Olten railway station (German: Bahnhof Olten) is a major hub railway station in the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, at the junction of lines to Zürich, Bern, Basel, Lucerne and Biel. As a result, Olten is a railway town and was also the site of the main workshop of the Swiss Central Railway (German: Schweizerische Centralbahn), which became a major workshop for the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS). It is the southern terminus of the Basel Regional S-Bahn S3 and S9 lines, the northern terminus of the Lucerne S-Bahn S8 line, and the western terminus of the Aargau S-Bahn S26 line.

Although Olten only has 18,000 inhabitants, the station is used each day by about 80,000 passengers and is one of the 10 busiest in Switzerland, busier than even Geneva. It serves 1,100 trains a day, making it one of the busiest in Switzerland.

Services

As a major railway junction, Olten serves numerous through trains. In addition, a number of local services originate at Olten:

• EuroCity / InterCity / Intercity Express (ICE): half-hourly service to Spiez. Most northbound trains terminate in Basel; a single EuroCity continues to Hamburg-Altona, another to Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, and two ICEs continue to Berlin Ostbahnhof. Most southbound trains continue to Interlaken Ost; one train every two hours continues to Brig. Three EuroCity trains continue from Brig to Milano Centrale.
• EuroCity / InterCity / InterRegio: hourly service to Bellinzona and every two hours to Locarno or Lugano; two trains per day continue from Lugano to Milano Centrale.
• InterCity: half-hourly service between Yverdon-les-Bains and Zürich Hauptbahnhof; hourly service to Geneva Airport, Lausanne, and Rorschach.
• InterRegio: three trains per hour to Bern, two trains per hour to Zürich Hauptbahnhof, and one train per hour to Chur.
• RegioExpress:
  • hourly service to Lucerne.
  • hourly service to Wettingen.
• S20: half-hourly service to Solothurn, with trains continuing from Solothurn to Biel/Bienne, Langendorf, Lommiswil or Oberdorf SO.
• Aargau S-Bahn:
  • S23: hourly service to Baden and half-hourly service to Langenthal.
  • S26: hourly service to Rotkreuz.
  • S29: half-hourly service between Zofingen and Turgi; every other train continues from Zofingen to Sursee.
• Basel trinational S-Bahn:
  • S3: half-hourly service to Laufen and hourly service to Porrentruy.
  • S9: hourly service to Sissach.

See also

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