Appenzell Railways


Appenzell Railways is a Swiss railway company with headquarters in Herisau. It operates a network of railways in the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and St. Gallen.

History

The origins of the Appenzeller Bahnen company lies in a number of formerly independent companies and railway lines:
The Appenzellerbahn and Santisbahn merged in 1947, retaining the Appenzellerbahn identity. The St. Gallen–Gais–Appenzell-Bahn and Altstätten-Gais-Bahn merged in 1948, under the name St. Gallen–Gais–Appenzell–Altstätten-Bahn.
The Appenzeller Bahnen company was formed in 1988, with the merger of the Appenzellerbahn and the St. Gallen–Gais–Appenzell–Altstätten-Bahn. In 2006, the Appenzeller Bahnen company merged with the Rorschach–Heiden-Bergbahn, the Rheineck–Walzenhausen-Bergbahn and the Trogenerbahn companies. In legal terms, this merger took the form of the Appenzeller Bahnen company acquiring the other companies.

Operation

Today, the company operates the following railway lines:
The St. Gallen–Gais–Appenzell, Gossau–Appenzell–Wasserauen and Altstätten–Gais lines form a connected network of lines, all electrified at 1500 V DC. Until 2018, the St. Gallen–Trogen line was also of metre gauge, but ran independently.
From 2016 to 2018, the Appenzellerbahnen undertook a large construction project to connect the Appenzell-St. Gallen and St. Gallen-Trogen lines. The three points of incompatibility were electrification, different termini in St. Gallen, and maximal grades. So the new project re-electrified the St. Gallen-Trogen line at 1500 V DC and constructed a new tunnel through St. Gallen. The old alignment through St. Gallen closed in April 2018, and the system began through-running in October of the same year.
The Rheineck–Walzenhausen and Rorschach–Heiden lines are geographically separate from the rest of the network, and are of respectively and standard gauges. The Altstaetten–Gais, Rheineck–Walzenhausen and Rorschach–Heiden lines all have rack railway sections, whilst the Gossau–Appenzell–Wasserauen and Appenzell–St. Gallen–Trogen lines are adhesion only.
The company also operates a bus service from Teufen, on the St. Gallen–Gais–Appenzell line, to Speicher, on the St. Gallen–Trogen line. Night bus services are operated over the routes of the St. Gallen–Gais–Appenzell and St. Gallen–Trogen lines.