Biel/Bienne railway station

Biel/Bienne
Three-story classical building with columns
The main entrance to the station on the northern side
General information
LocationBahnhofplatz
Biel/Bienne
Switzerland
Coordinates47°7′58.386″N 7°14′34.505″E / 47.13288500°N 7.24291806°E / 47.13288500; 7.24291806
Elevation437 m (1,434 ft)
Owned bySwiss Federal Railways
Line(s)
Platforms
Tracks12
Train operators
Connections[1]
Construction
Platform levels2
Parking140
AccessibleYes
ArchitectMoser und Schürch (1923); Johann Jenzer (1864); Karl Etzel and Ludwig Maring (1857)
Other information
Station code8504300 (BI)
Fare zonelibero: 300[2]
WebsiteWelcome to Biel/Bienne station.
History
Opened1923 (1923) (1859 at different location)
Passengers
202350,800 per weekday[3] (BLS, SBB (excluding ASM))
Rank12 of 1160
Services
Preceding station Swiss Federal Railways Following station
Neuchâtel
towards Lausanne
IC 5
Grenchen Süd
Neuchâtel Solothurn
towards Rorschach
Terminus IC 51 Grenchen Nord
towards Basel SBB
RE56 Grenchen Nord
towards Meroux TGV
Sonceboz-Sombeval RE4 Terminus
Frinvillier-Taubenloch 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
Map

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

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).

  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.