Federal railways to raise capacity for national exhibition

The federal railways is promoting the national exhibition, Expo 02, on its trains Keystone

The Swiss federal railways, which is struggling to meet existing commitments because of a personnel shortage, says it will increase its services to cope with the expected five million visitors to next year's planned national exhibition, Expo 02.

At a news conference on Wednesday, the federal railways said it would take on extra staff and lay on additional trains to deal with an anticipated increase in train use during the 159 days of Expo 02.

Paul Blumenthal of the railways passenger division said 200 new train staff would receive temporary contracts for the duration of the exhibition.

He said that figure was over and above the 200 drivers due to be taken on before the end of the exhibition. Half that number have already been recruited and are undergoing training.

“We want to encourage half the 4.8 million visitors expected at Expo 02 to use public transport to get there,” Blumenthal said.

He said 2,500 extra trains would run to the four exhibition sites.

To attract people to use the trains, the federal railways is offering special rates of 20 per cent off the usual rail fare and special family day cards.

The announcement comes amid a reported current shortfall of 1,000 train staff. The railway workers’ union says existing staff are under huge pressure because of the shortage of workers and are suffering from stress and lack of motivation.

The head of the union, Peter Lauener, accuses the railways management of failing to plan ahead. He says that even if all the necessary staff are taken on now they will not be trained up in time to cover the extra demands of Expo 02.

Christian Kräuchi, chief spokesman for the federal railways, admits management did slip up in not recruiting enough people in time. But he says the public is actually getting a better service than before, with three to four percent more trains running since the new timetable was introduced earlier this month.

swissinfo with agencies