Monday 2 September marks the grand reopening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, after a year-long closure following a derailment. The tunnel is the main rail connection between Italy and Switzerland, and the closure has caused major headaches for the rail freight industry.
The Gotthard tunnel was closed after a Swiss Federal Railways freight train derailed due to a broken wheel on 10 August 2023. The damage to the tunnel was extensive, forcing a long-time closure.
The tunnel’s downtime has been a disaster for freight operators that usually send their trains through there. It is the only line in the area equipped to handle freight trains with a 4-metre profile. Re-routing freight trains has been a Herculean task for operators, especially Italian ones, both in terms of costs and capacity availability.
A few weeks after the accident, SBB decided to reopen the undamaged eastern tunnel exclusively for freight trains, which allowed the transit of around 100 trains daily.
Frejus railway also closed
To make matters worse, a landslide closed off the Frejus railway, which connets Italy and France, only a few days after the derailment in the Gotthard tunnel. The closures of the Gotthard and the Frejus axes have cost millions of euros to rail freight operators active on these routes. Fortunately, the Gotthard tunnel is reopening today, but the Frejus tunnel will remain closed until early 2025.