European Railroad Discussion > New Rail Tunnel in Switzerland

Saw a blurb on my version of AOL News about the new "world's longest tunnel" in Switzerland at 35 miles in length between Erstfeld and Biodo along the Gotthard route.  It's scheduled to open for service in Dec 2016.  Apparently, the project has been running "on time"  from the start of construction.  Fifty-five years ago I had the pleasure of riding the entire line - both in daylight and darkness.  The three spiral tunnels at Wassen were unbelievable and most memorable.

Yes, while the tunnel will no doubt be a huge improvement for travel times & commerce, it will be a great loss for railfans!

I had the pleasure of a trip to Europe last September & specially went to the Gottard area to experience rail on the Gotthard Pass as it is now.  A railfan friend & I stayed in the village of Airolo, at the south portal of the (current) Gotthard Tunnel. The Hotel Forni is across the road from the "bahnhof" & has rooms offering great views of the constant passing trains. 

We travelled through the Gotthard Tunnel to the north portal station of Göschenen, then spent a wonderful day walking down the Gotthard Pass on the "Wanderweg", a signposted walking trail.  For the majority of the time the trail is within sight of the rail line. After about 3 hours (with lots of stops for photos & viewing) we arrived at Wassen for train watching & lunch. We then continued onto the village of Gurtnellen, for more train watching before catching a local bus to Erstfeld, which has a loco depot (and the home of a number of historic electic locos)

The "Wanderweg" is suitable for anyone with reasonable fitness, but it can be quite steep at times. You can also walk down the south slope. It's a case of walking as far as you want, then catching the local bus to the nearest station, as the road is also generally close by, with signposts to the bus stops along the trail.  Even the local passenger trains no longer stop at either Wassen or Gurtnellen.

Some photos & video of the walk:
1. Goschenen station, with the north tunnel portal in the background. The narrow gauge Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn departs from behind the station building on the right & climbs by rack railway to Andermatt, up the valley directlu behind the station nameboard. Most of this line is in snow shelters, one of which can be seen on the middle right of the photo.

2. A Locarno bound passenger passes along the Wanderweg, near Wassen.

3. View on the track from a tunnel portal at Wassen - the Wanderweg actually passes across the Portal! This is the centre level of track at Wassen. This view is looking south, but actually northbound for trains!


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/15 18:15 by Stephenloco.

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More photos!
4. From the tunnel portal, the truck performs a "U turn" mainly in tunnel, and appears at a lower level along the river in the left of the photo.
5. A Milan bound service entering a tunnel on the lower level. It will pass us on the centre level in about 45 seconds.
6. The signposts all along the trail.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/15 18:13 by Stephenloco.

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Beautiful shots.  Brings back memories.

Video of freight trains passing Wassen station. The camera is looking south, but northbound for trains! 
The first is a Southbond BLS freight led by RE 425 193 & 165 & with a 185 class on the rear. While an SBB freight led by Re 6/6 #11667 & Re 4/4 #11339 heads north.
More videos via the link in my profile. 

Photos & video taken on Sunday, 14 September 2014

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http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3612779 <phorum break> <phorum break> some of my images when i was there last fall............

Thank you everyone for a great report with pictures and video! Gotthard base tunnel really changes a lot of traffic patterns, but fortunately some passenger services still remain on the older route.

Below some of the passenger training on Gotthard pass:
1) Stadler Rail is preparing new high speed EC250 "Giruno" sets for this route, but they will not be finished by the time Gotthard Pass base tunnel opens. (Actually it looks like test traffic starts in October 2016). EC250 is an EMU with almost 100% _low_floor_, running max. 249 km/h /  155 mph, first of its kind in high speed class (or is it?).  Anyone know what "Giruno" means? A pigeon? 
2) To be used meanwhile SBB has ordered more type 610 Pendolinos (SBB class RABe 503) from Alstom Italian plant in Savigliano. These are modern tilting train sets capable of the same 249 km/h / 155 mph. (Because of EU crash norms 251 km/h / 156 mph can't be used, as this would force much more robust collison structures to be built)
3) I suppose the now in traffic on Gotthard Route 200 km/h ICN units (SBB class RABDe 500) will still be there, as the traffic amounts will definitely surge when the travel times will become much shorter than previously. Again, airliners must be on the loosing side, along with all rubber wheeled traffic. ICN runs a maximum of 200 km/h / 125 mph. As you can tell from Nick's great picture, it tilts effectively too, appears to be more than Pendolinos do (correct me if I'm wrong on this).

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My son, Dan, and i spent a wonderful day at Göschenen in August 2005.  Will some passenger trains still travel this route to connect with the rack line to Andermat?  Gerry



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/15 06:40 by GPutz.

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Whoow, what an exellent set of pictures Gerry! I've read in magazines that passenger connections will still exist, but maybe it would be best to be confirmed by our Swiss / South German / Austrian members? 

 

excellent ! Thanks for sharing!

GPutz Wrote:
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> My son, Dan, and i spent a wonderful day at
> Göschenen in August 2005.  Will some passenger
> trains still travel this route to connect with the
> rack line to Andermat?  Gerry

i think i heard when i was in Erstfeld that the suburban EMU  TILO type sets that terminate at present that come down from Arth Goldau, are going throught to Goshcenen next year



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/15 18:22 by bakersfielddave.

bakersfielddave Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> GPutz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > My son, Dan, and i spent a wonderful day at
> > Göschenen in August 2005.  Will some
> passenger
> > trains still travel this route to connect with
> the
> > rack line to Andermat?  Gerry
>
> i think i heard when i was in Erstfeld that the
> suburban EMU  TILO type sets that terminate at
> present that come down from Arth Goldau, are
> going throught to Goshcenen next year
I had first heard that the InterRegio woulld continue to run over the top, then the story changed to the S-Bahn from Zug to Erstfeld would be extended to Göschenen. On the south ramp some of the the S-Bahns already run to Airolo at the south portal.

Something about the terminology: what does "test traffic" in October mean. Do the freight and passenger services or some of them get to run throught the new tunnel?

Below one of the tunnel boring machine heads from Switzerland. Look at the size of it!

 

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McKey Wrote:
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> Anyone know what "Giruno" means? A
> pigeon? 

Giruno = Buzzard

At least that is better than the all too prescient "Albatross" for the Dutch - Belgian HSR trainsets from AnsaldoBreda.

You are absolutely right, knowing the story... , isn't the albatross supposed to run forever? Any knowledge of the Albatrossses of AnsaldoBreda today? Piled up on their yard in Southern italy?

Below a true subspecies Rough legged buzzard. Its a pretty big bird and appears to be quite fearless. Picture from Malmabana.

SOO6617 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> McKey Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Anyone know what "Giruno" means? A
> > pigeon? 
>
> Giruno = Buzzard
>
> At least that is better than the all too prescient
> "Albatross" for the Dutch - Belgian HSR trainsets
> from AnsaldoBreda.

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