A heads up for anyone planning rail travel via Gotthard shortly - all train traffic is being directed over the panoramic route until at least August 16th. You'll need to allow for longer journey times.

I'm very pleased that nobody was hurt, but I'm extremely curious about what went wrong.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/bloombe...route/48727440

Something that might be a photo of the derailement here...
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-revi...d-base-tunnel/

Scenic route is far nicer anyway

Not for freight!

"The Gotthard Base Tunnel remains closed to rail traffic until at least Monday at midnight for goods and Wednesday at midnight for passengers. The derailment of a freight train on Thursday near Faido (TI) caused extensive damage."

https://www.bluewin.ch/fr/infos/fait...r-1845899.html

Mored détails and pictures for those curious..

https://www.reddit.com/r/Switzerland...se_tunnel_for/

That looks like one hell of a clean-up job.

A sea of broken glass and broken bottles everywhere...

Not the wine!!!

Well, that’s a mess. And of course, we’re going to Lugano on Sunday.

Please stay home, we have enough tourists already!

Tom

Thank you. Husband is working in Lugano next week. So I am going.

You're welcome to come visit us friendly folks in Bellinzona!

Hopefully, nothing toxic?

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/06/p...ers/index.html

The weather is pleasant at the moment, should be dry and a high of 30 next week.

We are going to the rustico 4km away with it's 5C cooler weather for lunch, but return each night to sleep and shower (we do have facilities for both at the rustico, but I haven run the boiler in a month, and water pressure is low, so home is better)

The old train route is longer, but nicer. And the Italians and locals are all escaping for the next two weeks (schools reopen early this year, 28 August), so it won't be very crowded.

Tom

Looks like it's going to be shut for months.

"The world's longest rail tunnel has been shut to passenger services after a derailment in Switzerland caused damage that will take months to repair.

Swiss authorities said there was "no indication" when the Gotthard Base Tunnel would reopen.

Sixteen wagons derailed and are still stuck inside, a week after the incident on 10 August."

"SBB said that in total, around 8km (4.9 miles) of track and 20,000 concrete sleepers needed to be replaced.

The rail operator added that one side of the tunnel was unaffected and should be operating "in principle" for freight usage from 23 August, but passenger trains would not be able to use the unaffected side due to safety reasons."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66530480

Awful. Let us hope that at least some cargo capacity comes back next week. There is already a huge backlog of cargo on both sides, and I see quite some businesses are affected.

The cause will be interesting...worn wheels out of round at too high speed? Tracks in that tunnel were supposed to be in great shape, but no longer sure. How can they guarantee that passenger stock can now move safely, given degradation of the tracks by freight trains? Sure, they will replace the 8 km., but what condition is the rest in now?

… and in La Côte https://www.lacote.ch/vaud/la-cote/m...perroy-1314342 (paywalled) today I was reading that the CFF wants to build a tunnel between Perroy and Morges. 9km. 1.3 billion francs.

Anyone think they can be trusted?

Cargo capacity will be back soon. One of the two tubes will be reopened next week, but it's reserved for cargo only.

Who? La Cote? Or SBB?