Why did Switzerland build a 2 kilometer long train?
(Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN) --
High in the Swiss Alps, St. Moritz made a name for itself as a place to push the limits of winter sports.
By the time it hosted the second Winter Olympics in 1928, its reputation as a playground for wealthy adventurers was already well established.
This October 29, the region continued its long tradition of pushing the limits of what is possible with an epic world record attempt, not on snow or ice, but on rails.
To celebrate the 175th anniversary of Switzerland's first railway, the country's railway industry came together to launch the world's longest passenger train: 100 carriages, 2,990 tons and almost two kilometers long.
Consisting of 25 new "Capricorn" electric trains, the record-breaking 1,906-meter train took nearly an hour to travel some 25 kilometers (about 15 miles) along the spectacular UNESCO World Heritage-listed Albula line from Preda to Alvaneu in eastern Switzerland.
Like the legendary Cresta Run toboggan run, the Albula Line is famous for its endless hairpin turns and steep drop-offs.
A world-renowned civil engineering masterpiece, the 62-kilometre line between Thusis and St. Moritz took just five years to build despite requiring 55 bridges and 39 tunnels.
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Before its completion in July 1904, visitors had to make a daring 14-hour journey down the rough tracks in horse-drawn carts or sleds.
The centerpiece of the line is the 5,866-meter-long Albula Tunnel, which runs under the watershed between the Rhine and Danube rivers.
Spirals, elevated viaducts and tunnels
The train spirals down a network of tracks through the mountains.
(Photo: swiss-image.ch/Philipp Schmidli)
Following part of the route taken by the world famous Glacier Express since 1930, the world record attempt included the spectacular Landwasser Viaduct and the extraordinary spirals that ensured the line's international heritage status.
In less than 25 kilometers, the train plummeted from 1,788 meters above sea level in Preda to 999.3 meters in Alvaneu, using a succession of spirals, high-rise viaducts and tunnels.
The record attempt was organized by the Rhaetische Bahn (Rhaetis Railway, or RhB), with the support of Swiss train builder Stadler, and is perhaps all the more surprising for taking place on a narrow gauge railway.
Unlike most Swiss and European railways, which use the "standard" gauge of 1,435 meters (4 ft 8.5 in), the RhB's rails are only one meter apart.
If we add to this a layout with very tight curves, steep slopes, 22 tunnels and 48 bridges over deep valleys, the challenges are evident.
The previous record holders for the world's longest passenger train—Belgium and, before that, the Netherlands—used standard-gauge railway tracks across flat landscapes to their advantage.
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However, preparations began months before the RhB event, including test runs to ensure the single train could run safely.
"We all know the Albula line very well, every change of slope, every incline," lead driver Andreas Kramer, 46, said ahead of the big day.
"Needless to say, we went through the process over and over again."
He added: "We have to be 100% in sync, every second. Everybody has to keep their speed and other systems in check at all times."
An initial test ended in failure before the train moved, when it was discovered that the emergency braking system could not be activated and the seven drivers could not communicate with each other by radio or mobile phone in the many tunnels.
Kramer, assisted by six other drivers and 21 technicians, instead used a temporary field telephone system created by the Swiss Civil Protection organization to maintain communications as the train traveled at up to 35 km/h through countless tunnels and deep valleys.
Specially modified software and an intercom between the seven drivers allowed all 25 trains to work in harmony.
Any misalignment in acceleration or deceleration during the journey would have exerted unacceptable forces on the tracks and power supply, creating a significant safety issue.
RhB Director Renato Fasciati said: "Switzerland is a railway country like no other. This year we celebrate 175 years of Swiss railways. With this world record attempt, the RhB and its partners wanted to do their bit to accomplish a groundbreaking feat that has never been seen before."
Party atmosphere
The train consisted of 100 wagons.
(Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
On the long descent, speed was controlled by regenerative braking, similar to that used in some electric cars, which fed current back to the 11,000-volt overhead power lines.
However, with so many trains on the same stretch of line, it was feared that they could put too much current back into the system, overloading both the trains and the local power grids.
To avoid this, the maximum speed of the train was limited to 35 km/h and the software had to be modified to restrict the power that was fed back.
Additional safety control cables also had to be installed throughout the train to support the standard mechanical and pneumatic connections between the trains.
On the big day, the RhB organized a railway festival in Bergün and 3,000 lucky ticket holders were able to watch the record attempt via live television broadcast while enjoying local entertainment and cuisine.
Normal services through the Albula tunnel to St Moritz and beyond were suspended for 12 hours.
Three satellite links, 19 cameras on drones and helicopters, on the train and along the track, filmed the train, providing a unique record of this once-in-a-lifetime event.
This in itself was a major challenge in a remote and mountainous region with limited mobile telecommunications coverage.
a railway nation
The record attempt was organized to celebrate 175 years of Swiss railways.
(Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
For a small country with a mountainous landscape that, at first glance, seems unsuitable for rail, Switzerland is way beyond its means in this industry.
Necessity has long made it a pioneer in electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering, and its technology and expertise are exported around the world.
Engineering feats like the Gotthard Base Tunnel, opened in 2016, continue a long tradition of pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
With good reason, the Swiss are the most enthusiastic rail users in the world, traveling an average of 2,450 kilometers each year by train, a quarter of their annual total.
Like other European countries, mobility has skyrocketed in recent decades: the average annual distance traveled by car and public transport has doubled in the last 50 years.
In 2019, the last "normal" year before the covid-19 pandemic, 19.7 billion passenger kilometers traveled by train.
In 2021 this figure will drop to 12.5 billion passenger kilometres, but as Switzerland celebrates the 175th anniversary of the opening of its first railway between Zurich and Baden, passenger numbers are on track to return to pre-pandemic levels. .
The expectations of public transport users in Switzerland are so high that even a small delay is a silent source of dissatisfaction.
And not without reason;
much travel in and around Switzerland's largest cities is multimodal, relying on skillful connections between trains, trams, buses, and even ships at well-organized interchanges.
As of 2021, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) operated 11,260 trains carrying 880,000 passengers and 185,000 tons of freight per day on a 3,265-kilometre-long network with 804 stations.
Add in the more than 70 "private" narrow-gauge and standard railways, many of which are also partly or wholly publicly owned, and the network reaches some 5,300 kilometers, the densest in the world.
A tightly coordinated network integrates SBB's trains with numerous other operators, extensive narrow gauge railways such as the Rhaetische Bahn (RhB), mountain cog railways, funiculars, post buses, cable cars, boats and others, providing reliable car-free access to all corners of the country (see www.swiss-pass.ch).
Decades of long-term investment have created a core network of heavily used main lines connecting the nation's major cities.
Added to this are the high-frequency S-Bahn (city rail) systems around the largest cities, as well as regional and local rail lines, trams and mountain railways, many of which form a critical link with the outside world for rural and mountain communities.
Despite the huge investments made in the last four decades, through long-term expansion programs such as "Bahn 2000".
Swiss railways are becoming victims of their own success.
While SBB's overall punctuality continues to look impressive to outsiders, there are concerns about deteriorating performance, rising costs and its ability to fund essential maintenance and large projects after devastating financial losses in 2020- twenty-one.
Outages remain comparatively rare on SBB's network, but reliability has declined in recent years as a result of congestion, staff shortages and poor punctuality of trains arriving from neighboring countries.
strategic position
The train dropped almost 800 meters on its descent from the mountains.
(Photo: MAYK WENDT)
Located in the heart of Western Europe, between the industrial powerhouses of Germany, France and northern Italy, Switzerland also plays a key strategic role in the wider European economy, as it has since the Middle Ages.
For centuries the Alps constituted a formidable barrier to travelers and trade through this part of Europe, but in the last two decades billions of Swiss francs have been poured into the construction of the long Gotthard base tunnels and Loetschberg under the Alps.
While other countries debate and dither over public transport spending, in June 2022 the Swiss Federal Council opened consultations on its next long-term rail investment program.
Perspektive Bahn 2050 is a detailed set of proposals with a clear focus on developing short and medium-distance passenger services to promote car abandonment.
Upgrading the existing network to create additional capacity takes precedence over other larger infrastructure projects.
Transport Minister Simonetta Sommaruga says: "It's not about saving a few minutes on a trunk route like Zurich-Bern. The rail is already unbeatable on routes like that. It's more about expansion where the rail is has been left behind."
Among the objectives of the plan, which is expected to become law in 2026, is to increase the annual use of public transport from 26,000 million passenger-kilometres to 38,000 million passenger-kilometres in 2050, increase "significantly" the rail's share of passenger and freight markets, and ensuring that rail services are further integrated with other modes of transport to offer greater mobility for all.
Critics often cite Switzerland's smaller population and relatively short distances when comparing it to countries such as the UK and Germany, arguing that it would be impossible to create similar integrated public transport networks in larger countries.
It is true that the Swiss have built something ideally suited to their geography, culture and population density, but whatever arguments are made, the RhB's incredible achievement on October 29 is a hugely impressive demonstration of the capabilities of Switzerland in the field of railway technology.
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