The Lausanne-Bern-Fribourg Railway (French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

: Chemin de Fer Lausanne-Bern-Fribourg, LFB) was a former railway company in Switzerland

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....

, formed in 1858 and absorbed into the Western Swiss Railway in 1872.

The aim of the LFB was to connect the French-speaking part of western Switzerland with the German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

-speaking part of central Switzerland with a line from Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

 to Bern via Oron

Oron

Oron may refer to:*Oron , one of the major states in the old Calabar Kingdom*Oron , Switzerland*Oron-la-Ville, Switzerland*Oron-le-Châtel, Switzerland*Oron, Moselle, France*Oron, Nigeria, a city and local government area in Akwa Ibom State...

 and Fribourg

Fribourg

Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...

. The line is now part of the Midland line.

History

On 1 July 1858, the LFB was founded shortly before the Geneva–Versoix Railway

Geneva–Versoix Railway

The Geneva–Versoix Railway is a former Swiss railway company that existed officially for only six days in 1858....

 company, which it absorbed later in the year. On 2 July 1860 it opened a line from Bern to a temporary station at the northern construction camp for the Grandfey Viaduct at
Balliswil (near Düdingen

Düdingen

Düdingen is a municipality in the district of Sense in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland.SC Düdingen is a football club based in the town. They currently play in the Swiss 1. Liga, the third tier of Swiss football.-External links:*...

). On 4 September 1862 the LFB opened the extension of the line from line from Balliswil to Lausanne. On 1 January 1872, the Western Swiss Railway (French: Chemins de Fer de la Suisse Occidentale, SO) was formed out of a merger of the Lausanne-Fribourg-Berne Railway with the West Switzerland Company

West Switzerland Company

The West Switzerland Company was a railway company in Switzerland, formed 1854 and absorbed into the Western Swiss Railway in 1872. The OS built a railway network in western Switzerland and connected with France via Geneva in 1858, although Switzerland's first railway was the French...

 (French: Compagnie de l'Ouest-Suisse, OS) and the French–Swiss Company (French: Compagnie Franco-Suisse, FS).