BERN, Switzerland — Passenger trains will begin returning to the Gotthard Base Tunnel as of this Friday, Sept. 29, SBB, the Swiss Federal Railways, announced today.
One southbound train will be operated through the tunnel on Friday and one northbound train will run on Sunday, helping address peak autumn weekend demand on the route to southern Switzerland and Italy. Over the next three weekends, two additional southbound trains will be added on Saturday and one northbound train on Sunday.
SBB said the Federal Office of Transport had granted approval for the movements. Passenger trains have not been allowed since one tube of the tunnel reopened on Aug. 23, because the closure of the second tube as a result of an Aug. 10 freight train derailment prevented the usual evacuation measures in the event of a fire or other emergency. Today’s announcement said that passenger-train movements will come when freight activity decreases and when there is no repair work in the damaged west tube, to facilitate rescue operations. The repair work will take place during multiple shifts during the week.
The first passenger train through the tunnel will depart Zurich at 5:33 p.m. on Friday; this train will operate to Lugano on Friday evenings through the annual SBB timetable change in December. One northbound train from Locarno to Zurich will operate on Sunday evenings. Trains to be added for the autumn holidays in German-speaking Switzerland, which run through Oct. 15, will include two Saturday morning trains from Zurich to Bellinzona and one Sundya afternoon train from Lugano to Zurich.
The additional trains will add up to 900 seats of capacity and save up to 30 minutes in travel time.
Report confirms cause of derailment
Also today, the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board released an interim report confirming that the Aug. 10 derailment was caused by a broken wheel, as had been initially reported [see “Broken wheel blamed …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 14, 2023]. Swiss Broadcasting Corp. website Swissinfo.ch reports the STSB found the broken wheel was caused by metal-fatigue cracks that could not have been discovered by current Swiss train control systems. The first fragment of the wheel, on the train’s 11th car, broke off about 10 kilometeres (6.2 miles) into the tunnel; the last broke off about 7 kilometers later, at which time the car’s axle hit and destroyed a switch. The following 16 cars in the 32-car train then derailed.
The report from the STSB said the damage pattern corresponds to a safety warning issued by Belgian and Italian authorities following similar breaks on freight-car wheels in 2016 and 2017, and called for measures including better visual inspections of wheels to prevent further accidents. SBB said it has “taken note of this report and welcomes the measures proposed by the STSB to the [Federal Office of Transport] to increase security.” SBB also said its freight division, SBB Cargo, does not have any cars with the affected wheel type.
FRA is also investigating wheel fracture s and failures. Although this link seems to have a different type failure maybe its time for cross Atlantic study?
https://www.railwayage.com/mechanical/fra-examines-vertical-split-rim-causes-prevention/
Promise kept.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
I guess the Swiss didn’t think the Belgians or the Italians knew what they were talking about or they would have taken immediate action instead of waiting for a problem to assert itself, which it did in this case… Unfortunate…
Wrong! Article says SBB has no cars with that wheel type. No mention whose car it was.