Gotthard Base Tunnel fully operational again from Monday
Published: Sunday, Sep 1st 2024, 09:40
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More than a year after the derailment of a freight train in the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the route can be fully reopened to freight and passenger traffic. On September 2, the first train will pass through the tunnel from Bellinzona after the test and trial run, as announced by Swiss Federal Railways.
The repair work on the west tunnel, where the accident occurred on August 10, 2023, took around a year. A freight train derailed at 12.48 p.m. on the journey from Chiasso TI to Basel.
SBB estimated the material damage caused by the train derailment, including lost earnings, at around CHF 150 million. Although the railroad company has insurance for such cases, the party providing the train driver is generally liable, explained SBB CEO Vincent Ducrot in November last year.
Commission sees SBB Cargo as responsible
According to the responsible National Council committee, SBB Cargo "as the actual carrier will most likely be liable for the accident in the Gotthard tunnel". Under current law, the wagon keeper is only liable in the event of an accident if the railroad company can prove that it was at fault. A defect in the wagon is not sufficient to prove fault.
The National Council's Committee for Transport and Telecommunications (KVF-N) called for rules on liability in freight transport. Last Tuesday, it passed a motion to this effect by 13 votes to 8 with 4 abstentions. The committee hoped that the revision of the liability regulations would create incentives for wagon keepers to increase safety measures.
The course of the accident
According to the interim report of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (Sust), a broken wheel disk was responsible for the accident in the Gotthard Base Tunnel. About ten kilometers after entering the tunnel, a fragment of the wheel disc broke off, whereupon further fragments came loose, according to the Sust report. 17 kilometers from the tunnel portal, the last fragment came loose and the axle of the wagon hit the switch at the Faido lane change, as Sust further stated. According to Sust, the following 16 freight wagons derailed and the train was torn apart between the 13th and 14th wagon.
As a result, the tunnel's infrastructure was severely damaged and the damaged wagons had to be recovered via the south portal, as further explained in the report.
According to Sust, the reason for the wheel breakage may have been fatigue cracks in the metal. However, according to the current state of the art of the train control equipment used in the Swiss railroad infrastructure, such cracks cannot be detected. The Sust found no evidence of operational defects as the cause of the accident.
SBB explained that seven kilometers of track had to be completely replaced. According to the company, this work was carried out under "extremely challenging logistical and climatic conditions", with temperatures of over 40 degrees. The construction of a new track change gate alone, which separates the two tunnel tubes, took several months, it added.
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