LUCERNE, Switzerland — One of these days, I will give a visit to the Swiss Museum of Transport all the time it deserves. This was not that day. I’ve now been to the museum — the most popular in Switzerland, with about 530,000 visitors a year — twice. Both times, it has been far too […]
OLTEN, Switzerland — Just about every railfan knows what it’s like to have one of those days when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. So it was for me today in Olten. This is not a city high on the must-see list for most vacationers. It doesn’t even warrant a mention in […]
Public rail travel AUSTRIA – When marketing public transportation to new patronage, especially when it comes to rail travel, sometimes promotions must include thinking outside the box. That’s exactly what happened during two summer festivals in Austria as free KlimaTicket passes were given to six participants in exchange for a specific tattoo. The promotion was […]
ST. GALLEN, Switzerland — You ride the Gotthard Panorama Express for the big attractions: the fantastic scenery, the panoramic cars — almost dome-like — that help you take in that scenery — and the honest-to-goodness sliding-window coach that lets you take pictures without a glass reflection. But SBB, the Swiss Federal Railways, has made sure […]
MINNEAPOLIS — Chromatic 3D Materials has begun providing 3D-printed components to be used on rail equipment in Europe. A partnership with the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) resulted in the production of bellows, grommets, cable glands, and valve covers, according to a recent statement from Chromatic. “At Chromatic, we take pride in the durability of our […]
LOCARNO, Switzerland — The trains are new, modern, run on time, and everyone uses them to go everywhere. Clearly, I’m not at home. In fact, and as the dateline has given away, I am in Switzerland. This is night two of my second trip here, this time a three-week adventure. And while I am badly […]
Some of Britain’s iconic High Speed Train locomotives and cars are currently in transit across the Atlantic to Mexico for use on a rail line being rebuilt for the Mexican government in a project led by the country’s Navy. The British HST equipment, along with two Spanish built ‘tram-train’ light rail vehicles previously used for […]
The east tube of the Gotthard Base Tunnel has been reopened for freight traffic and is available for almost 100 trains per day, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) reports. With that route now handling freight traffic that had been rerouted over the Gotthard Pass panorama route, improved passenger service over the panoramic route is planned as […]
Freight trains should be able to begin using the Gotthard Base Tunnel on Wednesday, Aug. 23, Swiss national rail operator SBB said Friday in its latest update on repairs following an Aug. 10 derailment inside the world’s longest rail tunnel. Thirty cars of a northbound freight train derailed because of a broken wheel, causing damage […]
The Gotthard Base Tunnel sustained far more damage than had previous been believed in last week’s derailment, and it will likely be early 2024 before both bores of the world’s longest rail tunnel are back in service, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) announced today (Aug. 16). The tunnel has been closed since Aug. 10, when […]
BIASCA, Switzerland — The closure of the Gotthard Base Tunnel will extend beyond the original estimated reopening date of Aug. 16, SBB, the Swiss Federal Railways has announced. The latest update on the SBB website (in German, as translated by Google) reports investigators have partially released control of the accident scene within the base tunnel, […]
A broken wheel is the likely cause of last week’s derailment in the Gotthard Base Tunnel, public broadcaster SRF reported Sunday, citing information from the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB). A Google translation of the SRF report says automatic equipment showed the train was “sound” as it entered the 35.5-mile tunnel from the south […]
