Gotthard Base Tunnel Derailment: everything you need to know for your trip

• Passengers will receive a 50% discount on luggage and bicycle transport to and from Ticino until 30 November 2023. Further information is available on the SBB website «50% discount on luggage and bicycle transport to Ticino and back».
• You can buy supersaver tickets once again.
• If you are a GA Travelcard customer and decide not to use your GA Travelcard due to a longer journey, you can deposit it for 30 days or obtain a refund at the current conditions. To do this, visit an SBB Travel Centre or call the SBB Contact Center.
• For customers who live in Ticino, the Night GA Travelcard and seven25 annual travelcard are valid for travel from Ticino to German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland as early as 6pm on Sundays until further notice.
• SBB understands that some may feel that prices should be reduced due to the travel situation in Ticino. However, general price reductions due to the longer journey time are not envisaged by the sector.

The online timetable has been updated for the period from the end of November until before Easter 2024. Please check the online timetable shortly before departure to avoid missing any changes.

If you have any questions, please contact an SBB Travel Centre or the SBB Contact Center.

The following trains will run via the Gotthard Base Tunnel up until the timetable change:

On Fridays:

Zürich HB dep. 17:33, Zug dep. 18:00, Arth-Goldau dep. 18:18, Bellinzona arr. 19:42, Lugano arr. 19:58

On Sundays:

Locarno dep. 17:50, Bellinzona dep. 18:23, Lucerne arr. 20:10

From the timetable change on 10 December 2023 until Easter, 24 March 2024

• 31 trains are planned to run between Friday and Sunday evening.
• The journey takes one hour less than via the Gotthard panorama route. For these trains, the journey time between Ticino and German-speaking Switzerland is therefore the same as the journey time before the derailment.
• The exact connections can be found in the online timetable from the end of November 2023. You can find the route, i.e. whether via the Gotthard panorama route or the Gotthard Base Tunnel, in the SBB Mobile app and online by clicking on the connection in the journey information. 
• The new service offer is subject to approval by the Federal Office of Transport (FOT), which we expect will be given shortly before the timetable change in December.

• Due to the restricted profile, only a few freight trains can operate via the Gotthard panorama route. As a result, from Monday to Thursday, all train paths through the Gotthard Base Tunnel are available to freight traffic. From Friday to Sunday evening, a combination of freight and passenger trains travel through the tunnel. This ensures the necessary capacities for both transit and domestic transport. 
• Due to the limited capacity, SBB has focused on those trains for which there is the greatest demand.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel is not expected to be fully operational again for passenger traffic until September 2024.

The new service offer will be in force until before Easter 2024. SBB is examining how it can then adapt the service offer for the following period, particularly for passenger and freight services during the extended holiday weekends of Easter, Ascension and Whitsun. We expect to be able to provide more information about this in the first quarter of 2024.

Seven kilometres of the track must be completely replaced. On this route, two seven-kilometre sections of rails need to be replaced, as well as over 20,000 sleeper blocks and the layer of concrete in which they are cast. The repair work is being carried out at maximum speed across three shifts.

National connection

On the following national routes via the Gotthard panorama route, you should expect a longer journey time, extended by one hour:

• Zurich–Chiasso
• Zurich–Lugano
• Basel–Chiasso
• Basel–Lugano

For international journeys to Italy, you should add one more hour to this – up to two hours longer in total.

International connections

The journey time for international connections between Switzerland and Italy is one hour longer. However, for the most part, you can travel directly to your destination without changing trains in Chiasso. Please note that trains from Zurich, Zug and Arth-Goldau depart one hour earlier. Check the online timetable for full details.

In General

• Your EuroCity reservation is train-specific. This means that the train number on your ticket must match the train number of the train actually used.
• EuroCity tickets purchased before 28 August 2023 can be rebooked to an earlier or later train free of charge up to the last continuous EuroCity stop. For tickets from Milano Centrale, it is not possible to change the destination free of charge to another city within Italy (e.g. Bologna, Genoa) at a point of sale in Switzerland. To make such a change, please contact a Trenitalia point of sale in Italy.

Zurich

Despite the connections largely being direct:

• The EC 326 service (Genoa–Zurich) is cancelled.
• The EC 327 service (Zurich–Genoa/Sestri Levante) is running from Zurich to Milano Centrale on an exceptional basis and is cancelled between Milano Centrale and Genoa/Sestri Levante. The Milano Lambrate and Milano Rogoredo stations are not served.
• The EC 307 service (Zurich–Bologna) is cancelled.
• The EC 308 service (Bologna–Zurich) is running from Milano Centrale to Zurich on an exceptional basis and is cancelled between Bologna and Milan. The Milano Lambrate and Milano Rogoredo stations are not served.

Basel

EuroCity trains from Basel travelling to Italy via Lucerne are currently only running between Basel and Lugano and are cancelled between Lugano and Milan. These trains will instead run as IC21 services within Switzerland.

As of the timetable change: More information will follow.

You can have your ticket exchanged for a later connection at an SBB Travel Centre or via the SBB Contact Center. If a seat is available, you will also receive a reservation. For detailed information on any compensation or refunds, please visit the SBB Help & Contact page «Compensation for delays».

What do I do if I miss my connecting train in Milan, or Italy?

If you miss your connection in Italy due to the longer travel time of the EuroCity train, the «Agreement on Journey Continuation (AJC)» in international rail passenger traffic applies in most cases.

For example, if you have a connection with a Freccia train, Trenitalia will rebook you on the next Freccia train, provided seats are available. To do so, go to one of the many Trenitalia «Assistenza Desks» in the middle of the arrivals hall at Milano Centrale station. Please note that you will only be able to board another Freccia or Intercity train if you have made a reservation at the Trenitalia ticket office in advance. The same generally applies for connections from other stations.

Please note that free rebooking is only possible if the provider of your connecting train is part of the AJC. The following are some of the providers that are not part of the AJC network:

• Trenord is not part of the AJC: If you miss your connection on a Trenord regional train, you can use the original ticket on an alternative Trenord connection as per the printed validity. If the new travel connection falls outside the period of validity originally printed on the ticket, you must purchase a new ticket. You can do this, for example, on the Trenord website «Bigletti ferrovaiari: bigletti digitali e cartacei, como usarli» or on SBB.ch. For any refund claims, please contact an SBB Travel Centre in Switzerland or the SBB Contact Center.
• Italo is not part of the AJC: Please contact Italo at one of their «Assistenza Desks» in the middle of the arrivals hall in Milan station for any questions on rebooking or refunds. Unfortunately, SBB cannot refund Italo tickets.

Yes, reservations are possible.

An appropriate rescue plan was an important prerequisite for the resumption of passenger traffic through the Gotthard Base Tunnel. The safety of passengers is an absolute priority and must be guaranteed at all times. The Federal Office of Transport (FOT) and an independent safety service examined the adapted rescue plan.

Event of a fire

In the event of a fire, passengers would continue to use the accessible connections from the east to the west tunnel in accordance with the adapted rescue concept. They will then be evacuated from the tunnel by train. In the area of
Multifunction station Faido, the evacuation of passengers is done by bus via the access tunnel.

Breakdown

A breakdown is defined as a situation in which a passenger train can no longer continue its journey and cannot be towed away. In this case, the passengers are evacuated from the tunnel by train according to the adapted rescue concept. This is done via the east tube instead of the parallel west tube as is normally the case.

A new emergency plan will be in effect as of the timetable change.

Passenger transport is not comparable with freight transport: checks and maintenance for passenger trains are stricter. Nevertheless, it's impossible to completely rule out such incidents.