Gotthard Base Tunnel to fully reopen on 2 September
The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the main rail connection between Switzerland and Italy has been closed since August 2023, causing massive headaches for the rail freight industry. Luckily, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, as the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) say it will reopen without limitations on 2 September 2024.
The accident took place on 10 August 2023 near the Faido multifunction station, when an SBB Cargo freight train derailed due to a broken wheel. The derailment caused extreme damage to the railway and the train hit the gate separating the western and eastern tunnels, destroying it.
The closure of the Gotthard Base Tunnel has been a significant thorn in the side of the rail freight sectors since it is the only line in the area equipped to handle freight trains with a 4-metre profile. A few weeks after the accident, SBB decided to reopen the undamaged eastern tunnel exclusively for freight trains, an ongoing initiative that allows the transit of around 100 daily trains.
A disaster expensive for everyone
For everyone else, re-routing freight trains has been quite the Herculean task for rail freight operators, especially Italian ones, both in terms of costs and capacity availability. A few days after the accident in the Gotthard Base Tunnel, for example, the Frejus Railway, the main rail connection between Italy and France, was closed due to a landslide and has not reopened yet. The closures of the Gotthard and the Frejus axes are costing millions of euros to rail freight operators active on these routes. Moreover, fixing the Gotthard Base Tunnel is also quite an expensive project, as estimates claim that it would cost around 100 million euros.
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