page_title: Compagnie de la Ligne d'Italie
section_title: Compagnie du Simplon
hierarchical_section_title: Compagnie de la Ligne d'Italie / History / Compagnie du Simplon
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: St-Maurice - La gare
context_page_description: The Compagnie de la Ligne d’Italie, or Ligne d’Italie for short, was a former Swiss railway company that established in 1859. In 1874, the Ligne d'Italie became part of the Compagnie du Simplon. The Compagnie du Simplon, Ligne du Simplon or Simplon for short, merged into the Western Swiss Railways in 1881.
context_section_description: The LI had to be liquidated for the second time and it was sold on 1 June 1874 to the new Compagnie du Simplon (S) for a symbolic price of CHF 202,422 plus CHF 500,000 of bonds. The shareholders lost all their capital and the work, which had cost almost CHF 25 million.
  The operations of the Compagnie du Simplon were managed by the Western Swiss Railways (SO). The line was extended from Sierre to Leuk on 1 June 1877 and to the provisional terminus in Brig on 1 July 1878. The line was now 116.9 km long.
  Although projects have been developed time and again to extend the line through a tunnel under the Simplon to Domodossola, sufficient finance did not become available for the time being. The line remained a branch line and the operatings results were insufficient to cover interest charges. Nevertheless, the Simplon Railway led to significant economic progress in the Valais.
  On 1 July 1881, the Compagnie du Simplon was bought by the Western Swiss Railways, which then changed its name to the Western Switzerland–Simplon Company (Suisse-Occidentale–Simplon, SOS). The short Le Bouveret–Saint-Gingolph branch line opened on 1 June 1886, connecting with the line of the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée in Savoy. In 1890, the SOS merged with the Jura-Simplon-Bahn (JS), which significantly accelerated the efforts to construct the Simplon Tunnel.
caption: Saint-Maurice station
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