About this journey

Muttenz station sits at the junction of the Bözberg and Hauenstein lines, serving also as the eastern edge of a massive cargo yard on the outskirts of Basel. The journey begins among freight sidings before joining the Bözberg Line, the main cargo corridor running east from Basel toward the Gotthard Railway, shared here with the Basel S-Bahn S1 as far as Laufenburg.

The route follows the south bank of the Rhine for much of its length, with Germany visible across the water and the river framing each passing town. Near Rheinfelden, the Feldschlösschen Brewery — founded in 1876 and the largest brewery in Switzerland — stands close to the line. Further east, the Leibstadt nuclear power plant comes into view: the youngest and most powerful in Switzerland, its single reactor rated at 1285 MW. Beyond Laufenburg the line transitions onto the Winterthur–Koblenz Railway, a quieter stretch serving cargo and local traffic, where the 108 MW Allbruck-Dogern hydroelectric dam marks the Rhine to the north. At Zweidlen, a six-arch stone viaduct from 1876 carries the line across the Glatt River, and near Eglisau the 457-metre railway bridge of 1897 spans 50 metres above the Rhine. After Eglisau the line turns south, descending from the Rhine valley toward Zürich across 93.6 kilometres in total.

The final kilometres run past Zürich Airport's approach paths and the rail-served fuel depot at Rümlang, which supplies aviation fuel to the airport. Glattbrugg station, on the Oerlikon–Bülach line, closes the journey as an interchange between the Zurich S-Bahn and the Stadtbahn Glattal light rail — a compact urban node that contrasts sharply with the open Rhine corridor that dominates most of this route.