BLS AG is a Swiss railway company created by the 2006 merger of BLS Lötschbergbahn

Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon railway

The Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon railway, known since the merger of the "old" BLS with the Bern-Neuenburg-Bahn , the Gürbetal-Bern-Schwarzenburg-Bahn and the Simmentalbahn in 1997 as the BLS Lötschbergbahn, is a Swiss railway company. It is the largest standard gauge network on the Swiss Railway...

 and Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG

Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG

Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG was a 1997 merger of* EBT - Emmental-Burgdorf-Thun-Bahn* VHB - Vereinigte Huttwiler Bahnen* SMB - Solothun-Münster-Bahnwhich had been under common management for decades already....

. It is 55.8 % owned by the Canton of Berne

Canton of Berne

The Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south...

, and 21.7 % by the Swiss Confederation. It has two main business fields: passenger traffic and infrastructure.

BLS has a subsidiary BLS Cargo which is responsible for all freight operations. BLS Cargo works in cooperation with the freight subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

, Railion

Railion

DB Schenker Rail is a European railway cargo carrier. The company was formed from the freight operating section of the Deutsche Bahn DB Cargo with the addition of various European rail freight operating companies.In December 2007 Railion became part of the DB Schenker logistics group, itself a...

. However, the staff, apart from management and sale, is employed by BLS AG. Part of the BLS locomotive fleet is owned by BLS Cargo.

Infrastructure

In 2007 the new, 34.6 km long, Lötschberg base tunnel

Lötschberg Base Tunnel

The Lötschberg Base Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the BLS Lötschbergbahn's Lötschberg Line cutting through the Alps of Switzerland some below the existing Lötschberg Tunnel. It is currently the world's longest land tunnel and accommodates passenger and freight trains. It runs between Frutigen,...

 opened, which is part of the 449 km of infrastructure owned and operated by BLS AG. For details of the network see the map at right. The Lötschberg base tunnel was built by a wholly owned subsidiary BLS AlpTransit AG. By mid-2007 this company handed over the base tunnel to BLS AG. In 2009 this company was renamed BLS Netz AG and the whole BLS infrastructure passed over to this company which is mainly owned by the Swiss Confederation, which has paid for most of the recent investments.

Passenger train services

Since the merger BLS has been the exclusive operator of the standard gauge part of the S-Bahn Bern. This includes open access services over SBB-CFF-FFS

SBB-CFF-FFS

Swiss Federal Railways and SFR are not in official use) is the national railway company of Switzerland headquartered in Bern. Formerly a government institution, it is since 1999 a special stock corporation with all shares held by the Swiss Confederation or the Swiss cantons...

 and STB Sensetalbahn tracks. Since December 2007 BLS offers a new RegioExpress service over the old Lötschberg route while most SBB and Cisalpino, InterCity, and EuroCity trains use the new Lötschberg tunnel. Here is a full list of regular BLS train services:

S-Bahn Bern

• S1 Laupen/Fribourg-Bern-Münsingen-Thun
• S11 Bern-Flamatt-Fribourg[-Romont]
• S2 Schwarzenburg-Bern-Konolfingen-Langnau
• S22 Bern-Köniz-Schwarzenburg
• S3 Biel/Bienne-Lyss-Bern-Belp(-Thun)
• S33 Bern-Belp-Thun
• S4 (Rosshäusern-)Bern Brünnen Westside-Bern-Burgdorf-Ramsei-Affoltern-W.
• S44 Rosshäusern-Bern Brünnen Westside-Bern-Burgdorf-Wiler/Langnau
• S5 Bern-Kerzers-Neuenburg/Murten(-Payerne)
• S51 Bern-Stöckacker-Bümpliz Nord

S-Bahn Luzern

• S6 Langenthal-Huttwil-Willisau-Wolhusen-Luzern
• S7 (Langenthal-Huttwil-)Willisau-Wolhusen-Trubschachen

RegioExpress

• RegioExpress
  RegioExpress
  The RegioExpress is a fast regional train in Switzerland, run by the Swiss Federal Railways or by other private railways ....
  
   Bern-Langnau-Luzern
• RegioExpress Thun-Konolfingen-Burgdorf-Solothurn
• RegioExpress Bern-Neuenburg
• RegioExpress Bern-Münsingen-Spiez-Brig

Regional trains

• Regio Interlaken Ost-Spiez-Zweisimmen
• Regio Spiez-Frutigen (einzelne Verdichtungen zum RE)
• Regio Thun-Konolfingen-Hasle Rüegsau(-Burgdorf)
• Regio Burgdorf-Solothurn
• Regio Solothurn-Moutier
• Regio Kerzers-Lyss-Büren a. Aare

Other passenger services

BLS owns the lake steamers on Lakes Brienz and Thun. Furthermore, BLS also provides some bus services connecting to the train services.