The damage following the derailment of a freight train in the Gotthard Base Tunnel extends over a total of 8 km. SBB CEO Vincent Ducrot admits to the media that the extent of the damage is greater than initially expected. Repairing the damaged tunnel will take several months.

The tracks look as if they've been torn up by a rail wolf. The Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (SUST) and the public prosecutor's office had to reopen the tunnel before clearance work could even begin. According to Ducrot, clarifying the cause of the accident takes priority over reopening the tunnel in order to prevent future incidents of this kind.

SBB CEO V. Ducrot

"The incident has international repercussions," said the SBB CEO this afternoon. Freight traffic is not expected to be able to use the intact parallel tube (eastern tube) again until August 23rd – passenger traffic must be diverted via the panoramic route until further notice. The reason for this is that the parallel tube sustained no damage. However, overall safety cannot be adequately guaranteed if, for example, a passenger train were to come to a standstill, and in such an emergency, people might have to be evacuated via a second tunnel that would then be unavailable. They will also learn from the incident. A blessing in disguise, said Ducrot: "There were no injuries in the accident (involving the freight train)."

Photos: SBB

After the critical derailment at the switch leading to the connecting tunnel, at a speed of around 100 km/h, the coupling and compressed air connection to the following train sections – some of them tank wagons – broke. Rudolf Büchi, SBB's Deputy Head of Infrastructure, said: "We have a very large number of concrete sleepers that were smashed." The majority of the train continued practically alongside the track. The locomotive and the front cars were still on the rails, while 14 others were no longer on the tracks. Initially, there was talk of a single car, then of 23 cars.

The train was traveling from Chiasso toward Basel. The wagons were arriving in Germany from five destinations in Italy. In Chiasso, the wagons are reassembled on such occasions. The wagon and brake inspections were carried out flawlessly. "Such inspections are carried out according to the specifications of the International Union of Railways (UIC)," said Isabelle Betschart Kühne, Head of Production at SBB Cargo.

In southern Ticino, an oncoming train driver had already noticed smoke on the train involved in the accident. During a subsequent inspection in Bellinzona, a stuck brake on one of the freight cars was discovered and released. This was not the car that was presumably the first to derail. After the fault was rectified, the train was cleared to continue. Between Bellinzona and the tunnel, the train then passed through automatic control devices again until 3 km before the tunnel, which, as reported, did not trigger any further alarms.

The cars from five different Italian destinations were also routinely inspected before their departure in Chiasso, where SBB Cargo assembles the cars into new trains, and no irregularities were found. Trains passing through the base tunnel are inspected at a total of 70 locations by largely automated systems. The braking systems are also checked for any defects at the respective border crossings between Italy, Switzerland, and Germany.

The tracks in the Gotthard Base Tunnel are embedded on concrete sleepers, which in turn rest on rubberized vibration-damping foundations. Büchi: "These are not standard tracks." SBB currently assumes that both tunnel tubes will not be available for rail traffic again until early 2024.

SBB is working hard to ensure that the undamaged eastern tube can be used for freight traffic as soon as possible. To this end, the damaged, permanently installed gauge changeover gate will be temporarily replaced with a mobile gate. The severely damaged gauge changeover gate is a custom-made item. The gate provides fire protection during normal operation and ensures the separation of air circulation between the two tunnel tubes.

Isabelle Betschart Kühne did not want to comment on the question of which company the freight car with the presumably defective wheelset ultimately belonged to until the reports from the SUST and the public prosecutor's office were available.

SBB Cargo is currently increasingly using the Lötschberg route as an alternative route, accounting for up to 30 percent of its traffic. The Lötschberg-Simplon Tunnel was originally scheduled to be closed for maintenance work starting August 21st – but the start of work there has now been postponed to August 23rd. The Brenner Pass will reopen on August 23rd after maintenance work.

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