Zürich Enge railway station


Zürich Enge railway station is a railway station on the S-Bahn Zürich system in the southwestern part, in the Enge quarter, of the Swiss city of Zürich. The station is located on the Lake Zürich left bank line, although it is now bypassed by the alternative Zimmerberg Base Tunnel routing.
Although now largely confined to serving suburban trains, the station has a particularly imposing semicircular facade. It is inscribed on the Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National Significance.

History

The first Enge station opened in 1875 with the opening of the Lake Zürich left bank line. The line's original routing through the area differed from the current alignment and was largely at street level, with many level crossings. The first station was located about to the south-east of the current station, close the site of the crossing of Albert-Escher-Strasse and General-Wille-Strasse.
The current station was built between 1925 and 1927, when the line was rerouted to the west, using a lower level alignment with more tunneling. The station building is constructed of granite from the Ticino, which fact is marked by the naming of the frontal square as Tessinerplatz. The architects were the brothers Otto Pfister and Werner Pfister, who modelled the station frontage on that of Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof.
As built, the current station had three tracks, which carried all the traffic on both the Lake Zurich left bank line and the Zürich to Lucerne main line. These tracks were served by a side platform to the east and an island platform between the two westernmost tracks. With the opening of the alternative Zimmerberg Base Tunnel routing in 2002, most long distance trains no longer pass through or stop in the station. As a consequence, the westernmost track was removed and the island platform converted to a side platform.

Operation

The rail approaches to the station from both north and south are by tunnel, with the tunnel mouths at the end of the platforms. The Ulmberg Tunnel is to the north, whilst the Enge Tunnel is to the south.

Services

The station is served by lines S2, S8, and S24 of the Zürich S-Bahn:
Stops on Zürich tram routes 5, 7, 10 and 13 are adjacent to the station, as is the terminus of regional bus routes 200, 444 and 445.

Gallery