Zug railway station


Zug railway station serves the municipality of Zug, the capital city of the canton of Zug, Switzerland.
Opened in 1897, the station is owned and operated by Swiss Federal Railways. It forms the junction between the Zürich–Lucerne railway and the Thalwil–Arth-Goldau railway, which connects with the Gotthard railway.
Every day, some 66,000 people pass through the station.

Location

Zug railway station is situated in Bahnhofplatz, right in the heart of the city centre, a short distance from the shore of Lake Zug.

History

The first railway station in Zug was built in 1863-1864 by the architect Friedrich Jacob Wanner, in what is now the Bundesplatz. It was a terminal station, which could be reached only from the direction of Cham and Knonau. With an additional junction, trains could be turned. In 1897, as the railway lines to Zürich via Thalwil and to Arth-Goldau were opened, the station had to be moved to its current site. The original station building was dismantled and rebuilt in Zürich Wollishofen.

Station building

Between 2001 and 2004, a redesigned station building was constructed at the station, at a cost of some 65 million Swiss francs. The building area is approximately 6500 m².
The redesigned building consists of a basement used for storage, one retail space at street level and another at platform level, and three floors of office space above. A total of 14 retail stores are located in the retail spaces. A new passage to the station entrance was specially built, so that pedestrians can reach the concourse more easily. Additionally, the separate Grafenau and Metalli quarters are now easier to reach. For the cyclists, new shelters were built. The newly created Bahnhofsplatz serves as a bus turning area. There are also internet connections, via wireless LAN, at certain locations within the station.
From the onset of dusk until 23:00 hours, the station building is illuminated by a light installation by artist James Turrell. For that purpose, the southern glass facade is equipped with fluorescent tubes, which are mounted so that the colors red, green and blue and resulting mixed colors can be created. As the control system of the light elements can suffer technical problems during long-lasting cold weather, the installation is shut down in such weather.
On 19 October 2005, the station received a Brunel Award for its architecture and light installation.

Station yard

The station yard consists of seven tracks, of which one is a terminating track, while the other six tracks are through tracks. Altogether, there are a side platform and three island platforms, one of which is laid out in a wedge shape. One of the remaining island platforms is a partial side platform, due to the head track status of track 1.
Passenger movements are usually handled as follows:
The following services call at Zug:
The station is the main hub of the Zug Stadtbahn, and is also part of the Zürich S-Bahn.
The Bahnhofplatz outside the station is a focal point of the extensive local public transport network of the Zugerland Verkehrsbetriebe, which has 285 stops and a total route length of.