European Railroad Discussion > Bern, baby, Bern

I’d spent six days in Bern, Switzerland’s capital, on my vacation in 2023, using the main station every day, but I was quite unprepared for the scenes of destruction that greeted me on September 22 last year when I stopped off there for a brief visit.

Getting off my train on track 2 put me right beside demolition of the platform serving tracks 3 and 4, with heavy machinery at work while trains came and went on other tracks.

I discovered that this work is part of a long-term project to redevelop the station and its access points, at a cost of almost $1.5 billion Swiss francs.  The work involving the six platforms for 12 standard-gauge tracks and a new passenger circulation area below will cost $562 million, and a completely new four-track underground station for the metre-gauge Bern-Solothurn regional railway will cost $791 million. On top of that, the city is spending big bucks to improve traffic and pedestrian circulation at street level.

The current set-up dates back to the 1970s, with the standard-gauge tracks being covered by a concrete roof, with the regional intercity bus station and other facilities above. All in all, it makes for a gloomy industrial atmosphere on the platforms, which are accessed from below via stairs and ramps from a passageway that  lacks the capacity to handle the growing passenger volumes (escalators and elevators are only available at the far western end of the station beyond the concrete roof).

The project will replace all the platforms and incorporate new ceiling structures, while creating a greatly expanded circulating area below the platforms with all forms of access to the trains.  Along the southern side of the platform area, a glass wall will be installed to allow natural light to penetrate the gloom.

The work will take until 2031 to complete, and all the while Switzerland’s second-busiest station will have to cope with the volumes that have brought it to the bursting point, with two tracks out of service. It will take eight months to demolish and rebuild each platform in sequence.

My photos start with three from 2023, to show the “before” situation.

(1)  Coming through the main entrance,  this scene greets the traveller.  Access to the standard-gauge platforms is via a passageway to the left.  The route to the metre-gauge platforms is off to the right.

(2)  This was the view looking west from the platform along track 2. Across to the right is the platform for tracks 3 and 4, the first to be demolished. This view is the calm before the storm.

(3) The  view looking east from the same spot, with the platform for tracks 3-4 to the left.




 

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(4) Here’s what greeted me when I stepped off my train on September 22  last year.  Demolition of platform 3-4 is well underway and continues throughout the day, although serious structural work is scheduled for overnight periods between train service.  Each platform will take eight months to be demolished and rebuilt.

(5) Looking in the opposite direction at the steel supports that will temporarily take the weight borne by the columns.

(6) Another column is being prepped for a steel support structure.


 

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(7-9) For the remaining photos, I have relocated to track 5 to see the work on 3-4 from the other side. An excavator is hard at it in the first two, and a hi-rail vehicle is seen in the last image.  Suffice to say, all this work was much noisier than the trains.

Conceptions of the completed project can be seen at this site (text in German): https://zukunftbahnhofbern.ch/


 

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railsmith Wrote:
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> The current set-up dates back to the 1970s, with
> the standard-gauge tracks being covered by a
> concrete roof, with the regional intercity bus
> station and other facilities above. All in all, it
> makes for a gloomy industrial atmosphere on the
> platforms, which are accessed from below via
> stairs and ramps from a passageway that  lacks
> the capacity to handle the growing passenger
> volumes (escalators and elevators are only
> available at the far western end of the station
> beyond the concrete roof).
>
> The project will replace all the platforms and
> incorporate new ceiling structures, while creating
> a greatly expanded circulating area below the
> platforms with all forms of access to the trains.
>  Along the southern side of the platform area, a
> glass wall will be installed to allow natural
> light to penetrate the gloom.

Good to know work has started, it is awfully gloomy at track level, worse than Birmingham New Street (and that's saying something).

I was here a few weeks ago, and didn't expect the rebuilding that I saw. Getting off my train, it was a long hike to get off the platform, and really had no idea where I was once off the platform.
We had spotted a footbridge which may have been good for photos, but couldn't find it!  Finding the platform for our return train was difficult. Very poor signage - quite suprising for the Swiss.
Instead, we got out of the place ASAP, and went and watched trains and trams in the city. A first for me, was seeing trams and trolley buses sharing the common catenary in the city. chris ,uk.

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