Work begins on second Zürich–Winterthur rail route

Work has begun on the long-planned second rail route between Zürich and Winterthur, marking a major step in efforts to ease one of Switzerland’s most heavily used and congestion-prone corridors.

From planning table to construction site

The new route is part of the MehrSpur Zürich–Winterthur project, a national rail investment that will create a largely separate double-track line between the two cities via the nine-kilometre Brüttenertunnel. Publicly available information from federal rail planning documents describes the scheme as a central element of the 2035 rail expansion programme, designed to remove a long-recognised bottleneck on the existing two-track main line.

According to published coverage and project documentation, preparatory construction activities started in mid‑2025 on sections around Zürich Seebach and Winterthur, with early works paving the way for major civil engineering from 2026. These works include site access, utility relocations and safeguarding nearby structures, as well as detailed surveys to monitor the impact of tunnelling and track realignment on adjacent properties.

The core of the project is the Brüttenertunnel, running between the area of Bassersdorf and the outskirts of Winterthur. The tunnel will form a new, faster and more direct connection that bypasses the curving existing route, shortening travel times and allowing more services to operate without overloading today’s infrastructure.

Swiss rail planning reports indicate that the construction window for the tunnel and associated surface works extends roughly from 2026 to the early 2030s, with commissioning targeted in the following years as part of a wider package of capacity upgrades in the Zürich region.

Four tracks between Zürich and Winterthur

Once complete, the project will give the corridor between Zürich and Winterthur a continuous four-track layout for the first time. Federal transport reports explain that the new double-track line through the Brüttenertunnel will operate alongside the existing two tracks, effectively creating a second route that can be used to separate fast and slow services.

This arrangement is expected to significantly raise capacity. Information published by the national rail operator suggests that the number of daily train paths on the corridor could increase by around 30 percent, to roughly 900 trains carrying more than 150,000 passengers per day. That uplift is seen as essential to absorb growing demand from long-distance, regional and S‑Bahn services that all currently share the same constrained infrastructure.

The additional tracks should also improve timetable stability. Today, small delays on the corridor can quickly cascade, as dense traffic leaves little room to recover. With more routing options and dedicated paths for different service types, planners aim to reduce knock‑on delays and enable more robust connections at major interchanges such as Zürich Hauptbahnhof and Winterthur.

In the longer term, the four-track corridor is intended to underpin new service concepts, including more frequent intercity links across eastern Switzerland and a denser S‑Bahn network in the Zürich metropolitan area.

Station upgrades along the new line

The second route is closely tied to significant changes at several intermediate stations. Project information released by the rail operator shows that Dietlikon, Bassersdorf, Wallisellen and Winterthur Töss will all see platform and track modifications to integrate the new line and handle higher traffic volumes.

At these locations, works include new or lengthened platforms, additional tracks and adapted track layouts to segregate through and stopping services. Publicly available planning documents for Winterthur Töss describe how the station will be reconfigured to connect directly with the tunnel alignment and to support future urban development in the surrounding district.

On the Zürich side, the project interfaces with improvements around Zürich Seebach and with the broader node including Zürich Oerlikon and Zürich Stadelhofen. While the Stadelhofen expansion is being advanced as a separate project, strategic reports from the canton and transport authorities consistently treat it as a companion measure to the MehrSpur Zürich–Winterthur scheme, aimed at ensuring the Zürich node can process the additional trains.

Local and regional planning documents also highlight parallel investments in pedestrian, cycling and public-transport access around these stations, reflecting a wider push to anchor major rail projects within integrated urban and mobility strategies.

Costs, timelines and scope adjustments

According to recent project updates, the MehrSpur Zürich–Winterthur package is currently costed at around 3.3 billion Swiss francs, funded through the federal rail infrastructure fund with contributions from the Confederation and cantons. Monitoring reports from the Federal Office of Transport note that cost pressures and procurement risks have required close oversight and some timeline adjustments.

In particular, federal status reports for the 2035 expansion step indicate that the start of main tunnelling works and the planned commissioning date were shifted by roughly one year to mitigate bidding and construction risks and to incorporate findings from the approval procedure. Despite this, the project remains listed as a priority corridor upgrade within national rail strategy documents.

The current programme foresees several years of intensive construction activity, followed by a phased commissioning of infrastructure and services. Given the complexity of integrating a new tunnel and additional tracks into one of the country’s busiest railway nodes, planners emphasise staged implementation to maintain operations during the build‑out.

Transport planning publications suggest that, once in service, the second route will be central to enabling subsequent timetable improvements across the wider network, making the Zürich–Winterthur work a cornerstone investment rather than an isolated project.

What the second route means for passengers and the region

For passengers, the most visible effects of the new route are likely to be more frequent trains, fewer bottlenecks and modestly shorter journey times between Zürich and Winterthur. Technical descriptions of the Brüttenertunnel highlight that its straighter alignment will allow higher speeds compared with today’s route, trimming a few minutes from the end‑to‑end trip.

Regional planning documents also point to broader economic and urban impacts. By reinforcing a key axis of the national rail system, the project is expected to support growth in the Zürich–Winterthur metropolitan area, where population and employment have been rising steadily. Improved reliability and capacity are seen as prerequisites for shifting more trips from road to rail, a recurring objective in Swiss transport policy.

At the same time, environmental and community considerations have featured prominently in the design. Publicly available material on the project outlines measures such as noise protection, careful routing of construction traffic and coordination with landscape and habitat planning, particularly in sensitive areas along the corridor.

As preparatory works transition into full‑scale construction in the coming years, the second route between Zürich and Winterthur is set to reshape how people move along one of Switzerland’s most important transport arteries, while testing the country’s ability to deliver complex rail upgrades within tight spatial and operational constraints.