Zurich is still waiting a long time for a better Hardbrücke station

The Zurich City Council would like more security and a ticket counter, but the expensive renovation is not a priority for the SBB.

Im Bahnhof Hardbrücke herrschen enge Verhältnisse – auch nach der «Entrümpelung» von 2017, die auf diesem Bild noch nicht vollzogen ist.

The conditions at Hardbrücke station are tight – even after the “clearing out” of 2017, which has not yet been completed in this picture.

Karin Hofer

Wikipedia entries usually do not contain any comments. In the case of the Hardbrücke station, however, one thinks that one can hear a reproachful undertone: “A proper station building is missing,” can be read there. Of course that’s true. And this is by no means the only deficiency at the station that connects the trains to Oerlikon and Altstetten with the buses over the Hardbrücke. Even after the “clearing out” in 2017, it is still very tight on the platforms – which represents a not inconsiderable security risk for the passengers transferring here.

To the “full-fledged station”

As the train station Opened in 1982, at that time still under the name “Stop”, no one suspected the leaps and bounds that Zurich-West would make in the coming decades. At that time it was reckoned with 8,000 to 9,000 people a day; today there are around 60,000.

Again and again, the defects of the Hardbrücke station are also Topic in the local council. On Wednesday evening, the parliamentary debate revolved around a motion that already called for a “redesign to a fully-fledged and attractive train station” in the title. Urs Helfenstein (sp.) And Ernst Danner (evp.) Called for access to the train station from the east, an improvement in security and a serviced SBB counter.

With its nine S-Bahn lines, five bus connections and tram line 8, Hardbrücke station is one of the busiest in Switzerland. In the longer term, the number of passengers is likely to rise to 80,000 to 90,000 per day. The large Neugasse residential development is to be built in the immediate vicinity of the train station in the next few years. Their residents could benefit from an east access.

With the demand for one Access from the east, possibly via the Wipkinger Viaduct, Helfenstein and Danner ran into open doors. A study by SBB has shown that a new east access would not only improve the accessibility of the station, but also the “flow of people” within the station, the city council said in its response. He explicitly supports this part of the motion. A feasibility study is currently being worked out to find the best variant for an east access.

City is not responsible

The other two points, the The city council refuses to increase security and the switch. The city is not responsible for this, but the SBB and the ZVV. Therefore, their implementation could not be called for with a motion in the city parliament. The city council therefore rejected the motion, but was ready to accept its content as a less binding postulate.

Urs Helfenstein said in the local council that they wanted to move him to split the various demands of the motion into several approaches. But he didn’t want that. He was pleased about the support of the city council for the east access – although he fears that the implementation of the idea will take a very long time. The extension of the Wipkinger Viaduct as a track crossing for bicycles has also been planned for ten years, and nothing has been done yet.

As for security on the platforms and the establishment of a counter, Helfenstein asked who should bring the matter to SBB and ZVV if not the city council. “At least I can’t.” Helfenstein agreed to the conversion into a postulate, but emphasized that he found the city council’s reasoning a bit lamentable.

City Councilor Richard Wolff (al.) Said that the feasibility study for the east access will come, but not in the fall, as originally announced, but only in the winter of this year. Security and switches really have to be left to the railway companies. However, the city keeps talking to them and their concerns are taken seriously.

Wolff also said that widening the platforms in Hardbrücke station would cost very, very much (an amount in the three-digit million range was mentioned later in the debate). The SBB did not want to tackle the major transformation right away. Upon request, the SBB media office announced that this was planned for the next but one rail extension in the canton of Zurich, the so-called Step 2040. The expansion of the Stadelhofen station and the construction of the Brüttener Tunnel are to be tackled earlier, with Step 2035.

The GLP explicitly opposed the installation an SBB counter at the Hardbrücke. Sven Sobernheim even spoke of “switch fetishism”. Nevertheless, the green liberals said yes to the postulate. Only the SVP rejected it in the final vote.

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