Milan - Zurich HB: Set swaps

[MCR247]

I was on the 0710 EC 12 Milano Centrale - Zurich HB on Tuesday and shortly after departure we were told there would be a set swap at Chiasso (sp?). So on arrival our ETR 480(?) pulled into the platform behind a Swiss ICN (this ugly thing!) and we were transferred before we carried on 10 minutes late.

Now I'm just wondering what would have caused this? On arrival to Zurich our train swiftly joined to another of those ugly contraptions which was semi-full and ready to return to 'Milan'. I presume they wouldn't have actually made it to Milan and another swap would have taken place?

Would it be anything to do with the engineering works that were taking place affecting Milan - Basel EuroCitys?

 

[TCDD]

That appeared to happen to a train I was on the other week. On Thursday 9th August I was at Chiasso awaiting the EC20 15.52 service from Milan to Zurich. The departure screens advertised as it as a 'substitute train' or at least that's what I translated it as.
Heading up to the platform there were two ICN units which had been standing there for the last hour. Passengers were directed to the leading unit, and then at departure time we (just the front unit if I recall correctly) were off. The 'actual' EC20 had not yet arrived from Milan, and we didn't wait for it.
I'm presuming that the arrival from Milan was terminated at Chiasso and the passengers transferred to the other ICN unit, which must have followed us shortly after.

 

[WestCoast]

Don't know about this case specifically, but I do know that cross-border substitutions are far from rare in that part of the world. Mainly due to delayed services and also defective units becoming incompatible with the different infrastructure. However, this seems to be a more permanent set-up in response to something,

Your Swiss ICN was a rather good substitute all things considered, when the ICE Amsterdam - Frankfurt/Basel has been subbed in the Netherlands, a Dutch Koploper or aged EMUs have been the rolling stock of choice!

This International ICE was also subbed in Switzerland with this interesting set!

In some ways, it's great that things like this can happen instead of cancellation.

 

[33056]

The Milan - Zurich trains are meant to Italian Railways ETR 470 "Pendolino" units but they have not been very reliable of late; so much so in that they have been replaced by various other trains. All the details can be found on the SBB website and are on-going until at least the end of September.

 

[MCR247]

Ah ok thanks for this. Funnily enough speaking of bad substitutions on the same day I saw the 0725 Milano - (Basel) but it wasnt going that far due to tunnel works or something and it was formed of 4 couchette cars that looked like they'd seen better days! Bit of a step down from a ETR 610!

 

[33056]

The one to go for if you like unusual haulage is EC15 the 08:31 Zürich to Milan or EC24 19:10 Milan to Zürich which is hauled by a Cargo sector Re484 . The 17:09 Zürich to Milan was meant to be one by diagram earlier this year but was an Re4/4 the one day I saw it last month (loco would have to change at Chiasso).

 

[Oscar]

A friend in SBB Operations told me recently that operations in the Milano area are managed appallingly and that Regional services often take priority over long distance services, meaning that the latter are delayed and often lose their path in Chiasso, causing further delay to these services. Apparently SBB try to run a replacement train between Chiasso and Zürich in the original path if possible. I don't know how this would affect set swaps though.

 

[jamesr]

I caught the 0910 Milan - Zurich and 1709 return last Sunday - afraid I'm not suitably familiar with Italian stock to know what hauled it, but I had been expecting something shiny and Swiss, and was rather disappointed to find some tatty old Trenitalia compartmented stock (apologies if the terminology is wrong)! To add to the fun, the train was full, and the seat reservations had clearly been made on the basis of 2+2 seating, whereas the compartments only had 6 seats in each compartment, and the "free seating" wasn't communicated, resulted in a number of passengers (including myself) sitting on the fold-down seats in the corridor.

The loco and stock was seemingly struggling to keep the timings - 30 to 45 late in each direction.

Have to say, I'd picked the journey purely on the basis that the Thomas Cook timetable described it as a scenic route, and it really didn't disappoint on that front... fantastic journey. However, I just about remember catching compartment stock on Waterloo - Exeter as a child - this latest experience made me realise it really isn't something we want to see in the UK again!

 

[Oscar]

Trenitalia still seems to have a reasonable number of compartmented InterCity coaches but I am surprised that they are still being used on this route rather than the more common ETR pendolinos.

 

[jamesr]

Judging by the comments of a couple of the Swiss travellers on the train, I think I probably caught some fairly rare stock - they were basically criticising the Italian stock for being fairly antiquated. Pretty sure I had the same rake in both directions.

I'm sure I should have felt fairly privileged to travel in ancient compartment stock, but I'd rather have had a decent view out of both windows.

As a slightly off-topic question, why do the Italians seem to paint / make all their main line rails in white? Is it protection against the heat?

 

[MCR247]

Ah yeah I thought that when I was there but I forgot to ask!

 

[vjm1975]

Same thing happened to myself and group of friends travelling from Milan on Wed 15th August. Ended up departing Chiasso 15 minutes late after changing trains and eventually arrived in Zurich 30 minutes late meaning we missed our connecting ICE train and meant a journey on a much slower local service and then crammed in to the back carriage of the sleeper train to Berlin on the journey to Freiburg.

Lovely journey through the Alps though.

 

[89-763-733]

As far as I know only one of the FS ETR470 (not 480) set 470.001 is serviceable at present but due to a defect can only run on FS 3000v DC and not on Swiss 15000v AC so it just shuttles from Milan to Chiasso and back

 

[MCR247]

That sounds good! I get the feeling SBB won't be happy with that