In this video, we'll be starting on the first railway built on Swiss territory and continuing our journey on one of the first railways built in France. This line beat the first Swiss railway (The Spanisch Brötli Bahn) by 3 years, with the section connecting Basel in Switzerland and St. Louis in France, opening in 1844.
The first parts of the line opened to traffic in 1840, 13 years after the first French railway. At this stage, the French network only consisted of about 500 km of rails. 1841 saw the majority of the line complete, with the remaining sections being completed by 1846.
The whole region was given over to Germany after the FrancoPrussian war of 1870, until the end of World War I in 1918. This led to the line being optimised for right hand drive operation, which is still the case today.
Germany also opened a connection line between St. Louis and Weil am Rhein, allowing transit from Germany into the Elsass region without the need to pass through Basel. Parts of the line still exist for the industry and docks.



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