From Moscow to Swiss

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Swiss railway network stalls after blackout

June 23 2005 at 08:44AM

Geneva – Switzerland’s entire state railway network came grinding to a halt on Wednesday following a power failure that left about 100 000 people stranded at the height of the rush-hour, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) said.

Practically all trains in the country, which takes great pride in the efficency of its public transport system, were at a standstill, spokesperson Jean-Philippe Schmidt told reporters.

“We have a power failure, a problem with power regulation,” he said.

“The problem started towards 6pm and we are trying to find the source,” he added.

About 100 000 people were thought to be stranded on trains on a hot summer evening, Swiss television SF1 reported, although most travellers were able to leave halted trains an hour after the incident.

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“That estimate seems plausible. We had all the commuters heading home,” said SBB spokesperson Jean-Louis Scherz.

Travellers were being advised to listen to the radio or seek advice from extra personnel drafted into stations.

Schmidt said he could not recall a failure on a similar nationwide scale before and the incident was described as “absolutely extraordinary”.

The problem first occurred in southern Switzerland following a drop in the 15 000 volt power supply that spread to the rest of the system, SBB said.

Hundreds of people were crammed onto platforms at the main station in the western city of Geneva, many of them reading quietly or chatting while waiting for services to resume.

“I’ve been taking the train every day for about a year and it’s the first time this has happened to me. It’s not a disaster,” said one traveller who was ready for a 30-minute trip to nearby Lausanne.

Outside the station, taxis were being snapped up as soon as they arrived, while a free drink was being offered to ticket holders in the station buffet.

Some diesel-powered trains were being put into service to shunt trains to the nearest stations, SBB said. Rail operators were also trying to line up buses to take travellers to their destination.

“It’s hard to find the number of buses we need at this time of the day to take people home,” Scherz said.

The problem was also affecting some other smaller private railway operators in Switzerland, the Swiss news agency ATS reported.

With an average of 2 077km per inhabitant per year, the Swiss are the world’s top train users and the network is renowned for its punctuality.

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