Despite the creation of the Swiss Federal Railways in 1902, Switzerland still has a dense private rail network, with over 40 private rail companies - now mostly run by the public authorities – covering more than 2,000 km and accounting for 13% of the market share of passenger rail transport. They include both standard and narrow gauge lines - with gauges ranging from 600 to 1,200 mm. (Standard gauge is 1435 mm. Some 1,400 km (870 miles) of the total 5,000 km (3,110 miles) of today's network is narrow gauge.) Several start or end their journeys running along city streets like trams - which is what some of them originally were.

From the shortest to the longest

By far the longest line is owned by the Rhaetian Railway in the south eastern canton of Graubünden - it serves the well known resorts of St Moritz, Klosters and Davos, as well as running along the valleys of the Vorderrhein and the Inn, and even over to Tirano, in Italy - a total of 384 km (238 miles). In 2008, this line which offers breathtaking views of the beautiful Albula-Bernina alpine landscape became a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Several lines compete for the title of the shortest. Running only 4 km (2.5 miles), the award should probably go to the Orbe-Chavornay line in the southern Jura - which is also the oldest standard gauge electric railway in Switzerland. It was built in 1894.

The original reasons for building the lines have not always survived. Some were conceived as tourist attractions from the very beginning, others served specific local needs. Several were constructed to link disgruntled locals with the main lines which had passed them by. The Bière-Apples-Morges line in the canton of Vaud was built to ferry troops and military equipment to the barracks in Bière; the inhabitants of the Vallée de Joux used their train to transport ice from frozen lakes, which they sold as far away as Paris.

The BLS

Most of these lines serve locals or tourists in specific areas, but it might be a surprise to learn that until the introduction of Rail 2000 in December 2004, part of one of Switzerland's main transit lines belonged to the BLS company, and even gave it its name: the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon, which runs southwards from Lake Thun through the Lötschberg tunnel to the Rhone Valley, linking the cantons of Bern and Valais along the major route to Milan. In December 2007, as part of the Rail 2000 programme, BLS exchanged two of its long-distance lines and took over some regional lines from the SBB instead.
The example of the BLS shows how being private doesn't mean that companies compete with the Federal Railways. They are supplements, not rivals, and their timetables are worked out to link up with the mainline trains.