The train crash in western Switzerland on July 29, in which a train driver died, has prompted calls for rail safety to be boosted. The boss of the Swiss Federal Railways said in an interview published on Sunday that signals would be modernised.
An initial investigation has found that the most likely cause of the frontal collision between two passenger trains – the worst accident of its kind in ten years – was human error on the part of one driver.
In all, 25 people were injured in the accident at a rural station of Granges-près-Marnand on a section of the regional line between Lausanne and Payerne. The 24-year-old driver who was killed was a French national who lived in Payerne.
Trains run on a single track near Granges-près-Marnand, with a two-track crossing point at the station. The train coming from Lausanne, a faster regional train, should have passed through the single-track area first, with the commuter train from Payerne waiting at the station so they could pass each other. But the Payerne train drove past a stop signal, leading to a head-on collision.
The train protection system at the stop signal in question dated from 1958. Swiss Railways boss Andreas Meyer told the Schweiz am Sonntag newspaper that signals were going to be modernised more quickly.
«I have tasked the Infrastructure Division to review the prioritising of individual investment tranches as well as an acceleration,» he said.
Under the current plan, 1,700 signals are to be fitted with the train protection system ZUB – which monitors the speed of the train between the distant and main signals – by 2018.
At the same time, the European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2 could be introduced earlier than planned – originally 2035, he added. This system sees train drivers provided with information in their cabs about the track, speed and permission to proceed, effectively doing away with external signalling. Information is constantly monitored by a control centre.
Rejected allegations
Meyer strongly rejected allegations that the Federal Railways had not paid enough attention to safety. «We have a historically developed system in train protection and we have known for many decades that there are some holes. But it is absolutely not fitting to talk about a deficit,» he told the newspaper. Meyer said he had personally fought for the ZUB system to be rolled out.
The head of the Federal Transport Office, Peter Füglistaler, said that he supported boosting safety measures on the rail network. «We are reviewing whether we can slow down technological changes and invest more in safety,» he told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.
But he thought that speeding up the installation of ETCS Level 2 was «an illusion» as it was a system for the future that was not quite ready for application everywhere.
For his part, the president of Swiss Association of Locomotive Drivers (VSLF), Hans Giger, has criticised the fact that full responsibility for safety is placed on drivers’ shoulders. He said that the railways had moved from a four-eye principle to a two-eye principle on regional lines without changing safety features.
In past times, the conductor or the station master gave the order for the train to leave the station. Nowadays the driver is on his own for around 70 per cent of local or regional trains. «There is a price to pay with such tragic accidents,» Giger told the Zentralschweiz am Sonntag.
On August 2 train drivers across Switzerland sounded engine whistles at 2pm in memory of their late colleague. Experts say it is the first death of a train driver in an accident in Switzerland in 25 years.