SWITZERLAND | Railways

[Coccodrillo]

Oberalp route (again). In the last photo the road is somewhere under the snow to the right of the railway. My car train was empty, with only 3 cars and 6 passengers. There are four car trains per day per direction, plus a regional train every hour.

[StuZealand]

Is that a typical winter's snowfall depicted or is it more than usual?

[K_]

Originally Posted by StuZealand

Is that a typical winter's snowfall depicted or is it more than usual?

Currently we are seeing a lot more snow than usual in the mountains. There are places that have already seen more than 3m this winter.
One problem facing transportation in the mountains is that the winter has (until this week) been quite mild, but very "wet". So lots of snow, but because of the mild temperatures the snow has not frozen to the ground beneath it, and so moves quite easily. So there are lots of avalanches.

[gramercy]

Originally Posted by Coccodrillo

Variable gauge motor bogies would me more expensive and difficult to build. Beside that, it is hoped to develop a variant of these boogies with rack wheel to be used to brake the train on steepest sections (but not very soon - until then, and maybe forever, these trains will not run on the rack part of the line).

so where should it be implemented? Interlaken-Montreux?

[Coccodrillo]

Yes. The previous idea of laying a third rail between Zweisimmen and Interlaken (so to have a double gauge line) has been abandoned. It is hoped to extend the service to Lucerne, but to do that the problem of the rack sections must be solved. But I doubt this will happen.

[iamawesomezero]

Very beautiful

[K_]

Originally Posted by gramercy

so where should it be implemented? Interlaken-Montreux?

Yes. See here.

I wonder if this system could also for example be used for services directly from Zürich airport to st. Moritz.

[Vaud]

Merchandise rail transport increased in 2010 by 2%, compared to a decrease of -14% in 2009 due to the economic crisis.

The percentage of rail transport amounts to 40% of total land transportation, versus 18% as the EU average. However, its share of transit transport reaches 70%.

source: OFS

[Coccodrillo]

The Castione-Cama railway, once linking Bellinzona TI with Mesocco GR as part of the Rhätische Bahn but now used only by touristic trains, will probably close at the end of 2013

[gramercy]

well all those riiiiiiich folk around locarno/lugano should chip in maybe?

[Coccodrillo]

What?

[gramercy]

cant they fund it from charity?

[Suburbanist]

Originally Posted by gramercy

cant they fund it from charity?

Maybe, but it takes a lot of money to operate a touristic railway. And the locals are unlikely to use it, so what is the point of keeping it open with local charity money? It is one of those things you ride once in a lifetime and that is it.

[Coccodrillo]

It is not a problem of money as the railway covers its costs, but of lack of will of local residents. They want to build things like small public parks and so replacing the tracks, but throwing away a railway that carries (without any cost to locals inhabitants) tourists in a valley without much touristic or industrial attraction doesn't seem a smart idea to me. Even restaurants which receive one or two trains of tourists on summer's Sundays don't seem bothering loosing clients.

The railway has been used until 2003 or so for freight traffic until a (small) heavy industry closed down, that's why it is still usable and cheap to operate.

[Coccodrillo]

Ferrovia Mesolcinese (ex Rhätische Bahn), 1907-2013: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2PMO-7HZLI

[Coccodrillo]

Montreux - Rochers de Naye railway, 27th May 2007

This point isn't really high,around 2000 m/6000 ft.



Source: http://www.beuret.net/

[Coccodrillo]

New narrow gauge trains are often delivered using standard gauge wagons carrying narrow gauge tracks on top, as can be seen here: http://zentralbahn.ch/sites/default/...0160%20001.pdf

The inverse is also possible, with standard gauge vehicles being carried on narrow gauge wagons: http://www.drehscheibe-foren.de/fore...hp?106,5798739 (fourth photo)

A similar system, derived from the Swiss one, is used to carry standard gauge high speed trains on broad gauge lines in Spain.

[steple]

New Regional Express trainsets from Stadler Rail

from railpictures.net:

Brandnew doubledeck trainset RABe 511 101 from Stadler Rail for the SBB on the very first day out on the line. The SBB will get 24 of this 4 car trainsets for Regional Express service on different lines, for example Lausanne-Geneva, Zürich-Bülach-Schaffhausen, Olten-Burgdorf-Bern, Zürich-Brugg-Basel etc.

[Suburbanist]

I'm horrified by the lack of track segregation with fences. The train looks nice.

[Coccodrillo]

Swiss are (usually) not so stupid to cross tracks outside level crossings. I have nearly never seen people doing that, although some accidents happen (mostly in stations, where it is not so easy to build fences).