Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft
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| S.A. | |
| Industry | Transport |
| Founded | 1890/91 |
| Headquarters | Zürich, Switzerland |
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Area served
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Lake Zürich |
| Website | http://www.zsg.ch/ |
The Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft or Lake Zürich Navigation Company (commonly abbreviated to ZSG) is a public Swiss company operating passenger ships and boats on Lake Zürich.
The company operates services connecting lake-side towns between Zürich and Rapperswil, as well as more tourist oriented cruises and boat services on the Limmat through the centre of the city of Zürich. It is a member of the Zürich Public Transport Network (ZVV) and transports over 1,5 million passengers every year.
The ZSG is a joint stock company with a share capital of 11 million Swiss Francs (CHF). The share capital – one third is in private hands – is divided into 110,000 bearer shares, each with a nominal value of CHF 100.
Steam navigation started on Lake Zürich in 1834, when Franz Carl Caspar and Johann Jakob Lämmlin founded a new company (Caspar und Lämmlin, Unternehmer der Dampfschiffahrt auf dem Zürcher- und Walensee) and ordered their first ship from William Fairbairn of Manchester, England. The Minerva entered service the following year. When the cuty fortifications were abolished, the then called Bauschänzli bastion remained intact, and served from 1835 to 1883 as the landing site for the first steamboats on the lake, later provided by the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft.
Over the years, various other companies started operating steam ships on the lake, and various mergers took place, until the entire fleet was taken over by the Swiss Northeastern Railway (NOB) in 1874. The NOB also owned most of the railway network around the lake, and this monopoly led to consumer resistance, and to the formation of the Zürcher Dampfbootgesellschaft (Zürich Steamship Company) in 1890/91. In order to operate a tram-like suburban traffic, a series of nine screw steamships was ordered.
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