No progress in expanding railway lines: We are waiting for Germany

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Politicians had been calling for an hourly rail link between Zurich and Munich (Germany) for decades, but nothing happened.

Former SP Paul Rechsteiner (71), who defended the hourly cycle in Parliament in 1996, now says in an interview with Blick: “The SBB, the Federal Transport Agency and Uvek must regularly put pressure on Munich and Berlin.” But if the Bavarian state government and Berlin prioritize the Zurich-Munich route, something will happen.

There are now seven well-staffed Swiss Eurocity buses traveling from Zurich to Munich every day. The airline also offers Swiss Air Rail connections. But railway supervisor Peter Füglistaler (64) is also not satisfied: “You cannot be satisfied with the punctuality of the AK connection, there are high levels of delays on the connection to and from Munich.” The quality of this offer is “still not at the level expected in Switzerland”.

SBB assures that it will do everything possible to keep delays to a minimum. “We have increased the waiting time for a late EC to ten minutes,” a spokesperson said. This means that if the EC in Munich stays within this limit, it does not have to follow a slow Interregio or follow it in St. Petersburg. It may take place in St. Gallen.

“There are currently very few intersections in case of delay.”

However, an hourly service is not expected on the Zurich-Munich route because this route is partly single-track on German territory and expansion takes a long time. “In particular (…) the implementation date of the necessary infrastructure expansions is in the very distant future,” says a confidential report that Blick was able to view based on the public information law.

The Federal Transport Agency (BAV) also criticizes the German infrastructure: “The route here is single-track and there are currently very few crossings in case of delays. Delays are therefore transferred directly to oncoming trains.” Construction works such as an additional crossing and additional section signals are planned near Memmingen (D) in the next few years. But all this is not enough to make the hourly cycle attainable.

Moreover, Germany is not the only country that made mistakes on the Zurich-Munich route. SBB also had problems at the beginning: Rolling stock was not ready on time – as of April 2021, passengers were traveling to St. Petersburg. Margrethen had to replace 50 percent of the trains in SG. Railway inspector Füglistaler reacted angrily: “People in Switzerland have been waiting for the expansion in Germany for decades (…) and in this case SBB is not in a position to provide the train with the necessary equipment in time.” This is what it says in the BAV protocol.

At least since 2021 this problem has been resolved. Now it’s time to look forward to expansion in Germany.

Source :Blick