Andrew Nash
Vienna Transport Strategies

Trains, Trams, and Public Transportation in Zürich by Andrew Nash

In a city with such a wonderful public transit system, there are many sites to visit. This section lists only some of the most interesting. We don't provide directions or a route since exploring the public transit system on your own will be part of the fun!

Tram Museum - The Zürich tram museum has a collection of historic trams and information about the system's history. The museum recently moved and is now located on the #11 tram line at Burgwies station (Zürich tram museum location). The museum operates historic trams during the summer from downtown to the tram museum (Zürich Museumslinie 21).

Zürich Hauptbahnhof - Zürich's Hauptbahnhof is a small city. In fact, the Swiss National Railway has created a department called RailCity that considers stations to be shopping malls with trains rather than train stations with shopping. This concept works quite well from the perspective of creating clean, attractive, and lively stations, and also helps generate income to support more trains. Zürich's Rail City consists of shops, restaurants, and public spaces on the train level, and one level underground. Shops in railroad stations can open on Sundays and are allowed to remain open longer on other days than other shops - making them highly popular.

It's fun to just walk through the Zürich Hauptbahnhof to see how the historic architecture has been integrated into the new transportation functions. Often there is something happening in the original train hall, which has been converted into a large covered open space surrounded by an arcade. On most Wednesdays there is a farmers market from about 11 am until 7 pm, a great place to have a picnic or to gather one.

Basel's rail station has recently been renovated by the RailCity group. The renovation was sympathetic to the building's history, restoring some of the original artwork and structure in the ticket hall, and adding shops with a very high quality of construction. Basel is about one hour trip from Zürich and there are even high-speed trains with dining cars on the route if you want to take a short trip to see the station (the city of Basel is also well worth a visit!).

Inclined Railways - There are three inclined railways in Zürich that are operated as part of the regular city transit network. They are the Polybahn (from Central to the ETH), the Dolderbahn (from Römerhof to the Dolder Hotel on the Zürichberg), and the Seilbahn Rigiblick (from the Seilbahn Rigiblick station on Tram lines #9 and #10 to Rigiblick on the Zürichberg).

Stadelhofen Station - The Stadelhofen Station is an elegant solution to a difficult engineering problem. The station was the first large project completed by the Spanish architect-engineer Santiago Calatrava, who studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). In the late 1980s, the existing station was reconstructed as part of the S-Bahn construction project. It serves as the portal to the new double track tunnels to the Hauptbahnhof and under the Zürichberg as well as the existing single-track tunnel to Tiefenbrunnen.

Swiss National Transportation Museum - The Swiss National Transportation Museum is located in Lucerne, a short 45-minute train trip from Zürich's Hauptbahnhof. You can take a bus from Lucerne's train station, take a boat in the summer, or walk about a half-hour along the lakeshore. The museum has an exhibit on building the Gotthard Tunnel, has many historic trains and trams, and also includes special exhibits.

The Swiss National Railroad's RailAway Program combines train travel with local transport and entry into various different cultural and recreational events throughout Switzerland. Generally you save 10% - 30% and all the travel arrangements are taken care of (so no need to figure out how to buy a bus ticket at your destination). You can ask about Railaway offers at the counter of most rail stations. Railaway an excellent program and great example of how Switzerland has really made public transport attractive. There is even a Railway Offer for the National Transport Museum.

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