Readers may remember we recently reported on the Zurich-Munich train line which was being upgraded.
The new timetable over the newly electrified line started yesterday.
However even the most efficient railway, that of German’s Deutsche Bahn, can slip up sometimes.
What happened? Yesterday morning the first SBB (Swiss Railways) train operating Zurich-Munich failed.
It was a victim of a signalling error. Whilst running inside Germany the SBB train was misdirected onto a non-electrified section of track.
Naturally the train came to a standstill. Its pantograph was damaged – check the photos in the above link – but it also meant mainline trains were disrupted for most of Sunday.
A report in Germany’s Allgaeuer-Zeitung displays photos of the diesel loco which came to rescue the stranded SBB train.
Although travel is below normal during the pandemic this newly electrified line has the potential to woo business people away from air.
The intention is to run 12 daily trains in each direction between Zurich and Munich.
SBB’s Italian tilting trains will enable schedules to be cut significantly as we reported earlier.
