The four-track through station will join various long-distance and regional traffic routes to cross-city lines. Passengers will benefit from new through services, more trains and shorter travel times, while SBB’s operating costs will be lower. The City of Lucerne and SBB can also use the current operational areas for urban development, which will make Lucerne a more attractive city. In its dispatch on the 2035 expansion plan, the Federal Council acknowledged the importance of the Lucerne through station.

On behalf of the Federal Government, SBB will be carrying out several studies and preliminary projects for the Lucerne through station until the end of 2022. These will be followed by corresponding construction and planning projects. SBB is thus ensuring that it can begin construction without losing any time as soon as funding has been secured for the implementation of the project. Funding allocation lies within the responsibility of the Federal Government and will be allotted via the Strategic Expansion Programme (STEP) – probably in the expansion phase after the next one. The planning work, costing CHF 85 million, will be financed by the STEP 2025 expansion plan decided upon in 2014.

In February 2020, SBB issued a public call for tenders for planning work for the new through station in Lucerne. SBB is looking for planning agencies to develop plans for the new subterranean station, the Dreilinden Tunnel between Luzern and Ebikon and the Neustadt Tunnel between Luzern and Heimbach.

The new Lucerne station is a quantum leap for railway services in Central Switzerland. The existing station’s infrastructure has reached the limits of its capacity. Nowadays, 21 trains run on the double-track approach every hour and in each direction. This could be increased to 22 trains in the best case. Additionally, some areas in the station such as the main platform are cramped for passengers.

The Lucerne through station offers the following improvements for passengers:

• more trains: the through station will mitigate the current bottleneck in the approach to Lucerne station. This paves the way for more frequent long-distance and regional services. For example, the Interregio to Olten will run every half hour and the S-Bahn trainss every 15 minutes, meaning more connexions and seats will be available to passengers.
• more through services: at the moment, a number of lines end in Lucerne because it is a dead-end station. The through station will connect these lines to one another, allowing for services such as a direct Intercity service Bern–Lucerne.
• shorter travel times: the lines that do not currently terminate in Lucerne lose time entering and turning around in the station. The through station will shorten travel times because the trains will reach the station more quickly and stay there for a shorter time.
• more space: Lucerne station can already be quite cramped sometimes – particularly on the main platform. The through station will make for more spacious conditions, which will also have a positive effect on transfer time. Lucerne station will also have more space for shops.

The Federal Government and SBB are looking into the future with framework plans, determining which facilities will be needed on routes and in stations beyond 2050. In the spring of 2018, SBB finalised the Central Switzerland corridor framework plan, in which it investigated various options for expanding the Lucerne hub. The through station clearly stood out from the rest. This is the only project that will give rail infrastructure in Lucerne enough capacity for any future expansion of services up to the second half of the 21st century.

The analysis of capacity utilisation on the track network in the Lucerne area indicates that it is not sufficient to renovate individual parts of the network or expand them to a greater capacity – a comprehensive capacity increase across the entire network is needed. The costs of the alternatives are therefore similar to those of the through station, since the station would have to be completely rebuilt and tunnels would also be required on the approach. The Zentralbahn hall tracks would also have to be relocated to the site of the current holding tracks under the parking deck.

SBB AG.
Massimo Guglielmetti, Gesamtprogrammleiter
dbl@sbb.ch
Link opens in new window.sbb.ch/dbl

SBB Medienstelle
E-Mail: press@sbb.chLink opens in new window.
Telefon: +41 51 220 41 11