St. Gallen railway station
St. Gallen | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) The station building in October 2018 | |||||||
| General information | |||||||
| Location | Bahnhofplatz St. Gallen Switzerland | ||||||
| Coordinates | 47°25′23.459″N 9°22′11.543″E / 47.42318306°N 9.36987306°E | ||||||
| Elevation | 669 m (2,195 ft) | ||||||
| Owned by | Swiss Federal Railways | ||||||
| Line(s) | |||||||
| Distance |
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| Platforms | |||||||
| Tracks | 9 | ||||||
| Train operators | |||||||
| Connections | Ostwind tariff network | ||||||
 | VBSG trolleybus routes[2] 1 3 4 5 | ||||||
 | VBSG bus routes[2] 2 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
PostAuto bus routes[3] 120 121 180 200 201 210 211 242 Regiobus route[4] 151 | ||||||
| Other information | |||||||
| Fare zone | 210 (Tarifverbund Ostwind)[5][6] | ||||||
| Website | Bahnhof St. Gallen | ||||||
| History | |||||||
| Opened | 1856 | ||||||
| Rebuilt | 2018 | ||||||
| Passengers | |||||||
| 2018 | 48,600 per working day[7] | ||||||
| |||||||
St. Gallen railway station (German: Bahnhof St. Gallen) is the main railway station of the city of St. Gallen, the capital of the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It is located at the junction of the standard gauge St. Gallen–Winterthur and Rorschach–St. Gallen lines of Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS), the standard gauge Romanshorn–Toggenburg line of Südostbahn (SOB), and the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge Appenzell–St. Gallen–Trogen line of Appenzell Railways (Appenzeller Bahnen, AB).[1]
Opened in 1856 and completely rebuilt at the outset of the 20th century and refurbished between 2016–2018, the station is owned and operated by Swiss Federal Railways. It is served by both national and international long-distance trains, and is the focal point of the St. Gallen S-Bahn regional train network (it is also included in the Bodensee S-Bahn). The station also serves as a central station to the Appenzell Railways and has many city and urban bus connections in front of the main building.
Besides main station, there are 12 other railway stations in the city of St. Gallen (corresponding to zone 210 of the Ostwind tariff network), which are served only by local trains:[6] Birnbäumen, Bruggen, Güterbahnhof, Haggen, Marktplatz, Notkersegg, Riethüsli, Schülerhaus, Schwarzer Bären, Spisertor, St. Fiden and Winkeln.
Layout and facilities
St. Gallen railway station is situated to the west of the city centre (Altstadt), and consists of two parts. The standard gauge portion of the station, to the north of Bahnhofplatz (lit. 'railway station square'), consists of four platforms (one side platform and three island platforms) serving 7 tracks (Gleis, Nos. 1–7), of which one is a cul-de-sac. In addition, there are four sidings. Towards east, the railway tracks continue through the 1.466 km (0.911 mi) long Rosenberg Tunnel to St. Gallen St. Fiden. Appenzell Railways (AB) serves the meter gauge tracks 11 and 12 with a pair of side platforms at the western end of Bahnhofplatz (St. Gallen AB station).[8] Buses depart from the terminal at Bahnhofplatz.
The station and its forecourt were refurbished between 2016 and 2018.[9] The standard gauge tracks are crossed by two underpasses, the eastern one of which contains shops and take-aways. Additional shops and restaurants as well as the ticket offices are located in the station building. The southern entry of the eastern underpass features a binary clock.
The Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST) is located immediately northwest of the station. Further to the west, there is a circular building, the former Lokremise (lit. 'engine shed' that had a tuntable at its center), which now houses a restaurant and cinema.[10]
Services
Rail
As of the December 2023 timetable change, the following rail services stop at St. Gallen:[11]
- EuroCity (EC): service every two hours between Zürich Hauptbahnhof and München Hauptbahnhof, via Bregenz (runs as ECE 88 in Germany).[a]
- InterCity:
/ 
: half-hourly service to Geneva Airport via Zürich Airport, and hourly service to Rorschach
- InterRegio:
: hourly service to Zürich Hauptbahnhof, half-hourly service to Chur
Voralpen Express: hourly service to Lucerne via Rapperswil and Arth-Goldau
- RegioExpress:
- RE1: hourly service over the Bodensee–Toggenburg line between Herisau and Konstanz via Romanshorn
- St. Gallen S-Bahn (most lines are also part of Bodensee S-Bahn):
- S1: half-hourly service between Wil and Schaffhausen.
- S2 / S4: half-hourly service between Wattwil and Altstätten SG and hourly service to Rapperswil, Sargans, and Nesslau-Neu St. Johann.
- S5: half-hourly (weekdays) or hourly (weekends) service over the St. Gallen–Winterthur railway to Weinfelden and hourly service over the Rorschach–St. Gallen railway to St. Margrethen.
- S20: rush-hour service over the Appenzell–St. Gallen–Trogen railway between Appenzell and Trogen (only calls at Niederteufen, Teufen AR and Bühler between St. Gallen and Gais).
- S21: half-hourly service over the Appenzell–St. Gallen–Trogen railway between Appenzell and Trogen.
- S22: rush-hour service between Teufen AR and Trogen.
- S81: hourly service over the Bodensee–Toggenburg railway to Herisau.
- S82: rush-hour service over the Bodensee–Toggenburg railway to Wittenbach.
- ^ Due to persistent delays of the Deutsche Bahn operated trains, SBB no longer wants to include these trains in the Swiss railway timetable.[12]
On weekends (Friday and Saturday nights), there are also two nighttime S-Bahn services (SN22, SN72) offered by the Ostwind tariff network.[13]
- SN22: hourly service to Winterthur and St. Margrethen.
- SN72: hourly service to Lichtensteig and Romanshorn.
Bus
Several bus routes of Verkehrsbetriebe St. Gallen (VBSG, including four trolleybus lines),[2] PostAuto[3] and Regiobus[4] depart from the station forecourt (Bahnhofplatz).
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Eisenbahnatlas Schweiz. Cologne: Schweers + Wall. 2012. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-3-89494-130-7.
- ^ a b c "Linien- und Zonenplan" [Lines and fare network] (in German). Verkehrsbetriebe St. Gallen. Retrieved 16 August 2025.
- ^ a b "Timetable and network". PostBus Switzerland. Retrieved 16 August 2025.
- ^ a b "80.151 Gossau SG - Arena - St. Gallen" (PDF). 15 September 2023. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
- ^ "Zone maps". Tarifverbund Ostwind. Retrieved 11 August 2025.
- ^ a b "OSTWIND-Zone 210 / 211" (PDF). Tarifverbund Ostwind. Retrieved 16 August 2025.
- ^ "Passagierfrequenz (2018)". Berne, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Railways. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019 – via data.sbb.ch – SBB DATA PORTAL.
- ^ "St. Gallen" (PDF) (in German). Swiss Federal Railways. February 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
- ^ "Bahnhofplatz – urban, funktional, einladend" (PDF) (in German). St. Gallen. Retrieved 16 August 2025.
- ^ "LOK". www.lokremise.ch (in German).
- ^ "Abfahrt: Bahnhof St. Gallen" (PDF). Swiss Federal Railways (in German). 10 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
- ^ "Swiss Federal Railways negotiates with neighbours to cut train delays". SWI swissinfo. 28 January 2024. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
- ^ "Ostschweizer Nachtnetz – Noch mehr Zug und Bus am Wochenende" [Eastern Switzerland's nighttime network – More trains and buses on the weekend] (in German). Retrieved 19 August 2025.
References
- Stutz, Werner (1976). Bahnhöfe der Schweiz [Railway Stations of Switzerland] (in German). Zürich: Verlag Berichthaus. p. 162. ISBN 3-85572-018-5.
External links
Media related to St. Gallen railway station at Wikimedia Commons- St. Gallen railway station – SBB