Train passengers between north and southernmost Switzerland will have to skip the world’s longest train tunnel and go back to the longer scenic route for months, rail authorities have said, after a freight service derailed and tore up the track.
Sixteen cars that jumped the tracks in last Thursday’s derailment remained stuck inside the 57km (35-mile) long Gotthard base tunnel in the southern Ticino region, national railway operator SBB said on Wednesday.
No one was injured but the damage was considerable. Pictures showed, among other things, wine bottles strewn along the tracks.
The tunnel is a crucial thoroughfare for goods and cargo, particularly between Germany to the north and Italy to the south. In 2022, more than two-thirds of rail freight traffic through the Alps passed through the tunnel, according to the Swiss government.
One side of the tunnel – the tube that was unaffected in the derailment – should be operable “in principle” starting next Wednesday for cargo trains, SBB said, but passenger train traffic would have to wait for months.
“It appears that the extent of damage is considerably greater than that shown by the first estimates. In total, about eight kilometres (five miles) of track and 20,000 concrete railroad ties will have to be replaced,” SBB said. “Restoration work should continue until the end of 2023.
“Passenger trains will run on the panoramic route until further notice,” it said. The alternate route adds an hour for domestic travellers and two hours for international travelers.
The tunnel was opened in 2016 amid enormous fanfare and a lavish choreographed theatrical show involving scores of performers.
Leaders of France, Italy and Germany were at the inauguration ceremony for the Gotthard, an engineering feat deep under snow-capped Alpine peaks that took 17 years to build at a cost of Sfr12.2bn (US$12bn).
The tunnel was created to help cut travel times, ease roadway traffic and reduce air pollution.
Although Switzerland is not one of the 27 members of the European Union, the EU railway network gets a big boost from the shortcut through the Alps, and the tunnel fits into a broader freight network that runs from the Dutch port city of Rotterdam to Genoa, Italy.
With Associated Press in Geneva
