Rail conquers the Alps

SWITZERLAND | TRANSALPINE FREIGHT
230 km/h is due to start on the 16 km
between Faido and the southern portal
at Bodio in December.
In the Ceneri Base Tunnel, about
60% of the 40 km of bores required
has been excavated, and AlpTransit
Gotthard is confident that the tunnel
will be fit for trains to run in 2019.
collisions with traffic in the same bore
travelling in both directions.
Safety concerns
Safety in the 16·9 km road tunnel
has been a hot topic ever since a collision
between two lorries on October
24 2001 led to a fire in which 11
people died. Additional safety measures
were introduced after the fire,
including enforcement of a 150 m gap
between lorries entering the tunnel.
Nevertheless, from 2002 to 2011 there
were six deaths and about 70 injuries
caused by accidents; another incident
last December killed one motorist
and injured another.
As arguments continue to rage, it
seems that the issue of the second road
tunnel may be put to a referendum in
2015. If the vote is in favour, a start
could be made in 2020, with 2027 seen
as the earliest completion date. Adding
on the time needed for renovation
of the existing tunnel means that that
the two road bores would be fully operational
around 2030.
SBB weighed into the debate on
April 22, stating that construction of
a second Gotthard road tunnel would
only be acceptable if there were a firm
commitment not to increase capacity.
The operator believes that the Gotthard
and Ceneri Base Tunnels will
open up further market opportunities
for rail, but it noted that experience
showed that switching traffic from
road to rail was only possible if limits
were placed on road transit capacity.
An alternative to building a second
road tunnel would be a rail shuttle service
for road vehicles, similar to Eurotunnel’s
operation through the Channel
Tunnel. Grounds for rejecting this
option include insufficient capacity and
the cost of building shuttle terminals
that would become redundant as soon
as the new road tunnel was completed.
Base tunnel progress
Rapid progress is meanwhile being
made with the Gotthard Base Tunnel,
with AlpTransit Gotthard reporting
on April 2 that more than 40% of
railway equipment had been installed.
Slab track has now been laid in both
bores over the 20 km between Erstfeld
and Sedrun, and test running at up to
SBB Cargo will
take over from
BLS Cargo as
DB Schenker
Rail’s partner
on the Gotthard
route from next
December.
Photo: SBB
4 m corridor
There had been a tacit understanding
that opening of the Gotthard
Base Tunnel would be accompanied
by infrastructure improvements to
allow 4 m high lorries to be carried
on freight wagons on the northern
and southern approaches to the base
tunnel — where numerous shorter
tunnels and other obstacles restrict
clearances so that only 3·8 m high lorries
can be carried. In practice, progress
on developing a 4 m corridor
has been very slow, but in December
2011, prompted by the intermediate
target for lorry transits being missed,
the government made a renewed
commitment to complete the work
required in time for opening of the
Ceneri Base Tunnel.
Based on studies carried out by
SBB, the SFr710m programme — to
be paid out of the Finöv public transport
infrastructure fund — will buy
clearance improvements all the way
from Basel in the north to Chiasso
and Ranzo in the south; Ranzo is on
the line from Bellinzona to Luino,
which gives access to Novara, Gallarate
and Busto Arsizio.
The Swiss government has gone
even further. Dr Peter Füglistaler, Director
of the Federal Office for Transport,
wrote in these pages (RG 7.11
p32) that the Swiss policy of switching
freight from road to rail would
only work if Germany and Italy made
commitments to improve their approach
routes too.
While some progress has been
made in both countries, the pace has
been slow. In an effort to accelerate
Table I. Swiss transit traffic, 000 net tonnes
2011 2012
Road 14483 13835
Rail 25627 23714
Wagonload Gotthard 5000 4308
Wagonload Simplon 2683 2550
Gotthard unaccompanied intermodal 9177 9414
Simplon unaccompanied intermodal 6787 5846
Gotthard rolling motorway 182 151
Simplon rolling motorway 1619 1446
Source: Federal Office for Transport
58 Railway Gazette International | June 2013