Basel Badischer Bahnhof - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Basel Badischer Bahnhof is a railway station situated in the Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

city of Basel

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

. Whilst the station is situated on Swiss soil, the platforms and part of the entrance hall are extraterritorial, belonging to Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and the station is operated by the German

Germany

railway company Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

. A border crossing

Border Crossing

Border Crossing may refer to:* Border Crossing , an album by saxophonist Mike Osborne.* Border Crossing , a UK hip hop collective musical group.* Border Crossing , a 2001 novel by English author Pat Barker....

is situated in the passenger tunnel between the tracks and the station hall.

The station is one of two large railway stations in Basel, the other being Basel SBB, which is operated by the Swiss federal railways

SBB-CFF-FFS

Swiss Federal Railways and SFR are not in official use) is the national railway company of Switzerland headquartered in Bern. Formerly a government institution, it is since 1999 a special stock corporation with all shares held by the Swiss Confederation or the Swiss cantons...

. It is the only "German" railway station which is not located within Germany, and it is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance

Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance

The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...

. The station is served by line of the Basel S-Bahn.

History

In March 1838, the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways started working on a railway line from Mannheim

Mannheim

Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....

via Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

, Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe

The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...

and Freiburg im Breisgau. This line was called Badische Hauptbahn or Rheintalbahn. A Swiss railway commission desired a continuation of the line into Basel and contacted the state of Baden

Baden

Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....

in 1842.

In January 1851, the Rheintalbahn line reached the village of Haltingen, close to the Swiss border. Since the two governments had not agreed about how to build the station in Basel yet, the passengers were transported across the border with hackney carriage

Hackney carriage

A hackney or hackney carriage is a carriage or automobile for hire...

s.

Finally, on July 27, 1852, a treaty became effective between the government of Baden

Baden

Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....

and the Swiss Confederation

Switzerland

. This treaty is still effective today. The start of construction was further delayed, however, by the Swiss insisting on a terminal station

Terminal Station

Terminal Station is a 1953 film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Production:...

and the Badische Staatseisenbahnen insisting on a through station so as not to hinder the planned extension

Upper Rhine Railway

The Upper Rhine Railway is the name given by the Deutsche Bahn to the 143 kilometre long railway line from Basel to Singen with timetable no. 730...

toward Waldshut

Waldshut

Waldshut is a district in the south of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Lörrach, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and Schwarzwald-Baar; followed in the south by the Swiss cantons of Schaffhausen, Zürich and Aargau.-History:The district dates to the Oberamt Waldshut, which was...

.

The line from Haltingen to Basel was opened on February 19, 1855 with a temporary wooden station building. A further line to Konstanz

Konstanz

Konstanz is a university city with approximately 80,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland. The city houses the University of Konstanz.-Location:...

in Baden was connected to the station in 1856, and by April 10, 1859 Switzerland and Baden had finally agreed to build a permanent station, of which the construction started in May.

The station was moved to its current location between 1906 and 1913.

Special situation

The Badischer Bahnhof is located on Swiss territory, but due to the 1852 treaty between the Swiss Confederation and the state of Baden (one of the predecessors of today's Germany

Germany

), the largest part of it (the platforms and the parts of the passenger tunnel that lead to the German/Swiss checkpoint) is treated as an inner-German station and is operated by the Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn

. The shops in the station hall, however, are located in Switzerland, and the Swiss franc

Swiss franc

The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...

is used as the official currency there (although the euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

is universally accepted).

The customs controls are located in a tunnel between the platforms and the station hall; international trains which continue to Basel SBB usually have on-board border controls. Passport controls were abolished when Switzerland joined the Schengen Treaty.

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