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Chronicle

1836 Commencement of scheduled steamship services on Lake Thun: the ancestor of today's BLS-Schifffahrt

1864 Opening of the industry horse tramway between Derendingen and Biberist as the predecessor to the Emmental railway

1872/1874 Construction and commissioning of the Bödeli railway Därligen–Interlaken–Bönigen) as the predecessor to the current route to Interlaken West

1875 – 1899 Opening of
- the Emmental Railway (EB) Burgdorf-Solothurn (1875)
- the Burgdorf-Langnau line (1881)
- the Langenthal-Huttwil (LHB) line (1889)
- the Huttwil-Wolhusen (HWB) line (1895)
- Burgdorf-Thun Railway (BTB), Europe's first fully electrified railway (1899)

1893 –1902 Opening
- of the Lake Thun railway (TSB) (Thun–Därligen, 1893)
- of the Spiez–Erlenbach railway (SEB) (1897)
- of the Spiez–Frutigen railway (SFB) & the Berne–Neuenburg railway (BN) (1901)
- of the Gürbetal railway (GTB) (1901/02)
- of the Erlenbach–Zweisimmen railway (EZB) (1902)

1906 Founding of the Bernese Alps Railway Company Berne–Lötschberg–Simplon BLS

1907 Opening of the Berne–Schwarzenburg railway (BSB)

1908 Opening of the Solothurn–Moutier (SMB) and Ramsei–Sumiswald–Huttwil routes (RSHB)

1913 Opening of the electrified Lötschberg railway along the Frutigen–Kandersteg–Brig route and of the Lötschberg tunnel

1915 Opening of the Grenchenberg tunnel (BLS Moutier– Lengnau route); Opening of the Huttwil–Eriswil route (HEB); 1975 transfer to a bus service

1942 EB and BTB merge to form the Emmental–Burgdorf– Thun railway (EBT); SEB and EZB merge to form the Simmental railway SEZ

1944 LHB, HWB, HEB and RSHB merge to form the associated Huttwil railways (VHB); GTB and BSB merge to form the Gürbetal–Berne–Schwarzenburg railway (GBS)

1976 –1992 Upgrade of the Thun–Brig transit route to an integral twin track

1993 Founding of the subsidiary BLS AlpTransit AG

1994 –2000 Upgrade of the transit route to a 4-m ‘piggyback’ corridor

1997 The jointly operated companies BN, GBS and SEZ merge with BLS to form BLS Lötschbergbahn AG; EBT, SMB and VHB merge to form Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG (RM)

2001 BLS/SBB basic agreement (new task allocation; mainline rail services: SBB, Berne standard gauge S-Bahn: BLS); Founding of the subsidiary BLS Cargo AG; Founding of RAlpin AG and launch of the ‘rolling highway’ along the Freiburg i.Br. (D)–Lötschberg–Novara (I) route

24.4.2006 Founding of BLS AG; Merger with RM AG: 22.6.2006;
Merger with BLS Lötschbergbahn AG: 23.6.2006

15.6.2007 Opening of the Lötschberg NRLA

09.12.2007 Commencement of full timetabled services on the Lötschberg base route

01.01.2009 Formation of the BLS infrastructure spin-off company BLS Netz AG and its merger with BLS AlpTransit AG