Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has completed the switchover to ETCS Level 2 on the first section of the new north-south Gotthard Base Tunnel route.
The in-cab signalling system was commissioned on August 16 on the northern portal’s 19-kilometre feeder line between Brunnen and Erstfeld.
ETCS signalling will allow six freight trains and two passenger trains to travel through the Gotthard Base Tunnel in each direction, every hour.
The southern section between Castione and Pollegio will be using ETCS from November. An 80 km/h speed restriction will initially be in place between Flüelen and Erstfeld.
The tunnel will be completed in October at which point an extension testing programme will begin. More than 3,000 test runs will be conducted throughout the tunnel.
Services are due to commence on December 11, 2016, with the European timetable change.
At 57 kilometres, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will travel through the Alps between the northern portal of Erstfeld and Bodio in the south, will become the longest rail tunnel in the world once complete, stripping the title from Japan’s 53.85 kilometre Seikan Tunnel.
