Geneva-Lausanne rail line re-opens

Rail services on the Geneva-Lausanne line remain reduced. Four regional trains per hour will travel in each direction. A full service will not resume before two weeks. Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

As of Friday morning, trains are running again with a reduced service on the Geneva to Lausanne rail line. The line had been suspended since Tuesday afternoon after land collapsed near the tracks.

The first passenger trains were able to circulate on the line early on Friday morning after workers repaired the holes that appeared between tracks at Tolochenaz, near Morges in canton Vaud, on Tuesday.

However, services remain reduced. Four regional trains per hour will travel in each direction on the line, Swiss Federal Railways said on Friday. A full service will not resume before two weeks. Intercity trains are still cancelled.

Federal Railways advises travellers to avoid non-essential travel in the region until next Tuesday.

Two holes were caused by tunneling work under the tracks carried out by a private company, which was working on a thermal energy project using water from Lake Geneva to heat an industrial zone not far from the train line.

The holes were caused by tunneling work under the tracks carried out by a private company, which was working on a thermal energy project using water from Lake Geneva to heat an industrial zone not far from the train line. Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

Busy link

The Geneva-Lausanne rail link is a busy connection, transporting up to 10,000 passengers per hour and rail freight between France and the rest of Switzerland.

Following the incident, local politicians again called for greater rail investment in French-speaking Switzerland. A second track is needed on this line to avoid such incidents in the future, they said.

“The Lake Geneva region, the country’s second biggest economic hub, is unique,” Nuria GorriteExternal link, the Vaud minister in charge of infrastructure, told Swiss public television RTS on Wednesday.

“We have a single line to link the two major poles [Geneva and Lausanne]. Elsewhere, especially in Swiss German regions, there is always extra capacity and a second line.”

She said French-speaking Switzerland has always been the “poor cousin” when it comes to federal rail investments. The situation in the Lake Geneva region is the result of money being invested in the New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA) – the Lötschberg Base Tunnel and the Gotthard Base Tunnel – and around the Zurich region, she added.

SBB/CFF