Zürich Underground Railway
The Zürich Underground Railway, or Zürich U-Bahn, was a project started in the 1970s to build a rapid transit network in the Swiss city of Zürich and several bordering municipalities. This project was itself preceded by several earlier plans dating from between 1864 and 1959. In April 1962, the "Tiefbahn" (rapid transit) project was proposed, which would have included placing the Zürich trams underground in the city centre by building 21.15 km of underground lines, but this was rejected in a referendum before any construction had been undertaken. In the 1970s "U-Bahn" project, the first line would have led from Dietikon via Schlieren, Zürich HB, Oerlikon and Opfikon to Zurich Airport, including two short branch lines to Schwamendingen and Kloten. The two most important development axes of the agglomeration, Limmattal and Glattal, would have been joined onto the network. The line would have been 27.5 km long, 14.8 km of which would have been underground. At a later point in time the construction of two more lines was planned. In spite of initial optimism the project was rejected in a referendum by the voters in the canton of Zürich. Some parts of the lines, which had been built as preliminary