Basel: New streetcar connection for the new quarters
In Basel, the streetcar network is to be expanded to connect the newly developing neighborhoods to the city center. The government council envisages three additional line sections to Klybeck, through Claragraben and Petersgraben.
Three projects are considered urgent: the new sections into Klybeck, through Claragraben and through Petersgraben. According to the government council, commissioning is planned for 2026 and 2027.
The "Tram Klybeck" leads to the district that is being built on the former Klybeck factory site. The plan is for 10,000 people to live here one day, and 5,000 jobs are also planned. The new streetcar line will connect the existing tracks in Riehenring with those in Klybeckstrasse, thus providing access to the new urban district. In a later expansion step, the track infrastructure will be continued to the Rhine in the area currently dominated by industrial, port and logistics uses, according to the government council. In the longer term, the streetcar is to cross a new Rhine bridge not far from the national border.
The "Tram Claragraben" project is intended to relieve the currently congested axis Barfüsserplatz - Marktplatz - Mittlere Brücke - where up to seven streetcar lines currently run. A new section of track is planned for line 8 through Claragraben, closing a gap in the current streetcar network. The streetcar lines can thus be distributed more evenly over the Mittlere Brücke and the Wettsteinbrücke in the future, which will relieve the corridor between Barfüsserplatz and Schifflände, according to the government council.
A new section of line through Petersgraben, the "Tram Petersgraben" project, is also intended to make the streetcar network more flexible and relieve the city center. In the future, line 16 will run here and relieve the busy bus line 30 between the SBB train station and the university and hospitals. The connection represents a first stage in the conversion of bus line 30 to streetcar operation, the government council says.
For the three streetcar projects in Basel, the government council now wants to trigger the next planning phase and commission the Construction and Transport Department with the preliminary projects. It is therefore asking the Grand Council to approve expenditure totaling CHF 2.3 million for the next planning steps and the overall coordination of streetcar network development.
Furthermore, the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft are planning a tramway development of the agglomeration close to the city, especially in connection with Salina Raurica, the Polyfeld and the settlement development in the Letten quarter of Allschwil and in the Bachgraben quarter. The corresponding streetcar lines are to be extended to these areas. The canton of Basel-Landschaft is in charge of the individual extension projects. (ah)
