I've lived here for almost 2 years and I have to agree although it's a little unreliable when it comes to big cities with cancellations and crowding but the sheer volume of connections compensate for it
Basel Badischer Bahnhof, as the name suggests, was built in the middle of the 19th century by the railway company of the (then independent) German Kingdom of Baden. That it why it is a German station in Switzerland. The connection between Badischer Bahnhof and Basel SBB (main city station) was only built years later. Before that, Badischer Bahnhof was the terminus of the railway line from Karlsruhe. A peculiar situation arose after the Nazis came to power in 1933. There was a Swiss postoffice in the station, and Swiss letterboxes, so Germans could send mail abroad without it being read by the German secret police. Also, the station displayed the Nazi-flag, which led to violent altercations with Swiss protesters. After the start of WWII, no German trains rode to Badischer Bahnhof. To reach the German town of Zell, which was connected by rail to Badischer Bahnhof, a railway line was built from the last German town on the line before Basel to the part of the line to Zell which lay in Germany, thereby circumventing Swiss territory. Today, in the English announcements in local trams and buses, Badischer Bahnhof is called Basle German station, and Basel SBB is called Basle Swiss station.
Basel Badischer Bahnhof is where Locomotives used to be changed ( German to Swiss and vice versa in the old days and where the Swiss and German Zollamt used to join the cross border trains pre Schengen)
A nice informative Video, as usual! I agree with you that Basel Bad train station is functional but in a minimalistic way, with availability of essential amenities only within the station.
40 jaar geleden gingen wij met een georganiseerde reis naar Kandersteg in Zwitserland. We kregen 3 treinkaartjes. Van elk station in Nederland naar Basel Badischer Bahnhof; een apart kaartje voor het traject Badischer Bahnhof-Basel SBB; en een kaartje van Basel SBB naar Kandersteg. Weet iemand waarom dit zo gedaan werd? De reis was georganiseerd door het reisbureau van de NS, dat heette toen NS-Trans. Had het daar misschien iets mee te maken? Jaren later boekte ik nl eens een treinreis Utrecht-Basel-Chur, en toen kreeg ik gewoon 1 kaartje voor het hele traject.
In the first minute, walking around the station, it felt oddly similar to Karlsruhe station for a little bit. Is it just me or anyone else sees it too? Btw, nice route visuals! Any chance the map could also show train tracks?