Following the accident in the Gotthard Base Tunnel, 22 carriages and two locomotives have so far been pulled from the tunnel. According to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), eight carriages remained inside as of yesterday. Recovery operations are expected to continue until the end of September, while repairs to the track will take several more months.
Several carriages were so badly damaged that they had to be dismantled in the tunnel before being removed. The carriages are being recovered via the south portal, which is about 15 km from the accident site. In some sections, a temporary track had to be constructed for this purpose.
For the past two weeks, the undamaged eastern tunnel has been open to freight traffic again. Solutions are being sought for passenger trains so that they too can travel through the base tunnel on weekends. Making a timeline is difficult. Nevertheless, the cleanup work at the accident site in the western tunnel is progressing according to schedule. Actual reconstruction work cannot begin until the cleanup and recovery operations are completed at the end of September.
Photos: SBB
SBB does possess reserve materials, but not in the quantity required for this extraordinary scale of the damage. As previously communicated, it will take several months to repair the damage.
Since August 23, four freight trains at a time have been able to travel consecutively through the undamaged eastern tunnel tube. These are followed by four freight trains from the opposite direction. Currently, around 90 of the maximum possible 100 freight trains per day travel through the base tunnel via the panoramic route, with an additional 15 to 20 freight trains per day.
