sections of rack railway to overcome the gradients, but with most of the line operated by normal adhesion methods.
  The line is 74 kilometres long. It opened in stages between 1888 and 1916, and was, between 1903 and 2004, the only narrow gauge line of the Swiss Federal Railways. Today the line forms part, along with the Luzern–Stans–Engelberg line, of the Zentralbahn company. The line is served by InterRegio trains that operate the full length of the line, with regular Regio trains between Interlaken and Meiringen, and Lucerne S-Bahn trains between Lucerne and Giswil. The section between Hergiswil and Lucerne is shared with the Luzern–Stans–Engelberg line.
context_section_description: The line was constructed by the Jura–Bern–Lucerne Railway (JBL), which opened the section between Brienz over the Brünig Pass to Alpnachstad in 1888. Initially, the line connected to steamships on Lake Brienz and Lake Lucerne, but was extended in 1889 from Alpnachstad to Lucerne, giving connections to the rest of the Swiss railway network. In 1891, JBL became part of the Jura–Simplon Railway (JS).
  In 1903, the JS became part of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). Only in 1916 did the last section of the current line, between Brienz and Interlaken, open. This allowed through trains to operate from Lucerne to Interlaken, and provided an easy interchange with trains to Bern and beyond.
  The line was electrified in 1941 and 1942, using the standard Swiss main line system of 15 kV  16.7 Hz AC supplied by overhead line. The electrification lead to a significant acceleration of services, with typical through journey times reduced from over 3 hours to 2 hours.
  In 1964, a junction was constructed at Hergiswil with the Luzern–Stans–Engelberg Railway (LSE), and from that date trains of the LSE used Brünig line tracks to reach Lucerne station. On 30 June 2004, the Swiss Federal Council empowered the SBB to sell the Brünig line to the Zentralbahn company, formed by the LSE, and which now owns both railways. The takeover took effect on 1 January 2005.
  In late 2012, a new tunnel route was opened between Kriens Mattenhof station and the approaches to Lucerne station. The tunnel replaces a less direct surface alignment, allowing the abolition of several congested level crossings and the provision of double track. A new station, Lucerne Allmend/Messe, built within the tunnel, serves the Swissporarena.
caption: A train near Meiringen, under Swiss Federal Railways ownership.
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