page_title: Biel/Bienne
section_title: Transport
hierarchical_section_title: Biel/Bienne / Transport
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Bahnhof Gare railway station SBB Biel/Bienne This is an image of a cultural property of national significance in Switzerland with KGS number 766
context_page_description: Biel/Bienne is a town and a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
  Biel/Bienne lies on the language boundary between the French-speaking and German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and is bilingual throughout. Biel is the German name for the town, Bienne its French counterpart. The town is often referred to in both languages simultaneously. Since 1 January 2005, the official name has been "Biel/Bienne". Until then, the town was officially named Biel.
  The town lies at the foot of the first mountain range of the Jura Mountains area, guarding the only practical connection to Jura, on the northeastern shores of Lake Biel, sharing the eastern tip of the lake with its sister town, Nidau. The towns Neuchâtel, Solothurn, and Bern lie southwest, northeast and southeast of Biel/Bienne. They all can be reached within about 30 minutes by train or car.
  In 2012, Biel/Bienne had about 55,000 inhabitants, and together with the surrounding district almost 106,000. The town has been an industrial and watchmaking heart of Switzerland since the 19th century.
context_section_description: Biel/Bienne is very well connected to its region and to Switzerland as well.
  The public transport in and around Biel/Bienne is operated by Verkehrsbetriebe Biel/Transports publics biennois, which is integrated into the fare network libero with coordinated timetables, which in itself covers the area of canton of Bern and Solothurn.
  The fare network includes any mode of public transport, such as any kind of train (including the urban S-Bahn), PostAuto buses, trams, buses (either trolleybuses or motorized buses) and others. Fares are based on the number of zones crossed during a specified time and are independent of the mode of transport or the number of connections. Most part of Biel/Bienne and including Nidau belong to fare zone 300, including Vingelz/Vigneules in the southwest at the lake, but excluding Hohfluh on the Magglingen funicular and the Bözigerfeld/Champs-de-Boujean in the northeast, which belong to zone 301.
  The circle fare zone 301 around Biel/Bienne also includes Tüscherz in the southwest, Hohfluh, Evilard, and Frinvillier (German: Friedliswart, through the Taubenlochschlucht) in the west, and Orpund, Scheuren, Schwadernau, Brügg, Aegerten, and Studen in the east, and Port, Ipsach, Sutz-Lattrigen, Bellmund, Jens, Merzligen, and Hermrigen in the south of the municipality.
  Biel/Bienne railway station is not only the central network nucleus of Biel/Bienne, but also of the whole urban and inter-regional region. It connects the town to the regional, national and international railways network (Neuchâtel – Lausanne - Geneva, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Bern, Grenchen – Delémont – Basel, Solothurn – Olten – Luzern/Zürich – St. Gallen, and the canton of Jura). It is a central railway junction on the fast east–(south-)west line and on the Basel–Bern line. The station is Switzerland's thirteenth most busy railway station (about 52,0000 passengers per working day in 2016).
  One funicular railways leads to the national sports center of Magglingen/Macolin on the 500 metres (1,600 ft) higher Jura mountain in the west, and the other, the Bienne-Evilard Funicular, to the city hospital and to neighbouring municipality Evilard to northwest, both above the town on the eastern range of the Jura Mountains. The high, flat pastures and wood of Magglingen/Macolin span about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from northeast to southwest at an altitude between 800 and 1,031 metres (2,625 and 3,383 ft). The Magglingen/Macolin Funicular often leads to sunshine while Biel/Bienne is covered by low hanging clouds.
  The port at the north-eastern end of Lake Biel is a starting point for leisurely journeys to the three lakes of Biel, Neuchâtel, and Murten/Morat through the Three-Lakes Landscape, which are all connected by navigable channels and rivers. The port is situated on the west side of the main railway station between the exit of the river Schüss/La Suze arriving from the Jura in the west through the Taubenlochschlucht (Swiss German for pigeon hole gorge) and the navigable Nidau-Büren Canal with connections as far as Solothurn.
  Several bridges over the Nidau-Büren Canal connect the town to its south/eastern suburbs.
  Biel/Bienne is well connected to other Swiss cities by several motorways (A6 to Bern, and via A5 to both, the Jura and Basel, Luzern, Zurich, St. Gallen).
  The town is very well connected to all Swiss international airports: Geneva Airport (1:40h), EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg (1:30h), and Zurich Airport (1:30h), also serve as international gateways, all reachable within about the same time by direct train from Biel/Bienne.
caption: Biel/Bienne's central railway station
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