Bière–Apples–Morges Railway
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The Bière–Apples–Morges Railway (BAM) or Chemin de fer Bière-Apples-Morges is a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metre gauge railway with a total length of almost 30 kilometres (19 mi) which links the towns in its name and from a junction at Apples to the village of L’Isle. The company was renamed to Transports de la région Morges-Bière-Cossonay (MBC) to express its other activities, mainly in local and regional bus services. Furthermore the Funiculaire Cossonay–Gare–Ville is part of MBC since 2010, Before, MBC was contracted to operate it.
The communities in the area between Morges, on the shores of Lake Geneva, and Biere first got together to discuss a line connecting the lakeside, the towns in the area and the expanding army barracks at Biere, on 26 September 1875 when they also realised there would also be a traffic flow of forestry and agricultural produce. Five different routes were considered and in the end a compromise route was agreed in 1890 but it took a further four years before construction started. The line opened on 1 July 1895. The line from Apples to L'Isle was opened on 12 September 1896 but after three years it merged with the BAM. Originally the lines were steam worked and it was not until 1943 that the system was electrified, the main line from 10 May, the Apples to L’Isle line from 13 November.
The main line of the system runs from Morges, where the trains use platforms within the main line station of Swiss Federal Railways (CFF/SBB/FFS), to the village of Bière, a distance of 19.1 kilometres (11.9 mi). which takes the passenger from Lake Geneva to the foothills of the Jura mountains. The route is a little circuitous and avoids any major climb, the maximum gradient being 1 in 28 (35.7 mm/m or 3.57%). From the village of Apples there is a 10.6 kilometres (6.6 mi) long branch line to serve L'Isle - Mont-la-Ville. This branch line faces towards Bière and any traffic from the Morges direction has to reverse to gain access. In more recent times a short 2 km (1.2 mi) branch line has been built from a point about 1 km (0.62 mi) prior to Bière to serve a Swiss army installation and this provides military traffic for the railway, in particular trains of tanks carried on standard gauge flat wagons mounted on metre gauge carrying trucks. The line is electrified at 15 kV 16 2⁄3 Hz AC.
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Wikipedia