The Zentralbahn is a Swiss railway company that owns and operates two connecting railway lines in Central Switzerland and the Bernese Oberland. It was created on January 1, 2005, with the acquisition of the independently owned Luzern–Stans–Engelberg line, and the Brünig line of the Swiss Federal Railways. The company has its headquarters in Stansstad. The railway owns the infrastructure of the long inter-regional Brünig line, which links Lucerne and Interlaken over the Brünig Pass, and the long Luzern–Stans–Engelberg line from Hergiswil, on the Brünig line some out of Lucerne, to Engelberg. Both lines are built to the , and use rack railway technology to climb their steepest gradients, although most of both lines uses conventional adhesion. The railway operates two hourly InterRegio express services, one between Lucerne and Interlaken, and one between Lucerne and Engelberg. It also operates two half-hourly services of the Lucerne S-Bahn, the S4 between Lucerne and Wolfenschiessen and the S5 between Lucerne and Giswil. During the rush hour, there are additional trains named S41, S44 and S55. At the Interlaken end of the line, an hourly Regio service is operated as far as Meiringen. Only the two InterRegio services traverse the company's rack sections and require rack equipped stock. History The two lines of the Zentralbahn have quite distinct histories. History of the Brünig line The Brünig line was constructed in incremental stages between 1888 and 1916. The first stages, over the Brünig Pass between Brienz and Alpnachstad were opened by the Jura–Bern–Lucerne Railway (JBL), who also extended the line from Alpnachstad to Lucerne, giving connections to the rest of the Swiss railway network. Subsequently the JBL became part of the Jura–Simplon Railway (JS) in 1891, and the JS became part of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) in 1903. The SBB opened the last section of the line, from Brienz to Interlaken in 1916. As constructed, the line was operated by steam locomotives, and used the Riggenbach rack system to overcome gradients of up to 12% on the approaches to each side of the Brünig Pass. The line was electrified in 1941 and 1942, using the standard Swiss main line system of supplied by overhead line. The rack sections were retained. History of the Luzern–Stans–Engelberg line The major part of the line to Engelberg was constructed by Stansstad–Engelberg Railway (StEB) and opened in 1898. The line ran from Stansstad to Engelberg and, like the Brünig line