Brienz Rothorn steam cog train closed by storm damage

Storm damage has put the Brienz Rothorn Railway, a popular tourist attraction in central Switzerland, out of action for the rest of the year.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Commissioned in 1892, the historic steam-powered cogwheel rail line, that runs from the lakeside town of Brienz up the Rothorn mountain in canton Bern, has a limited annual season from June to October.

+ How Switzerland defends itself against extreme weather

“A section of track over two kilometres is badly damaged,” explained Peter Flück, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Brienz Rothorn Railway. Repairs will take months, and costs are estimated at around CHF5 million.

The Berghaus Kulm hotel on the summit of the Rothorn mountain will also cease operations. A solution is sought by mutual agreement for the seasonal railroad and hotel employees.

The line has 20 permanent employees and 40-50 additional seasonal staff. Customers who have made reservations will be contacted shortly.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].