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About Switzerland

     Switzerland (German: Schweiz, French: Suisse, Italian: Svizzera, Romansh: Svizra), officially the Swiss Confederation (Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country code CH), is a landlocked country of 7.5 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km². Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called cantons. Berne is the seat of the federal government and de facto capital, while the country's economic centers are its two global cities, Geneva and especially Zürich.

     Switzerland is bordered by Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. Switzerland is multilingual and has four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Switzerland has a long history of neutrality – it has not been at war since 1815 – and hosts many international organizations, including the Red Cross, the WTO and one of the U.N.'s two European offices.

    The Latin formal name of Switzerland, Confoederatio Helvetica is derived from the Helvetii, an ancient Celtic people in the Alpine region. It is rendered in German as Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, in French as Confédération suisse, in Italian as Confederazione Svizzera and in Romansh as Confederaziun svizra. The independence of Switzerland is traditionally dated to August 1, 1291; the first of August is the national holiday.

    With an area of 41,285 square kilometres (15,940 sq mi), Switzerland is a relatively small country. The population is about 7.4 million, resulting in an average population density of 182 people per square kilometer (472/sq mi). However, the more mountainous southern half of the country is far more sparsely populated than this average, while the northern half has a somewhat greater density, as it comprises more hospitable hilly terrain, partly forested and partly cleared, as well as several large lakes.

     Switzerland comprises three basic topographical areas: the Swiss Alps, the Swiss plateau or "middleland", and the Jura mountains along the northwestern border with France. The Alps are a high mountain range running across the central-south of the country. Among the high peaks of the Swiss Alps, the highest of which is the Dufourspitze at 4,634 metres (15,203 ft), are found countless valleys, many with waterfalls and glaciers. From these the headwaters of several major European rivers such as the Rhine, Rhône, Inn, Aare, and Ticino flow finally into the largest Swiss lakes such as Lake Geneva (Lac Leman), Lake Zürich, Lake Neuchâtel, and Lake Constance.

     The most famous mountain is the Matterhorn (4,478 m) in Valais and Pennine Alps bordering Italy. The highest mountain, the Dufourspitze (4,634 m) or Monte Rosa, is close to the Matterhorn. The section of the Bernese Alps above the deep glacial Lauterbrunnen Valley containing 72 waterfalls is also well known for the Jungfrau (4,158 m), Mönch, Eiger group of peaks, and the many picturesque valleys in the region. In the southeast the long Engadin Valley, encompassing the St Moritz area in canton Graubünden, is also quite known and the highest peak here is the Piz Bernina (4,049 m).

 

About Luzern

     The Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn (LSE) is a narrow gauge rack railway in Switzerland with a track gauge of 1,000 mm (3 ft 3⅜in). It connects Lucerne by Stans with a resort near Engelberg.

     In the year 1890 the concession to build a line was given from Stansstad to Engelberg. The opening of the track of the Stansstad-Engelberg-Bahn (StEB) followed in 1898. It was electrified from its beginning, which made it at that time the longest electrically operated railway line of Switzerland. Because of the maximum upward gradient of 25% on the track section between Grafenort and Engelberg, it was decided to use three-phase alternating current. In order to avoid a "steilstrecke" with Gruenenwald (a road crossing the track) a balance bridge was established over the rails for motor traffic.

     The railway ended at that time in Stansstad at the Lake of Lucerne. For a continuation after Hergiswil with connection to the SBB Brünigbahn in 1956, a concession was passed. However, it could not be accomplished by the StEB due to its financial difficulties. In 1964, there followed a complete reorganization of the railway with the change of the overhead lines tor 15 kV 16 2/3 Hz, as well as the continuation after Hergiswil. In December the line went back into business as the Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn (LSE).

    On the section between Hergiswil and Lucerne, the LSE has speeds comparable with of that of the Brünigbahn.

    The LSE merged with the SBB Brünigbahn in 2005 to form the Zentralbahn.