SBB Infrastructure - Articles and news items

Construction of cross-city link helps relieve capacity limits

Issue 4 2010 / 4 August 2010 /

Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich main station, or Zurich HB) is the central hub for rail traffic in Switzerland. Trains pull in and out of the station virtually every minute, and over 300,000 passengers depart, arrive or change trains here daily. Commuter traffic is forecast to grow in the coming years, and over half a million passengers and passers-by are expected to be using the station every day – exceeding its current capacity limits.

Together with other infrastructure expansion projects, the new 9.6km cross-city link will soon ease the bottleneck, enabling new service patterns to be implemented for suburban (S-Bahn) rail traffic from the end of 2013 and for long-distance services as of 2015. The improved services and new connections will be of particular benefit to users of Zurich’s local S-Bahn network and to rail passengers travelling on the Geneva–Berne–Zurich Airport–St. Gallen route. (more…)

Taking the ‘action not reaction’ future approach

Issue 4 2010 / 4 August 2010 /

Most of the SBB rail network is in good condition. That was the conclusion of an external survey commissioned by SBB and published in February 2010. Future maintenance and renewal of the rail infrastructure will cost significantly more than was previously assumed. SBB Infrastructure has embarked on a comprehensive action plan designed to meet the increased requirements. Philippe Gauderon, Head of SBB Infrastructure and Member of the SBB Management Board, summarised the task ahead as follows: “In future, ‘action not reaction’ will be our motto.” (more…)

Swiss ETCS implementation

Issue 4 2006, Past issues / 28 July 2006 /

ETCS has now become fully operational on one of Switzerland’s main lines.

Since July 2006, ETCS Level 2 has been activated during the evenings to ensure the safe operation of revenue-earning services on the newly built Mattstetten–Rothrist route. At present, therefore, approximately 20 trains a day are being controlled by ETCS.

From the end of 2006, all 240 trains operating on this route every day will be controlled by ETCS, and by mid-2007, ETCS Level 2 will also go into service in the new Lötschberg base tunnel. On the rest of the SBB network, ETCS is due to supersede the existing ZUB and SIGNUM train control systems by 2015. By becoming fully ETCS-compatible within the next ten years, Switzerland will have become a European leader in this field.

(more…)