Biel/Bienne railway station

Biel/Bienne railway station (German: Bahnhof Biel; French: Gare de Bienne) serves the bilingual municipality of Biel/Bienne, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland.

Biel/Bienne
The main entrance to the station on the northern side
General information
Location	Bahnhofplatz Biel/Bienne Switzerland
Coordinates	47°7′58.386″N 7°14′34.505″E
Elevation	437 m (1,434 ft)
Owned by	Swiss Federal Railways
Line(s)	Basel–Biel/Bienne line Biel/Bienne–Bern line Biel/Bienne–La Chaux-de-Fonds line Biel–Täuffelen–Ins line Jura Foot line
Platforms	10 2 side platforms 4 island platforms
Tracks	12
Train operators	Aare Seeland mobil BLS AG Swiss Federal Railways
Connections	PostAuto AG/CarPostal SA buses Biel/Bienne trolleybuses (VB/Tpb) BSG ships [1]
Construction
Platform levels	2
Parking	140
Accessible	Yes
Architect	Moser und Schürch (1923); Johann Jenzer (1864); Karl Etzel and Ludwig Maring (1857)
Other information
Station code	8504300 (BI)
Fare zone	libero: 300[2]
Website	Welcome to Biel/Bienne station.
History
Opened	1923 (1923) (1859 at different location)
Passengers
2023	50,800 per weekday[3] (BLS, SBB (excluding ASM))
Rank	12 of 1160
Services
Preceding station Swiss Federal Railways Following station Neuchâtel towards Lausanne IC 5 Grenchen Süd towards Zürich Hauptbahnhof Neuchâtel towards Geneva Airport Solothurn towards Rorschach Terminus IC 51 Grenchen Nord towards Basel SBB RE56 Grenchen Nord towards Meroux TGV Sonceboz-Sombeval towards La Chaux-de-Fonds RE4 Terminus Frinvillier-Taubenloch towards La Chaux-de-Fonds or Moutier R41 Tüscherz towards Neuchâtel R16 Terminus S20 Biel Mett towards Olten Preceding station BLS Following station Terminus IR 65 Lyss towards Bern RE11 Weekends only Lyss towards Brig Preceding station Aare Seeland mobil Following station Nidau towards Ins S37 Terminus Preceding station Bern S-Bahn Following station Terminus S3 Brügg BE towards Belp S31 Lyss towards Belp
Location

It is a major railway junction on the Swiss railways network. It lies on one of the two busiest major railway lines between the northeastern (St. Gallen/Zürich) and southwestern Switzerland (Geneva); the other goes via Bern. An InterCity between St. Gallen and Genève-Aéroport only takes 3:58h with one of its tilting train compositions (in 2024). The other major line is between Basel and Lausanne/Geneva; via Delémont it also connects the canton of Jura with the Swiss railway network. And third, it also connects the French-speaking part of canton of Bern (the Bernese Jura) and La Chaux-de-Fonds (NE) in the west with Bern in the east.

All trains of these lines meet in Biel/Bienne at a quarter after and a quarter before o'clock in a half an hour frequency according to the Swiss-wide applied clock-face scheduling, so that seamless changes of just a few (2–5) minutes between trains of all these lines are easily possible.

It is located in the center of Biel/Bienne and is therefore part of the fare zone 300 of the libero fare network.

Biel/Bienne's railway station is the twelfth busiest station in Switzerland with 50'800 passengers per working day (in 2023).

Services

Long-distance

The following long-distance trains call at Biel/Bienne:^[4]

• InterCity:
  • half-hourly service over the Jura Foot line to Geneva Airport or Lausanne and Zürich Hauptbahnhof or Rorschach.
  • hourly service over the Basel–Biel/Bienne line to Basel SBB.
• InterRegio: half-hourly service over the Biel/Bienne–Bern line to Bern.

Regional

The following regional trains call at Biel/Bienne:^[4]

• RegioExpress:
  • hourly service over the Basel–Biel/Bienne line from Biel/Bienne to Meroux TGV (in France).
  • hourly service over the Biel/Bienne–La Chaux-de-Fonds line to La Chaux-de-Fonds.
  • daily service over the Biel/Bienne–Bern line on weekends during the high season to Brig.
• Regio:
  • hourly to half-hourly service over the Jura Foot line to Neuchâtel.
  • hourly service over the Biel/Bienne–La Chaux-de-Fonds line to La Chaux-de-Fonds and Moutier via Sonceboz-Sombeval.

S-Bahn

The following Bern S-Bahn trains call at Biel/Bienne:^[4]

• S3: half-hourly service over the Biel/Bienne–Bern line to Belp.
• S20: half-hourly service to Solothurn, with every other train continuing from Solothurn to Olten.
• S31: rush-hour service over the Biel/Bienne–Bern line to Belp.
• S37: half-hourly service over the Biel–Täuffelen–Ins line to Ins.

See also

• Trains portal
• Architecture portal
• Switzerland portal

• History of rail transport in Switzerland
• Rail transport in Switzerland

References

1. "Liniennetz Biel und Umgebung - Plan du réseau Bienne et environs" (PDF) (in German and French). Libero. 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
2. "Zonenplan Plan des Zones" (PDF) (in German and French). Libero. 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
3. "Passagierfrequenz (2023)". Biel/Bienne, Switzerland: SBB CFF FFS. 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024 – via data.sbb.ch – SBB DATA PORTAL.
4. "Abfahrt: Bahnhof/Gare de Biel/Bienne" (PDF). Swiss Federal Railways (in German and French). 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2024.

Notes

• Boss, Paul (1997). Das war der alte Bahnhof [That was the old Station] (in German). Bern: Benteli Verlag. OCLC 603800392.
• Stutz, Werner (1976). Bahnhöfe der Schweiz [Railway Stations of Switzerland] (in German). Zürich: Verlag Berichthaus. p. 162. ISBN 3-85572-018-5.

External links

• Media related to Biel/Bienne railway station at Wikimedia Commons
• Biel/Bienne railway station – SBB