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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Basel Badischer Station

Basel Badischer Bahnhof (Basel Baden Railway station; abbreviated Basel Bad) is a railway station in the Swiss city of Basel 2 km south of the Germany–Switzerland border. Despite its location, its land is an enclave of the EU Customs Union of Germany, with German rules applying to its rail traffic and infrastructure, the latter owned and operated by the respective German entities so that, for example, the station's clocks bear the "DB" logo of Deutsche Bahn.

The station is the city's second-largest, the larger being Basel SBB railway station operated by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS). Basel Bad is served by the tri-national Regio S-Bahn Basel and by long-distance trains to and from Freiburg, Offenburg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin and other cities, and is listed as a Swiss Heritage Site of national significance.

History

In March 1838, the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways started working on a railway line from Mannheim via Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Freiburg im Breisgau. This line was called Badische Hauptbahn (Baden Main Line) or Rheintalbahn (Rhine Valley Line). A Swiss railway commission desired a continuation of the line into Basel and contacted the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1842.

In January 1851, the Rheintalbahn line reached the village of Haltingen, close to the Swiss border. Since the two governments had not agreed about how to build the station in Basel yet, the passengers were transported across the border with hackney carriages.

Finally, a treaty between the government of Baden and the Swiss Confederation entered into force on July 27, 1852, and has remained so into the present. The start of construction was further delayed, however, by the Swiss insisting on a terminal station and the Badische Staatseisenbahnen insisting on a through station in favour of the planned extension of the line towards Waldshut.

Badischer Bahnhof, 1862

The first Baden Railway station of Basel was built as a through station at nowaday's Messeplatz square about 800 meters west of today's one. The line from Haltingen to Basel was opened on February 19, 1855, with a temporary wooden station building. A further line to Konstanz in Baden was connected to the southern end of the station in 1856, and by April 10, 1859, Switzerland and Baden had finally agreed to build a permanent station, of which the construction started in May. The street entrances of the station building opened to nowaday's Riehenring street. In 1875, the Basel Connecting Line to Basel Swiss station was opened, running out of the Baden station parallel with the railway to Konstanz.

The increase of railway traffic in the beginning of 20th century required larger facilities. To get space for the urban development of Kleinbasel, the government of Basel insisted on a new station on a new site. It was chosen straight north northwest of the railway bridge across the Rhine. The station was moved to its current location between 1906 and 1913.

Special customs and regulatory territory

Basel Badischer Bahnhof

Although the Badischer Bahnhof is located in Switzerland, due to the 1852 treaty between the Swiss Confederation and the Grand Duchy of Baden (one of the predecessors of today's Germany), the terrain under its largest part, encompassing the platforms and part of the passenger tunnel that lead to the German/Swiss customs checkpoint, forms a special customs territory, which is both an exclave of the European Union Customs Union and an enclave within Liechtenstein–Switzerland customs union. The shops in the station hall are, however, located in Liechtenstein–Switzerland customs union, and the Swiss franc is used as the official currency there (although the euro is accepted for train tickets). Customs checks are performed in a tunnel between the platforms and the station hall, while passengers of international trains transiting to Basel SBB may be subjected to on-board customs checks. Immigration checks have in turn been abolished since Switzerland joined the Schengen Area in 2008.

Except for the Basel connecting line, all lines served by the station along with traffic on them are under purview of the German Federal Railway Authority and the European Union Agency for Railways, being owned along with the station by the German Bundeseisenbahnvermögen, operated by DB Netz and DB Station&Service, regulated by the German Federal Network Agency and available exclusively for trains operated by German-licensed railway undertakings, including Deutsche Bahn (DB Fernverkehr & DB Regio), ÖBB, Swiss Federal Railways and the Basel S-Bahn.

Layout

Basel Badischer Bahnhof has five side platforms serving ten tracks. The platforms are reached from two passenger tunnels leading from the main station building and from the southern tower-wing.

Services

As of the December 2023 timetable change, the following services stop at Basel Badischer Bahnhof:

Long distance services

Line Route Frequency
ICE 12 (ChurZürich –) Basel SBBBasel Bad Bf – Karlsruhe – MannheimFrankfurt – Göttingen – Hamburg – Kiel 120 min
(Interlaken OstBern –)
ICE 20 (Zürich –) Basel Bad Bf – Baden-Baden – Karlsruhe – Frankfurt – Erfurt – Leipzig – Berlin Südkreuz – Berlin – Berlin Gesundbrunnen
Hildesheim – Wolfsburg – Berlin – Berlin Südkreuz 120 min
Mannheim – Stuttgart single service
ICE 43 Basel SBB – Basel Bad Bf – Offenburg – Karlsruhe – Wiesbaden/Mainz – Köln Messe Deutz – Düsseldorf 120 min
ICE 60 Baden-Kurier: Basel SBBBasel Bad BfOffenburgKarlsruheBruchsalStuttgartUlmAugsburgMünchen one train pair
ECE 85 MilanoLuganoZürichBasel SBBBasel Bad BfRingsheim/Europa-ParkKarlsruhe Mannheim Frankfurt one train pair
← Darmstadt ←
Nightjet

Zürich – Berlin

Zürich – Basel SBB – Basel Bad Bf – Offenburg – Karlsruhe – Frankfurt Süd – Leipzig (train split) – Dresden – Decin – Prague single service
EuroNight
Zürich – Prague
Halle – Bitterfeld – Berlin
Nightjet
Zürich – Hamburg-Altona
ZürichBasel Bad Bf – Freiburg – Karlsruhe – Heidelberg – Frankfurt Süd – Hannover – Bremen – Hamburg – Hamburg-Altona single service
Nightjet
Zürich – Amsterdam
ZürichBasel Bad Bf – Freiburg – Offenburg – Bonn-Beuel – Köln – Utrecht – Amsterdam one train pair
FLX 10 Basel Bad Bf – Freiburg – Offenburg – Karlsruhe – Heidelberg – Darmstadt – Frankfurt Süd – Erfurt – Halle – Berlin one train pair

Regional services

Connection Line Frequency Operator
RE 3 Basel Bad BfBad SäckingenSchaffhausen – Überlingen – Friedrichshafen Hafen 60 min DB Regio Baden-Württemberg
RE 7 (Basel SBB -) Basel Bad BfWeil am RheinMüllheimFreiburgEmmendingen – Herbolzheim – LahrOffenburgBaden-BadenKarlsruhe 60 min
RB 27 (Basel SBB -) Basel Bad BfWeil am RheinMüllheimFreiburg – Emmendingen (– LahrOffenburg) 60 min
RB30 Basel Bad BfLaufenburgWaldshutLauchringen (– Erzingen) 30 min
S6 Basel SBBBasel Bad BfLörrachSchopfheimZell (Wiesental) 30 min SBB GmbH

See also

References

  1. ^ Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland [German railway atlas] (in German) (Updated ed.). Cologne: Schweers + Wall. 2020. p. 101. ISBN 978-3-89494-149-9.
  2. ^ "Stationspreisliste 2025" [Station price list 2025] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 28 November 2024. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  3. ^ "Zonen- und Linienplan" (PDF). Tarifverbund Nordwestschweiz. 13 December 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  4. ^ "RVL Tarifzonenplan". Regio Verkehrsverbund Lörrach. December 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  5. ^ Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance (1995), p. 78.
  6. ^ "Basel Bad Bf" (PDF) (in German). Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  7. ^ "Abfahrt: Basel Bad Bf" (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 13 December 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2021.