Lucerne station to remain closed after train derails

The accident resulted in hours of travel chaos Keystone

Lucerne station is due to remain closed until Monday morning after a Eurocity train carrying 160 passengers from Milan to Basel partially derailed on Wednesday afternoon. Six people received minor injuries.

Several carriages of the Eurocity 158 jumped on the tracks near Lucerne station, causing one to overturn on its side at around 2pm on Wednesday, Swiss Railways reported. The carriage knocked down a power pylon, disrupting power supply to Lucerne station.

The 160 passengers were evacuated from the train and six – three Italians, two Swiss and a Macedonian – were taken to hospital for treatment for minor injuries. Two other trains stopped near to the station as a result of the crash were also evacuated.

The cause of the derailment remains unknown, but it has caused travel chaos at Lucerne station which remains closed. Apart from the regional train service Zentralbahn, there are no intercity or regional train services via Lucerne.

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) advised people to avoid travelling to the city in central Switzerland or to take a local bus. It said there would be no trains at Lucerne station until Monday morning at the earliest, as the damage caused by the derailment was more serious than initially thought.

Additional buses are being provided to help people wanting to travel to the city centre from stations in the city suburbs. Around 163,000 people transit via Lucerne station every day.

On Thursday morning the main roads into Lucerne, the A14 motorway between Lucerne and Zug, and numerous minor roads in the region witnessed very heavy traffic.

The derailment will now be probed by the federal and local authorities along with Swiss Railways investigators.