Passenger train service resumes through Lötschberg tunnel in Switzerland
Passenger trains started running again on Saturday morning through the Lötschberg tunnel in the Swiss Alps. This follows repair work inside the tunnel after heavy rains last week.
The railway company BLS announced that one of the two tunnel tubes reopened at 8.00am on Saturday, allowing passenger traffic to resume.
The two tubes of the 14.6-kilometre Alpine tunnel joining the cantons of Bern and Valais were closed on December 14 after infiltrations were reported. These were caused by heavy rain on the section between Ferden and St. German in canton Valais that led to the diversion of traffic via the summit rail line. Mud, sand and water have now been cleared from one track.
+ Lötschberg tunnel makes rail history
In the second tube, work continues, probably until next weekend. All traffic – including goods – should then be able to resume normally. Currently, part of the freight transport still passes via a longer route over the mountains.
+ Why is the Gotthard Base Tunnel so important?
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
More
Why Switzerland is among the ten fastest-warming countries in the world
More
In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?
More
Suicides in Switzerland quadruple among older people
More
French gangs target luxury cars in Switzerland
More
Renewed controversy in Switzerland over US fighter jets – explained
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.