European vehicle groups have angrily responded to the introduction of new lists for vehicles operating in Switzerland. The UIP International Guard Federation (UIP) describes the new requirements issued last week as a “shock”, warning that they could demand a “collapse in the European rail charging movement.”
On September 11th, the Federal Transport Office (Fot) confirmed that it was issuing new regulations aimed at improving the safety of railway charging in Switzerland. They include the minimum wheel diameters, systematic and more frequent maintenance, and an improved vehicle examination.
These measures are in response to the recommendations of a report issued by the Swiss Transport Investigation Board (STSB) in an obstruction in the Gotthard tunnel on August 10, 2023, which led to the closure of nearly 13 months of the longest railway tunnel in the world and the main disruption of the transit railway movement.
The accident was caused by a broken wheel disk on one of the vehicles. The new regulations are in effect immediately and the operators who use the Swiss network alongside the fleet owners and maintenance providers until the end of this year to comply.
“Error and dangerous”
Swiss Wagon says that although safety is its first priority, it is a mistake and the risk of indicating that absolute safety is possible in railway operations. She says the additional costs of compliance with the new Fot regulations are “enormous” for the vehicle guards. The German group VPI estimates that the additional costs can add up to “hundreds of millions annually”.
VAP also states that it is not clear to the owners of the vehicle or entities responsible for maintenance (ECM) how they are supposed to implement these measures in such a short time period, with UIP describing the condition of full implementation by December 31 “reckless”. VAP says it may push a shift in the cargo movement from the railway to the road, while the Swiss trucks condemned the bottlenecks of supply chains that are expected to result from new measures, threatening the security security in the country.
“In the short term, economic turmoil is threatened, and in the medium term, the competitiveness of the entire rail shipping system will be reduced significantly,” says VAP.
“The measures will greatly hinder the free use of shipping vehicles and require a great loss of flexibility in transferring international import/export and transit,” says UIP.
Complete compliance
UIP says that the STSB investigation confirmed that the vehicle guards and ECMS “perfectly comply with their maintenance obligations in the period leading up to the accident.” She says the report identifies the fields of work, not only for the vehicle guards but also for shipping operators and infrastructure managers, and adds that operational and infrastructure failures should be addressed with the same urgency as the fleet maintenance.
UIP says: “We denounce a single -sided view that mainly relieves other railway actors in their duties and is not considered safety investment on the side of operations and infrastructure,” UIP says.
“Safety obligations do not stop as soon as the train is on the tracks. It is unacceptable that operators continue to expand the scope of technical inspections on the site and reduce investment in employee education, especially in a system that decisively depends on strict controls before, during and after the train operations.”
Wider effect
FOT was also criticized for adopting its regulations more widely throughout Europe. VPI says Fot ignores the results of the Joint Network Secretariat (JNS). The European Union Agency for Railways (era) was established due to the reduction of the risk of broken wheels, which was available since 2024.
“Safety is our top priority, but the issue of national action should not be unilaterally,” says Malte Lawrenz, VPI, who says that in a European framework, practical and effective measures cannot be developed. “We need European unity here, not isolated solutions.”
Irj told “Alberto Mazla, the general manager of the European Railways Society and the infrastructure companies (CER), IRJ that” he is concerned about the effects of safety and commercial for new regulations, “adding that CE was specifically achieving the number of vehicles that would be affected and the associated costs. UIP also told IRJ that it is a similar evaluation.
