European Railroad Discussion > Accident in Switzerland

There was a sideswipe accident near Rafz, Canton of Zürich, in Switzerland this morning. A push-pull set powered by Re460 number 460 087(Reka Rail) hit a Double-deck S-Bahn trainset RABe514 046 at a crossover. There are no reported fatalities, but the Driver of the Re460 had to be cut out of the Locomotive Cab.

Photo available here, scroll down the page for slideshow;

http://www.nzz.ch/zuerich/unfall-zug-rafz-1.18487271

Thanks for sharing...

Photos also available at

www.swissinfo.ch

DaleR

And I note (in the U.K. "Daily Telegraph" report) that "...the conductor hit the breaks..." and later, that "...the conductor descended from the locomotive and assisted passengers in leaving the cars..." <<Sigh>>. Apparently, we in the US are not alone in dreadful reporting on railway topics...

Roger Lewis (airbrakegeezer)

The trackage at Rafz Bahnhof is 4 tracks with an Island platform between the middle pair. The InterRegio was on a Zürich to Schaffhausen service train IR2858 which was scheduled to pass Rafz without stopping on the outside track. The S-Bahn service train 18014 had arrived as an empty stock movement and would reverse at the platform as a working service back to Schaffhausen scheduled to follow the IR making all stops. The Swiss train safety uses Signal Balises located between the rails. According to a knowledgeable poster on another forum, the Train Safety System does not handle trains reversing within a signal block well, until the train passes over another Balise. The 4 tracks narrow to 2 tracks immediately before the bridge shown in the photos of the wreck, with the outer pair merging into the inner tracks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/15 23:42 by SOO6617.

airbrakegeezer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And I note (in the U.K. "Daily Telegraph" report)
> that "...the conductor hit the breaks..." and
> later, that "...the conductor descended from the
> locomotive and assisted passengers in leaving the
> cars..." <>. Apparently, we in the US are not
> alone in dreadful reporting on railway topics...


Possibly one of the reasons why one of their star columnists, Peter Oborne, has left.

86235 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> airbrakegeezer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > And I note (in the U.K. "Daily Telegraph"
> report)
> > that "...the conductor hit the breaks..." and
> > later, that "...the conductor descended from
> the
> > locomotive and assisted passengers in leaving
> the
> > cars..." <>. Apparently, we in the US are not
> > alone in dreadful reporting on railway
> topics...
>
>
> Possibly one of the reasons why one of their star
> columnists, Peter Oborne, has left.

ABG, I would, respectfully, disagree with you that this is "dreadful reporting" for a number of reasons:

1) From what I have read the word "conductor", or a translation thereof, was used in direct quotes from eyewitness accounts, rather than text that originated in the UK; I think the Telegraph just used the wire service report, the language of which is unknown to us. It may well be that those eyewitnesses used a word more correctly translated as "conductor", and I for one would favor that form of translation rather than attempting to "improve" or "correct" it.

2) I was under the impression that "conducteurs" is a word widely used in France, especially in the diesel/electric era, and hence by extension Francophone Switzerland, for engine personnel; somewhere in the translation chain, or even the original quote, that may have influenced the selection of "conductor".

3) Since the [ ahem ] driver of the Regional train was trapped in the cab, the reference to the "conductor descended from the locomotive" would seem to apply to the S-bahn service [ unless of course there was someone else in the cab* of the 460.....]; but the S-bahn unit is a 514 class emu, and thus has no locomotive -- should that have been "corrected" also ?

86, are you really saying that "dreadful railway reporting" is possibly a reason for Oborne's departure ? What has he said / done to suggest that ?

Best rgds, SZ

And it appears a student driver may have been at the controls of the 514*....

*Edited to add: Apparently trainee drivers / engineers, with instructors, were at the controls of BOTH trains.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/15 14:02 by Steinzeit.

It appears that, as is usual in many accidents, a number of circumstances coincided to result in this collision.

1) It has already been mentioned that the onboard train control system did not "know", because of the reversal there, that the local train was now standing at a Stop signal. Hence it applied the brakes only when the train passed the signal, stopping the train but beyond the fouling point, where it was then hit by the non-stopping Regional train.
If train speed were limited to N mph, the train would have stopped within a distance that would not have fouled the merging track. This is now proposed as a new rule to follow reversals.

2) Swiss trains normally operate on the left hand track, and hence the signals are normally on the left side. BUT in this instance the signal was on the right, apparently to save the cost of a signal gantry. Unfortunately the Regional train on the right had of course a Proceed signal on its left -- the same side as the local's signal.....

3) It was unusual that the signal for the Regional was green -- the Regional train was late, and was being run against the normal direction of traffic for that track...

SZ

Steinzeit Wrote:
-----------------------------------------
> 86, are you really saying that "dreadful railway
> reporting" is possibly a reason for Oborne's
> departure ? What has he said / done to suggest
> that ?
>
> Best rgds, SZ

No I'm not - it's related to Switzerland, specifically the HSBC tax avoidance scandal, but not a railway accident. But in the past the DT prided itself on the accuracy of its reporting, repeating a press agency report verbatim without fact checking would not have happened. But those days have gone and today the Telegraph, like most other British newspapers is in the hands of interests who do not have a background in journalism, consequently it's news is nuanced to suit the owners. That's why Oborne left.