Swiss take measures to avoid repeat of Gotthard rail derailment

Here are measures to avoid derailments such as the Gotthard 2023 derailment Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Federal Office of Transport has issued new safety measures for freight wagons, aimed at preventing further accidents such as the Gotthard Base Tunnel derailment in 2023.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The implementation of the measures must begin immediately and be completed by the end of the year.

The main change is the requirement for a minimum wheel diameter of 864 millimetres, whereas at European level the limit is 860mm.

+ Why is the Gotthard Base Tunnel so important?

Another point is the maintenance of the wagons, in particular a reduction of the intervals between technical inspections to 50,000km or 200,000km depending on the type of brake and wheel diameter. Inspections include a visual test on the wheels, a percussion test to detect defective parts, and a check for damage or overheating.

In future, the last technical inspection must be documented for each freight wagon so that railway companies can check whether it has been regularly maintained before using it in a convoy in transit through Switzerland.

The transport ministry also recommends the use of modern wheels, which are less prone to overheating and cracks, as well as fitting the wheels with coloured stripes indicating whether they have ever been overheated.

Based on accident report

At the same time, drivers should be instructed to drive in such a way as to avoid such problems. In addition, if the situation permits, a percussion test should be carried out before the train departs.

The transport ministry issued regulations after discussions with representatives of the sector – companies operating goods trains in Switzerland, owners of rail transport vehicles and maintenance bodies.

They were made on the basis of the report by the Swiss Federal Safety Investigation Service in June 2025, which states that there is a systematic risk of wheel breakage in rail freight traffic due to new brake pads made of composite materials.

Safety investigators forwarded the recommendations to the European Railway Agency.

Translated from Italian by DeepL/mga

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]