End of the Line at Selnau

If you commute into Zürich on the S4 or S10, your mornings just got longer. As of Wednesday, the SZU underground station at Zürich Hauptbahnhof is shut, completely, until 18 October. That's nearly six months, and there are no replacement buses.

Around 40,000 passengers pass through the SZU's underground platforms on tracks 21/22 every day — a number that roughly matches the entire population of the canton of Uri. During the closure, most trains on both lines terminate at Selnau. During peak hours, the additional S4 services don't even make it that far, turning back at Saalsporthalle. 

The SZU had a simple reason for ruling out buses: the traffic volume around the Hauptbahnhof makes it unworkable — vehicles would get stuck in jams and defeat the purpose entirely. Instead, trams pick up the slack. Lines 3 and 14 run between Bahnhofplatz/HB and Stauffacher, from where it's a six-minute walk to Selnau. The temporary tram line 16, running between Milchbuck and Laubegg via Sihlcity Nord, offers an alternative connection to Saalsporthalle. For those willing to use their legs, the walk from HB to Selnau takes about 12 minutes. Footpaths are signposted in orange. 

So why now, and why so drastic? The station has been open since 1990, and passenger numbers have climbed steadily ever since — today it regularly hits capacity limits during rush hour. The works will extend the platforms, create a third entrance, and bring the whole station up to modern accessibility standards. The deeper goal is bigger: the upgrade is a cornerstone of the SZU's "SZU_4.0" modernisation programme, laying the groundwork for a 15-/7.5-minute timetable frequency from around 2030. 

The total modernisation programme has actually been running since 2017 and isn't due to finish until 2036 — so this six-month shutdown, painful as it is, is just one chapter in a much longer story. The new station is set to open in December 2026.