Two Swiss trains derail during storm

[Adlington]

Source (Euronews):

Two regional trains in Switzerland derailed in separate incidents, injuring more than a dozen people Friday after a storm brought high winds and strong rains to the small Alpine nation. The incidents occurred at Lüscherz and Büren zum Hof, near the western city of Bern.

In Büren zum Hof, a police spokeswoman said that 12 people — 9 adults and 3 children — were injured. Of those, one person's injuries were severe. Police also said several people were injured in the derailment at Lüscherz, but further information about the number of the injured and the severity of their condition was not immediately available.

Let's hope the injured will recover soon.

 

[AndrewE]

No mention of hitting trees, or landslides, so I looked on https://www.nau.ch/news/polizeimeld...cherz-und-buren-zum-hof-be-entgleist-66464012. 2 pictures of EMUs which just look as though they have been blown over!

 

[zuriblue]

No mention of hitting trees, or landslides, so I looked on https://www.nau.ch/news/polizeimeld...cherz-und-buren-zum-hof-be-entgleist-66464012. 2 pictures of EMUs which just look as though they have been blown over!

That’s about the size of it. There was some pretty hairy weather in CH yesterday with gusts up to 120 km/h. Both the RBS train (Bern - Solothurn) and the ASM train (Biel - Tauffelen) are light meter gauge units and appear to just have been blown over. This is the third incident since 1996, fortunately meter gauge trains don’t go too fast here.

According to the paper there aren’t any serious injuries, just bumps and bruises. Between the 2 trains there were 15 injured.

 

[Meerkat]

I assume getting blown over is a bigger risk for low floor trains with lots of stuff on the roof rather than under the floor?

 

[30907]

I assume getting blown over is a bigger risk for low floor trains with lots of stuff on the roof rather than under the floor?

Possibly, but the previous incident I recall (on the Appenzeller Bahn) involved a lightweight trailer, while the power car stayed upright.
The BTI unit looks to be an articulated Stadler unit, where I presume the "stuff" is on the centre car.

 

[zuriblue]

Possibly, but the previous incident I recall (on the Appenzeller Bahn) involved a lightweight trailer, while the power car stayed upright.
The BTI unit looks to be an articulated Stadler unit, where I presume the "stuff" is on the centre car.

Possibly although the RBS units are more like baby FLIRTs with distributed traction and the pan at one end (no transformer, they run on 1250VDC - I think RhB is the only metre gauge line that runs on AC.)

I think the reason the lot went over is the downside of Jacobs bogies. In something like this if one goes they all go although the bogies will tend to keep them upright.

 

[dazzler]

Possibly although the RBS units are more like baby FLIRTs with distributed traction and the pan at one end (no transformer, they run on 1250VDC - I think RhB is the only metre gauge line that runs on AC.)

As well as RhB, MGB and ZB all run on AC. Rhätische Bahn and Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn are 11kV 16.67Hz (apart from the RhB Bernina Line - 1000V DC) and the Zentralbahn is 15kV 16.67Hz.

 

[Re 4/4]

It was definitely a massive storm yesterday - even my standard gauge train shook noticeably in the gusts of wind coming down from the Sattel pass.

Peak winds of 136 kph (84 mph / Beaufort 12) reported in one village in canton Bern, glad I wasn't there! I can believe it could have blown over a rail carriage.

Edit: report from Swiss news with pictures/video: https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/sch...tzte-bei-zwei-zugentgleisungen-im-kanton-bern