This is how Adtranz sees Swiss SBB's new tilting InterCity trains. Twenty-four seven-car trains will be delivered 1999 - 2000. Max speed 200 km/h, traction on eight axles. The picture is from an Adtranz broschure and has been manipulated. More here.Adtranz Switzerland will concentrate its activities to Pratteln. Employees in Zurich-Oerlikon and Geneva will be offered jobs in Pratteln and assistance with moving there. (May 12th 1998)
A 32-km long line in Switzerland will be equipped with cab signalling by May 2000. A display in the loco will tell the driver how fast he may drive. This system, delivered by Adtranz, will be installed on the new "Bahn 2000" line being built in Switzerland. Sixty-six trains will be equipped to be able to recieve the signals. (May 12th 1998)
The Swiss rail reform is currently being debated in parliament. It looks like the railway SBB will be converted from a government agency to a limited company. SBB's debt will be taken over by the government. (February 13th 1998, more here)
Newspaper Le Temps will open correspondents' offices in Swiss railway stations, in a co-operation agreement with the railway SBB. Le Temps is a new national newspaper to be formed by the merger and expansion of three local newspapers in the French-speaking Geneva and Lausanne areas. (January 25th 1998, more here)
Open access in Switzerland is on track to become reality, but the fedaral parliament says there isn't enough capacity on the tracks for passenger operators other than SBB. On the freight side, access bidding will be managed by the infrastructure operator and SBB will not have any grandfather rights. SBB's management wants access charges to cover infrastructure capital costs; this principle is not universal as European countries grapple with conditions for open access. (October 24th 1997, more here)
This is how Adtranz sees Swiss SBB's new tilting InterCity trains. Twenty-four seven-car trains will be delivered 1999 - 2000. Max speed 200 km/h, traction on eight axles. The picture is from an Adtranz broschure and has been manipulated. More here.
Swiss SBB will have insufficient capacity to cope with transit freight after the turn of the century, a study says. It advocates investment in intermodal terminals and closer policy co-ordination with neighbouring countries. (September 26th 1997, more here)
A Swiss rail reform is making its way through parliament. It entails:
Adtranz has bought Schindler Waggon of Switzerland. The boss of Adtranz Switzerland, Beat Müller, says that a growth strategy is to be pursued but did not say there wouldn't be layoffs. Rail-unrelated Schindler businesses will be sold off individually. Schindler was considered to be too small to provide the kind of turn-key products that customers now want. (September 4th 1997, more here)
Touch-screen ticket vending machines are going to be installed in the next few weeks in the Swiss stations Lausanne, Luzern and Basel. Later this fall, 125 other stations will get the new machines. (June 21st 1997)
Swiss SBB now offers reservations by internet if you pay by credit card (no cyber-money). Several ticket types are offered, such as bike tickets etc. The url is www.SBB.ch (June 19th 1997)
Swiss SBB is running trains every half hour between Bern -Zürich, Zürich -St. Gallen, Zürich -Lenzburg, Freiburg -Bern and Lausanne -Sitten, starting June 1st with the new timetable. Two-story trains will run St Gallen -Zürich -Bern -Interlaken Ost and Basel -Zürich -Chur. Controll cars are succesivly being phased in to quicken changes of direction in one-ended stations. (May 21st 1997)
The last Zürich S-Bahn train of 115 was delivered on Thursday. The double-deck three-car trains carry up to 1300 passengers each on 8 of 14 S-Bahn lines in Zürich, Switzerland's biggest city. The first train was rolled out on January 4th, 1989. Schindler Waggon, Adtranz, SIG, and SLM built the trains for 1,4 billion Swiss Franks. (May 3rd 1997)