The Jura–Simplon Railways (JS), (French: Compagnie des Chemins de Fer Jura–Simplon) was a railway company that was formed in 1890. It was nationalised in 1903 as the largest railway company in Switzerland and integrated into the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

History

The Jura–Simplon Railways was a railway company, which was formed from the 1890 merger of the two most important western Swiss railway companies, the Jura–Bern–Lucerne Railway (JBL), including the Gümligen–Lucerne line belonging to the canton of Bern, and the Western Swiss Railways (Chemins de fer de la Suisse Occidentale; SOS). The Federal Government also participated in the merger by means of a voluntary share purchase. The Pont–Vallorbe Railway (Chemin de fer Pont–Vallorbe), operated by the SOS, was purchased on 1 January 1891.

The share capital of the new company was formed of Swiss francs (CHF) 52 million of preferred stock and CHF 34 million of common stock. The preferred shares comprised 38 million existing JBL shares and 14 million SOS shares. The nominal value of an SOS ordinary share was reduced from CHF 500 to 200 and the amount of CHF 52.4 million exempted from the stock reconstruction was applied to depreciation. The Swiss government was given the right to repurchase the JS.

Construction of the Simplon Tunnel

Although the Jura-Simplon Railway was a railway company for only 13 years, it helped break the impasse over the building of the Simplon Tunnel from Brig to Iselle in Italy after decades of effort by Bern and Romandy. Studies prepared to support the construction of the tunnel had already been submitted by the SOS to the federal and cantonal authorities. In 1891, JS, as a new entrepreneurial railway company, presented the Federal Council with a definitive project for the Simplon Tunnel.

On 25 November 1895, a treaty was signed with Italy for the construction of what would be the longest tunnel in the world. The construction costs for the single-track tunnel were estimated at CHF 58,820,000. The treaty obliged Switzerland to provide funding of CHF 15 million and Italy to provide funding of CHF 4 million. Italy was represented by four directors on the JS board. Construction began on the 19,803-metre-long tunnel in 1898. The tunnel was the longest railway tunnel in the world until the opening of the Seikan Tunnel in 1988.

Operations

The Jura–Simplon Railways operated several other railway lines: Jougne–Vallorbe–Pontarlier line and Verrières–Pontarlier line of the French Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) Bière–Apples–Morges railway (BAM) Bödelibahn (BB; from 1895) Bulle–Romont railway (BR) Cossonay–Gare–Ville funicular (CG) Fribourg–Ins railway (Chemin de fer Friborg-Morat-Anet, FMA) Neuchâtel–Le Locle-Col-des-Roches railway (Jura neuchâtelois; JN) Pont–Brassus Railway (PBr) Pont–Vallorbe Railway (PV) Travers–Buttes railway (Régional du Val-de-Travers; RVT) Spiez-Erlenbach Railway (SEB) Lake Thun Railway (Thunerseebahn; TSB) Visp-Zermatt Railway (VZ) Yverdon–Ste-Croix railway (YSteC)

On 14 June 1891, the Jura–Simplon Railways suffered the Münchenstein rail disaster, the worst railway accident in Swiss history. The railway bridge over the Birs, which was built by Gustave Eiffel, collapsed below the village of Münchenstein under a train from Basel. Three carriages and the two locomotives crashed into the flooded Birs. 78 people were killed and 131 were injured. A soldier died of injuries sustained during the cleanup. The accident led to a stricter supervision of the railways. The railway bridges were systematically examined and the first building standards were created.

In the Zollikofen train crash on 17 August 1891 in Zollikofen, a Bern–Paris express ran into an "extra" (not listed in the timetable) train waiting at a red home signal. The impact killed 14 passengers and injured 122 on the extra train. The accident was caused by mistakes at various operating points. The express has been released to run through an occupied section. A deactivated air brake also reduced the braking effect.

Despite investing in the construction of the Simplon tunnel, JS was able to pay a dividend every year.

Posters Thee Jura-Simplon Railway advertised with a series of posters. Some of them were designed by Hugo d’Alési.

Nationalisation During the construction of the Simplon tunnel, the national referendum of 20 February 1898 agreed to the nationalisation the Jura-Simplon railway and the other four main railways. The Jura-Simplon Railway was taken over by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) on 1 May 1903 and it completed the Simplon Tunnel in 1906.

Graphic summary Overview of the history of the Jura–Simplon Railways (T: takeover):

Infrastructure and vehicles Stations

The stations of , and of the Central Railway (SCB) and of the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean (PLM) were shared by the Jura-Simplon Railway.

Network

The route network of 937 km ran from Basel, Geneva and the Jura border crossings of Delle, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Les Verrières and Vallorbe to Brig and Lucerne. In addition, the narrow-gauge Brünig Railway from Lucerne to Brienz was part of the 937 km-long route network. It consisted of the combined lines of its predecessor railways: the lines of the Jura-Bern-Lucerne the lines of the Western Swiss Railways the Pont–Vallorbe Railway

Duplication

The Jura-Simplon Railway continued the track duplication of its predecessors. When SBB took over JS in 1903, 131.20 km (14%) of the network was duplicated. Railway line Section Double track opened on Lausanne–Biel – 5 May 1856 by Western Swiss Renens VD–Bussigny 1897 Bussigny–Cossonay 21 August 1895 Cossonay–Daillens 1 June 1896 Auvernier– 1 June 1898 Lausanne–Geneva 1868–1879 by Western Swiss, Western Swiss-Simplon and LFB Lausanne–Bern Lausanne–La Conversion 1 May 1902 Chexbres–Palézieux Lausanne–Brig Lausanne–Lutry 1 June 1900 Lutry–Cully 1 June 1899 Cully–Rivaz 1 October 1892 Rivaz– 1 June 1892 Montreux–Villeneuve 10 October 1891 Granges-Lens–Sierre 24 June 1901 Bern–Biel Lyss–Busswil 1877 by Bern-Lucerne-Bahn

Rolling stock The Jura-Simplon Railway named their rolling stock according to the then nationwide classification system.

The JS operated the following locomotives. The class name that was valid from 1902 is listed in brackets.

Class JS no. SBB No. from 1903 Manufacturer Build year Scrapped image A2 (Ec 2/4) 1–12 – Taken over in 1890 from the Bern-Lucerne Railway (BLB; see there) 1888–1896 A2 (Eb 2/4) 13–16 5441–5442 Taken over in 1890 from the Bernese Jura Railway (JBL; see there) 1900–1917 17–32 5451–5476 1900–1947 33–42 Esslingen, SLM Winterthur 1880–1892 A2T (B 2/3) 51–63 – Taken over in 1890 from the Western Switzerland–Simplon Company (SOS; see there) 1890–1902 A2T (B 2/3) 63–67 – 1892–1896 A2T (B 2/3) 69–73 – 1890–1892 A2T (B 2/3) 74–79 1074–1079 1904–1907 A2T (B 2/3) 80–82 1080–1082 1903 A2T (A 2/4) 101–130 101–130 SLM Winterthur 1892–1896 1917–1926 A3T (B 3/4) 201–204 1421–1424 Taken over in 1890 from the SOS (see there) 1917 205–212 1561–1568 Taken over in 1890 from the JBL (see there) 1924–1932 213–222 1569–1578 SLM Winterthur 1891 1912–1932 A 3/5 231–232 701–702 SLM Winterthur 1902 1926–1964 (Nachbau SBB) 703–811 1904–1909 B2 (Ec 2/4) 251–262 6195–6199 Taken over in 1890 from the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern Railway (see there) 1895–1905 B2 (Ec 2/3) 263–267 6398, 6399 Taken over in 1890 from the SOS (see there) 1909–1923 A3T (B 3/4) 301–375 1601–1675 SLM Winterthur 1896–1902 1923–1945 (Nachbau SBB) 1676–1747 1903–1907 B3T (C 3/3) 401–416 2401–2403, 2406–2412, 2413 Taken over in 1890 from the SOS (see there) 1900–1911 417–419 2404, 2413 1898–1909 421–424 – Taken over in 1890 from the BLB (see there) 1898–1902 425–431 2405, 2415–2416 Taken over in 1890 from the JBL (see there) 1900–1911 C3 (Ed 3/3) 451–457 7291–7297 Taken over in 1890 from the BLB (see there) 1906–1916 C3T (D 3/3) 501–505 3351, 3368–3369, 3699 Taken over in 1890 from the SOS (see there) 1901–1913 506–508 3364, 3370–3371 1907–1913 509–511 3372–3374 1909–1914 512–519 3352–3353, 3375–3378, 3390 1897–1925 520–539 3354–3359, 3363–3367, 3379–3386, 3389, 3391 1901–1925 540 3387 JS (Yverdon workshop) 1892 1924 541–546 3360–3361, 3392–3393, 3399 Taken over in 1890 from the JBL (see there) 1904–1913 547–555 3362–3363, 3388, 3394–3398 1902–1917 561–565 3421–3425 SLM Winterthur 1890 1916 B3 (Ec 3/4) 601–612 6501–6512 SLM Winterthur 1901 1934–1955 (Nachbau SBB) 6513–6529 1904–1910 1933–1961 E3 (E 3/3) 751–752 – Taken over in 1891 from the Pont–Vallorbe Railway (see there) 1924–1948 F2 (E 2/3) 801 – Taken over in 1890 from the SOS (see there) 1891 F3 (E 3/3) 851–852 8571–8572 Taken over in 1890 from the JBL (see there) 1911–1913 853–856 8574–8576 SLM Winterthur 1890 1911–1916 857–866 8431–8440 1901 1947 Locomotives of the narrow gauge Brünig Railway: G2 (G 3/3) 901–906 101–110 Taken over in 1890 from the JBL (see there) 1911–1916 907–910 SLM Winterthur 1887–1901 1915–1942 HG2 (HG 2/2) 951–958 1001–1008 Taken over in 1890 from the JBL (see there) 1908–1911 959–963 1009–1013 SLM Winterthur 1894–1901 1911–1912

References Notes

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