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Gotthard Base Tunnel opens again for freight trains

repair workers in a train tunnel
Repair workers in the Base Tunnel last week. Keystone / Keystone

After a derailment two weeks ago led to the closure of the busy tunnel, the first freight trains passed through again on Wednesday morning.

By 7:30am, 21 trains had already passed smoothly through the tunnel, a spokesman for Swiss Federal Railways told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

+ Read more: Gotthard to remain partially closed for months

The east tunnel went into operation at midnight as planned, the spokesman said. The cadence would be continuously increased during the day until four trains per hour could run in both directions in the afternoon. This corresponds to almost 100 freight trains per day.

There will also be improvements in passenger services, the Railways said in a statement. They will continue to be diverted via the panorama route, but from Thursday, more trains can run at maximum length. This means that more seats will be available.

In addition, the Railways plan to again offer “supersaver” tickets to Ticino.

+ The Gotthard: a Swiss national symbol

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