Basel will turn tram line 17 into S Tram

The Swiss city of Basel has unveiled plans to make tram line 17 an S-Tram, with accelerated service from 2030. S-Tramis derived from S-Bahn, meaning a fast suburban railway. Using small but effective infrastructure projects, with minimal construction work and a well-designed route, public transport can be made more efficient and reliable on a more robust network. 

 

At present Baselland Transport (BLT) operates two tram lines linking the city centre and the Leimental area to the south-west, line 10 to Rodersdorf via Ettingen and line 17 to Ettingen, with both lines sharing the same tracks into the city centre via Zoo. At Dornbach city (BVB) tram line 2 crosses these tracks on a bridge. Construction of a 300m link between the two to create the Margarethenverbindung will enable line 17 to run direct to Basel SBB railway station over the tracks of line 2. In future lines 10 and 17 will swap outer termini with line 10 becoming an all-stops service to Ettingen while line 17 will run from Badischer Bahnhof via Bahnhof SBB and Ettingen to Rodersdorf. Between Dornbach and Ettingen line 17 will serve four stops compared with line 10’s ten stops over the same section. As a result passengers from Rodersdorf in the Leimental will enjoy a 12-minue faster tram journey to the city centre. Both lines will operate every 7.5 minutes at peaks. Other features of the project include a new platform access at the Margarethenbrücke, a public transport hub with turning circle at Bottmingen, the lengthening of the double-track section at Spiesshöfli and the redesign of the section of line between Zoo and Heuwaage to improve tram priority for line 10. The budget is around CHF 75M with a large proportion coming from federal funds. 

 

It is worth noting that in future it will be line 17 trams that make a brief excursion into France at Leymen on the way to Rodersdorf.