Zürich Hb

The Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zürich Hauptbahnhof), the largest railway station in Switzerland, has 26 stations (platforms) and is located in the heart of Zurich. The station is located at the northern end of the old town, in the heart of Zurich, close to the junction of the Limmat and Sihl rivers. The station is located on multiple levels, with the platform on the ground and underground and connected to the ShopVille shopping centre via an underground passage.

The station is roughly east-west, located on the northern edge of the city centre and at the northern end of the city's main shopping street, Bahnhofstrasse. It is divided into three main levels, with sixteen terminal platform tracks and the main hall of the station on the ground floor. Below this level is a series of walkways, the ShopVille shopping centre. At the lowest level, parallel to the ground terminal platform, there are 10 underground platform tracks. There are many shopping malls (RailCity) under the underground station in Zurich, and because they are located in the federal government area, they can operate legally on Saturday night and Sunday. The high-end waiting area of Zurich Station is limited to the first class of international trains and the first-class ticket holders.

International trains such as the French TGV, Italy's Cisalpino, Germany's ICE and other important high-speed trains as well as international sleeper trains stop at Zurich.

Katowice Zawodzie

Zürich or Zurich ( ZEWR-ik; see below for other names) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. The municipality has approximately 409,000 inhabitants, the urban agglomeration 1.315 million and the Zürich metropolitan area 1.83 million. Zürich is a hub for railways, roads, and air traffic. Both Zurich Airport and railway station are the largest and busiest in the country. Permanently settled for over 2,000 years, Zürich was founded by the Romans, who, in 15 BC, called it Turicum. However, early settlements have been found dating back more than 6,400 years ago. During the Middle Ages, Zürich gained the independent and privileged status of imperial immediacy and, in 1519, became a primary centre of the Protestant Reformation in Europe under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli.The official language of Zürich is German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect, Zürich German. Many museums and art galleries can be found in the city, including the Swiss National Museum, the Kunsthaus and newer Theater 11 in Oerlikon. Schauspielhaus Zürich is one of the most important theatres in the German-speaking world.Zürich is a leading global city and among the world's largest financial centres despite having a relatively small population. The city is home to many financial institutions and banking companies. Many of Switzerland's research and development centres are concentrated in the Greater Zürich area and the low tax rates and canton funding subsidies attract overseas companies to set up their headquarters or finance treasury services in the city.Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Zürich first on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within". According to several surveys from 2006 to 2008, Zürich was named the city with the best quality of life in the world as well as the wealthiest city in Europe in terms of GDP per capita.

Katowice (UK: KAT-ə-VEET-sə, US: KAHT-, Polish: [katɔˈvitsɛ] ; officially Miasto Katowice; Silesian: Katowicy; German: Kattowitz) is a city in southern Poland, with a city-proper population of 294,510 (as of 2018) making it the eleventh-largest city in Poland and is the center of the Katowice metropolitan area, which has approximately 2 million people. Throughout the mid-18th century, Katowice had developed into a village upon the discovery of rich coal reserves in the area. In 1742 the First Silesian War transferred Upper Silesia, including Katowice, to Prussia. Subsequently, from the second half of the 18th century, many German or Prussian craftsmen, merchants and artists began to settle in the region, which had been inhabited mostly by Poles over the past hundreds of years. Simultaneously Silesia experienced the influx of the first Jewish settlers. In the first half of the 19th century, intensive industrialization transformed local mills and farms into industrial steelworks, mines, foundries and artisan workshops. This also contributed to the establishment of companies and eventual rapid growth of the city. At the same time, Katowice became linked to the railway system with the first train arriving at the main station in 1847.The outbreak of World War I was favourable for Katowice due to the prospering steel industry. Following Germany's defeat and the Silesian Uprisings, Katowice and parts of Upper Silesia were annexed by the Second Polish Republic. Poland was then backed by the Geneva Convention and the ethnic Silesian minority. On 3 May 1921, the Polish army entered Katowice and the Polish administration took control. The city became the capital of the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship as well as the seat of the Silesian Parliament and Committee of Upper Silesia. After the plebiscite, many former German citizens emigrated, however a vibrant German community remained until the end of World War II. In 1939, after the Wehrmacht seized the town, Katowice and the provinces were incorporated into the Third Reich. The town was eventually liberated by the Soviet army on 27 January 1945.Katowice is a center of science, culture, industry, business, trade, and transportation in Upper Silesia and southern Poland, and the main city in the Upper Silesian Industrial Region. Katowice lies within an urban zone, with a population of 2,746,460 according to Eurostat, and also part of the wider Silesian metropolitan area, with a population of 5,294,000 according to the European Spatial Planning Observation Network.Today, the city is considered as an emerging metropolis. The whole metropolitan area is the 16th most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union with an output amounting to $114.5 billion.Katowice is the seat of the Polish National Radio Symphony and Orchestra. It also hosts the finals of Intel Extreme Masters, an Esports video game tournament. In 2015, Katowice joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and was named a UNESCO City of Music.