Bernese Jura Railway

Jura–Bern–Lucerne in 1889
History
Opened	1874
Closed	1890
Route map The gorge of Moutier Combe Maran Viaduct near Saint-Ursanne Legend km elev 123.00 Basel Central- bahnhof[note 1] France Switzerland Delle, France Col des Roches 436 m 124.45 France Switzerland Col des Roches Le Locle La Chaux-de-Fonds 77.63 84.61 Delémont 73.40 Moutier Les Loges 3259 m 74.24 Le Creux Convers 48.28 Sonceboz Chambrelien La Neuveville Neuchâtel 33.59 Biel/Bienne Fräschels Bödelibahn (BB): Därligen 23.37 Lyss Bönigen 7.46 Zollikofen (0.00) Brünigbahn: Brienz 57.77 7.69 Gümligen Meiringen 45.47 37.47 Langnau Alpnachstad 13.18 91.83 Fluhmühle[note 2] Lucerne 0.13 Intermediate stations and connecting tracks not shown. Light red: Neuchâtel–Le Locle line, which was transferred to JN in 1886 and Le Creux–Convers (closed 1888) Dotted: routes jointly owned by the SCB Basel–Delle–Paris–Le Havre train hauled by loco no. 17 before departure Convers station, on the left La Chaux-de-Fonds–Neuchâtel train, right track from Biel

The Bernese Jura Railway (Chemins de fer du Jura bernois, abbreviated Jura bernois, JB) was a railway company in Switzerland. The company was called the Jura–Bern–Luzern (Jura–Bern–Lucerne, JBL) from 1 July 1884. The Jura–Bern–Lucerne merged with the Western Switzerland–Simplon Railways (Suisse-Occidentale–Simplon, SOS) to form the Jura–Simplon Railway (Jura-Simplon-Bahn), JS) on 1 January 1890.

The railway network of the Canton of Bern initially developed according to the interests of the Swiss Central Railway (Schweizerische Centralbahn, SCB). The Grand Council of Bern, decided to conclude a contract with the SCB in 1852. The Central Railway undertook to build the Murgenthal–Bern line and the Solothurn–Herzogenbuchsee railway within four years and in return received tax exemption and the privilege of being given preferential treatment in future grants of concessions to build railways. The Central Railway's construction now concentrated for a period on the more populated areas in the Swiss Plateau. The rugged and economically less developed Jura had a much more limited railway network. The Central Railway had no interest in competing with its existing Hauenstein Railway.

Under the chairmanship of Xavier Stockmar, the Zentralkomitee für die jurassische Eisenbahn (Central Committee for the Jura Railways) planned a railway line from Biel/Bienne to Basel with a branch from Delémont to Porrentruy. Although the concession was granted, it was not built due to lack of funds. To connect the Bernese Jura to the old part of the canton, the Grand Council provided a subsidy of CHF 6,950,000 of the estimated construction cost of CHF 40 million in 1867. The Delémont–Delle railway, which was financed by French companies, was built and handed over for operations on 23 September 1872.

A new situation arose in 1871, with the cession of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War. A line built across French territory and through the Bernese Jura would connect the Paris–Belfort line directly to the Swiss Plateau. The Jura bernois was founded in 1874 as a joint-stock company, with the French Chemins de fer de l'Est subscribing CHF 4½ million and the canton of Basel-Stadt subscribing CHF 0.5 million. The municipalities and Bürgergemeinden of the Jura purchased a total of over 7 million shares, partially exploiting their forests to fund them.

The Jura bernois began construction and opened individual sections of its network between Biel, Convers (near La Chaux-de-Fonds), Delle and Basel between 1872 and 30 March 1877. It complemented its network through acquisitions. The JB bought the bankrupt Jura industriel (JI) for CHF 3.6 million on 1 May 1875 and the Chemin de fer Porrentruy–Delle (PD) for CHF 1.99 million on 16 August 1876. It took over the Bernese State Railway (Bernische Staatsbahn, BSB), including the Zollikofen–Biel –La Neuveville line in 1877. The canton of Bern received JB shares worth CHF 11.56 million in return.

The JB was built during the railway construction boom after 1872 and interest rates and construction prices rose sharply. The recession of 1876 and the subsequent "railway crisis" almost bankrupted even the financially solid Swiss Northeastern Railway (Schweizerische Nordostbahn, NOB). Against this background, the consistent profits of the JB were unusual. The revenue from freight was higher than the revenue from passengers in each year from 1878.

For the start of the operations of the Bern-Lucerne Railway Company (Bern-Luzern-Bahn, BLB) in 1875, the BLB and the Bernese Jura formed a joint operating company called the Jura–Bern–Luzern (Lucerne). This company continued to exist even after the bankruptcy of the BLB and, as of 1 July 1882, the JB leased the line from Bern to Lucerne, which now belonged to the canton of Bern. Thus, the Bernese Jura came into possession of the continuous Delle–Bern–Lucerne line, which connected with the Gotthard Railway. This route competed with the route of the Swiss Central Railway (Centralbahn) via Olten, which lost direct access to the railway from Basel to France after the Franco-Prussian War. The extended route network prompted the railway to change its name to the Jura–Bern–Luzern (JBL).^{[note 3]}

Ten years after its construction, the Canton of Neuchâtel exercised its buyback right and acquired the Neuchâtel–La Chaux-de-Fonds–Le Locle line on 1 January 1886 for around CHF 5 million,^{[note 4]} so it could lease it to the newly established Jura neuchâtelois (JN). However, the JN could not earn enough to pay its rent, which made support by the public sector necessary.

The Jura–Bern–Luzern built the Brünig Railway from 25 August 1886. With the opening of the first, over 44 km long section from Alpnachstad via the Brünig Pass to Brienz on 14 June 1888, the network of the JBL was significantly extended. The extension from Alpnachstad to Lucerne followed on 1 June 1889. The metre-gauge line with sections of rack connects the two tourist regions of Central Switzerland and the Bernese Highlands. In addition, it was considered to have great military importance.

The Jura–Bern–Luzern also took care of the operation of the Bödelibahn (Bödeli Railway, BB) Därligen–Interlaken–Bönigen opened in 1872.

On 1 January 1890, the Jura–Bern–Luzern including the Gümligen–Lucerne line, which was owned by the canton of Bern, and the Western Swiss Railways (Suisse-Occidentale–Simplon, SOS) merged to form the Jura–Simplon Railways (Chemins de fer du Jura-Simplon, JS). From this point on it was the largest Swiss railway company; it was partly owned by the Swiss Confederation as a result of the purchase of shares on the market. On 1 January 1891, the JS took over the operations of the Pont–Vallorbe Railway (Chemin de fer Pont–Vallorbe, PV). Only the JS had sufficient resources to progress on the construction of the Simplon Tunnel that had been planned for decades.

The bridge over the Birs built by Gustave Eiffel for the Bernese Jura collapsed shortly after the merger. The Münchenstein rail disaster on 14 June 1891 was the largest railway disaster in Switzerland to that time.

Bwlow is an overview of the history of the Jura bernois and the Jura–Bern–Luzern (O: opening;   T: takeover):

In 1882, the company owned 67 locomotives, 188 passenger cars and 682 freight cars.^[1]

The locomotives from the beginning were designated as class A for express-tank locomotives, B for locomotives of "Bourbonnais" design (referring to the Compagnie du chemin de fer de paris à Lyon par le Bourbonnais, a predecessor company of the PLM, which developed the design) for passenger trains on mountain lines and freight trains on valley routes, C for freight locomotives, D for pilot tender locomotives and E for shunters. The locomotives were designated according to the uniform system used throughout Switzerland from 1887.

The following locomotives were available to the Jura–Bern–Lucerne. The class designation valid from 1902 is listed in brackets.

Class from 1873	Class from 1887	JBL no.	Name	JS no. from 1890	SBB no. from 1903[note 10]	Manufacturer	Build year	Remarks	Scrapped	Image
I	A2 (Ec 2/4)	1–12	Property of the Bern-Lucerne Railway (see there)
A	A2 (Eb 2/4)	13		13	5441	SLM	1876	Biel workshop from 1903	1917	Passenger locomotive A2 no. 18
		14		14	5442				1904
		15		15	–				1900
		16		16	–				1900
		17		17	5451	Esslingen	1880		1911
		18		18	5452				1927
		19		19	5453				1933
		20		20	5454				1925
		21		21	5455		1881		1928
		22		22	5456				1925
		23		23	5457			1911 MO 1; sold in 1917
		24		24	5458				1919
		25		25	5459		1883	Heating car Xd 99009 from 1927	1927
		26		26	5460				1919
		27		27	5462	SLM	1888		1925
		28		28	5461			Heating car Xd 99011 from 1927	1927
		29		29	5463				1930
		30		30	5464			EB 9 from 1926	1933
		31		31	5465				1919
		32		32	5466			Heating car Xd 99010 from 1927	1933
AI	B2E (Ec 2/5)	41–43	Taken over from the Jura industriel in 1875 (see there)			Esslingen	1856–1858	No. 42 was taken over in 1886 by the JN	1883–1888
–	A3T (B 3/4)	41'		205	1561	SLM	1889		1924
		42'		206	1562				1924
		43'		207	1563				1924
		44		208	1564				1929
		45		209	1565				1924
		46		210	1566				1924
		47		211	1567				1924
		48		212	1568				1932
B	B3T (C 3/3)	51–54	Property of the Bern-Lucerne Railway (see there)							Bourbonnais-hauling tender locomotive B3T no. 54
		55	Delémont	425	–	SACM	1875		1900
		56	Laufon	426	–				1901
		57	Dornach	427	–				1901
		58	Bâle	428	–				1902
		59	Moutier	429	2416		1876		1905
		60	St-Ursanne	430	2405				1903
		61	Porrentruy	431	2415				1911
C	C3T (D 3/3)	101	Stockmar	541	3392	SACM	1874	Originally had operating numbers 1–6. When the JB took over the operation of BLB in 1875, a new numbering scheme was established and the locomotives were renumbered.	1904	JS no. 542, built in Mülhausen
		102	Jura-Bernois	542	3393				1904
		103	St-Imier	543	3360				1908
		104	Bienne	544	3361				1907
		105	Suze	545	–	SLM	1874		1901	JB no. 6 of SLM
		106	Birse	546	3399				1913
		107	Aare	547	3388	SACM	1875		1908
		108	Thielle	548	3394				1907
		109	Sorne	549	3395				1905
		110	Doubs	550	–				1902
		111	Allaine	551	3362		1876		1917
		112	Chasseral	552	3396				1904
		113	Montoz	553	3397				1906
		114	Mont-Terrible	554	3398				1906
		115	Rangiers	555	3363				1917
CI	D3E (Ed 3/5)	141, 142 and 144	Taken over by the Jura industriel in 1875 (see there)			Workshop of the SCB	1859	Taken over by the JN in 1886	1898–1905
		143, 145				Esslingen	1873		1912–1914
D	C3 (Ed 3/3)	151–157	Property of the Bern-Lucerne Railway (see there)
E	F3 (E 3/3)	201		851	8571	SLM	1875		1913
		202		852	8572				1911
Locomotives of the narrow gauge Brünig Railway:
–	G3 (G 3/3)	301		901	101	SLM	1887		1911	Brünig valley locomotive no. 309, now at the BC
		302		902	102				1912
		303		903	103		1888		1911
		304		904	104			1916 Trento–Malè 104
		305		905	105			1916 Trient–Male 105
		306		906	106		1889	1916 IMB 106 1919 Trient–Male 106
–	HG2 (HG 2/2)	351		951	1001	SLM	1887	1908 SV 10 1927 MCL 241	1936	Brünig mountain locomotive no. 352 for mixed adhesion and rack operations
		352		952	1002		1888	1908 MCM 2
		353		953	1003			1908 O&K
		354		954	1004				1908
		355		955	1005				1908
		356		956	1006		1889		1911
		357		957	1007				1911
		358		958	1008				1911

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