Zurich Hardbrücke Layover: Viaduct and Towers
Part of the full Zurich Layover: Old Town and Lake From ZRH
Zürich Hardbrücke, the station for Zurich’s former industrial west, puts the Viadukt’s converted railway arches, a climbable tower of shipping containers and the city’s tallest building within about ten minutes of each other on foot.
Im Viadukt, 36 railway arches turned into shops
The viaduct went up in 1894 to carry trains over what was then a working-class industrial district, and for a century it did what viaducts do, which is cut a neighbourhood in half. A 2004 competition went to the Zurich practice EM2N on the argument that the thing could be turned inside out, and in 2010 the arches reopened glazed and occupied: half a kilometre of delicatessens, studios, galleries and bars, with a covered market hall of around fifty traders at one end.
Trains still run overhead while you walk it, which is most of the appeal, and the market hall is Zurich’s first permanent covered one rather than a weekly stall market.
The Freitag Tower’s 19 stacked shipping containers
Nineteen rusted containers, shipped in from Hamburg by rail, are bolted into a tower 26 metres high on Geroldstrasse, at the western end of the viaduct. Inside is a shop selling bags cut from used truck tarpaulins, around 1,600 of them, stacked over four levels.
The reason to go in is what happens at the top: the stairs keep going past the stock and come out on a small open platform about 25 metres up, free, with no ticket and no obligation to buy anything. From there you get the whole of Zürich West laid out, the Prime Tower alongside, and the Uetliberg ridge on the southern horizon.
Those stairs are single file the whole way up, threading between shelves of stock, and the market hall’s aisles under the arches are barely wider, so this is the rare route where the awkwardness of a bag matters more than its weight.
The Prime Tower and the bar on its 35th floor
Gigon/Guyer finished this in December 2011 on the site of a foundry, 126 metres and 36 floors of green glass with an irregular, faceted plan that changes shape depending on which street you look up from. It was the tallest building in Switzerland for four years, until the Roche tower in Basel overtook it in 2015.
The offices are private, but the 35th floor is not: there is a bar, a bistro and a restaurant up there, and the bar and bistro take walk-ins with no reservation, open daily. A coffee buys you the highest public view in Zurich, out over the lake in one direction and the rooftops of the old town in the other. The restaurant proper books up to three months ahead if you want the full version.
Three minutes to the main station, then the airport train
Hardbrücke is one stop from Zürich Hauptbahnhof, about three minutes, with several services an hour in both directions. From there SBB trains reach the station under the Zurich Airport terminal in 10 to 15 minutes depending on whether it is a through InterCity or an S-Bahn, and departures run roughly every 10 minutes.
The whole journey sits inside one ticket: CHF 7.20 for an adult single in second class across the three ZVV zones, valid for an hour, so changing at the main station costs nothing beyond the wait on the platform. Budget about two hours from Geroldstrasse to your gate at ZRH.
None of the three stops here charges admission except by choice, and two of them end in a view over the same district from different heights. Both of those views are reached on foot, up narrow flights, which is the one thing to sort out before you set off rather than at the bottom of the stairs.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to buy anything to climb the Freitag Tower?
No. It is a shop built out of nineteen stacked shipping containers, and the route up the internal stairs past the stock ends at a small open platform about 25 metres up, which anyone can use for free. Nobody checks a receipt on the way out. The view is over Zürich West, the Prime Tower and, on a clear day, the Uetliberg ridge to the south.
Can you go up the Prime Tower without a reservation?
For the bistro and the bar on the 35th floor, yes: both take walk-ins and are open daily. The full restaurant on the same floor takes bookings up to three months ahead and is worth reserving. Either way the lift ride is the point, since it is the highest public room in the city and the windows run the full height of the floor.
Is Zürich West worth it if you have already seen the old town?
That is exactly who it is for. Nothing here predates the 1890s viaduct, and most of it postdates 2010: converted arches, a container tower, a glass office block, a shipbuilding hall turned into a theatre. If you have not seen the medieval half of the city yet, the Grossmünster and Lindenhof route should come first and this should wait for a second layover.
How do you get from Hardbrücke to Zurich Airport?
Change at Zürich Hauptbahnhof, which is three minutes away by S-Bahn with several services an hour. From there SBB trains run to the station under the airport terminal in 10 to 15 minutes, leaving about every 10 minutes. One CHF 7.20 adult second-class ticket covers the whole thing across the three ZVV zones, valid for an hour, so the change costs nothing extra.