Gotthard tunnel: Ticino annoyed by lack of information

On August 10 a freight train derailed, causing the temporary closure of both tunnels of the Gotthard Base Tunnel © Keystone / Urs Flueeler

Normal operations in the Gotthard Base Tunnel will not be possible until September 2024. The southern Swiss canton of Ticino is irritated by what it considers slow communication from the Swiss federal railways.

Fabio Regazzi, president of the Swiss Trade Association, considers the estimated time for the tunnel repairs to be inconceivable and unacceptable, according to a reportExternal link on Swiss public radio, SRF, on Monday. Regazzi has the impression that the federal railways is hardly making the greatest effort to reduce this time.

Regazzi also criticised the federal railways’ late communication. Christian Vitta, director of finance and economics for Ticino, agrees. The timetable change is already due in December and only now are they finding out how long the repairs will actually take, and therefore also when the second tunnel of the Gotthard Base Tunnel will be fully accessible again, he said.

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Vitta said he would have liked to have known earlier. “We could have prepared better for this long period if we had known about it earlier,” he said.

Tourism in Ticino is declining

With more lead time, a special campaign for tourists could have been prepared, for example. Ticino is already experiencing a decline in day tourism. Since the accident in August, the federal railways has recorded 30% fewer journeys to Ticino.

However, federal railways spokesperson Sabrina Schellenberg defended the timing of the communication. “We cleared the tunnel of everything that didn’t belong there and everything that was damaged by September 24,” she said.

Once the federal railways had certainty, it became clear that the repair would be more complex, she said.

Christian Vitta hopes that the federal railways will communicate better in future if there are further delays. He is now waiting with bated breath to see how many passenger trains will be allowed to travel through the base tunnel from the timetable change on December 10.

The federal railways has already promised to run more and faster passenger trains. For the time being, however, this will happen only at weekends. Goods trains will continue to run during the week, while the tracks are being repaired.

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