Orbe-Chavornay railway

Route map
Legend SBB to Yverdon-les-Bains 0.0 km 0 mi Orbe 0.5 km 0.3 mi St-Eloi 1.5 km 0.9 mi Les Granges (Orbe) 3.9 km 2.4 mi Chavornay SBB to Lausanne [1] This diagram: view talk edit

The Orbe-Chavornay railway (O-C) is a 3.9 km standard gauge railway in Vaud, Switzerland, linking the towns of Orbe and Chavornay (where there is an interchange with trains of the Swiss Federal Railways. The line was opened in 1894 and was operated by electric traction from the start - the first electrified standard-gauge railway in Switzerland. The line was initially operated with a direct current overhead power supply 600 Volts and is now 750 Volts.

Since 2001 the line has been operated by the Transports Vallée de Joux - Yverdon-les-Bains - Ste-Croix (TRAVYS).

Modernisation

As of 2017-18 the line is being modernised and upgraded to handle longer trains. The electrification system will be changed to the standard Swiss Federal Railways system of 15 KV alternating current.^[2] To ease the transition and after the existing railcars faced technical defects, Travys acquired two GT8-100C/2S EMUs of Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft, which – having operated as tram-trains in Karlsruhe – are equipped with both 750 V DC and 15 kV 16.7 Hz AC electric traction. Since July 2022, these two EMUs are operating on the line.^[3]

Photographs

• 
  Locomotive Ee 2/2 2 (Ee 927 602) at Orbe station
• 
  Electric railcar Be 2/2 14 (Be 557 614) at Les Granges, 2003
• 
  Restaurant car Br 26 at Orbe, 2003
• 
  Saint-Éloi halt, 2003
• 
  Fe 2/2 32 at Orbe station, 2009
• 
  BDe 4/4 15 and Bt 51 (in the livery of TRAVYS) at Chavornay station
• 
  GT8-100C/2S tram-train in Orbe station

References