At the northern entrance to Liestal station, two double-track lines merge into one. This means that the routes of the trains overlap, resulting in so-called crossing conflicts. The resulting bottleneck is a bottleneck in the long-distance traffic of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB AG) and prevents an expansion of the train service in the Basel – Olten area.

With the “ZEB four-track expansion” and “STEP turning track” projects, SBB AG aims to resolve the crossing conflict and at the same time expand the platform and track facilities in a sustainable manner. This will ensure more punctual and disruption-free rail traffic on the Basel–Olten line. Furthermore, the expansion is one of the basic prerequisites for a future expanded train service in northwestern Switzerland. The costs for the four-track Liestal expansion amount to around CHF 365 million, with a cost accuracy in the current planning phase of +/- 10 percent. Around CHF 335 million will come from the credit for the major project “Future Development of the Railway Infrastructure” (ZEB), and around CHF 30 million from the service agreement between SBB and the federal government.