Swiss lost places: Buchs railway station

Heading nowhere: the abandoned line in Buchs. SRF-SWI

Hotels, castles, railway stations or even entire industrial sites: what happens to these places when they are no longer needed?

Swiss public television, SRF, went on a search around Switzerland to find such lost placesExternal link. This is final instalment of a five-part series.

Buchs in canton Zurich boasts two train stations. From one, in Buchs-Dällikon, regional trains set off every 30 minutes for Baden or Zurich. But at the other, 500 metres to the north, all is quiet.

SRF-SWI

It’s 87 years since the last scheduled train set off from this station. It’s been abandoned ever since. Only a lime tree, planted the year the station opened in 1877, still stands proudly on the site.

The station building with ornate wood-carving motifs and overhanging eaves now enjoys protected status as a historical monument. But the tracks were removed in 1969, and these days only a loading ramp and traces of the old line either side of the station can be seen.

However, the area around is not completely deserted: modern residential homes can be seen to the northwest, while a container housing asylum seekers is found on the station square. As for rail travel however, this ended in 1937, when the last trains ran to Otelfingen and Niederglatt, on the line Baden-Bülach line operated by the Swiss Northeastern Railway company (NOB).

The 19-kilometre route over the Schwänkelberg hill stemmed from an aim to outdo the competition by building a shorter freight train route. But the inferior national railway was taken over by NOB three years later, and the so-called Schwänkelberg line became unattractive for goods, not least because of its steepness. The glassworks in Bülach continued to be supplied with quartz sand from Buchs, and some passenger traffic also survived – but the Baden-Bülach line never gained great significance.

Since 1975, the station has belonged to the municipality of Buchs. Inside the building there is still a waiting room for second and third class passengers, a goods storage area, and an attic apartment. But the future fate of the building and how it will be used is still unclear.

In terms of conservation and monument status, however, it is considered an important testament to Zurich’s railway history.

Factsheet: Buchs railway station

SRF-SWI

Location: Buchs, canton Zurich

Year of construction: 1877

Purpose: built by the Swiss Northeastern Railway company to serve as a functioning station for goods and passengers.

Abandoned since: 1937, when trains stopped running. In 1969 the railways lines were removed.