Switzerland High-speed rail in Europe

sbb eurocity entering gotthard base tunnel

switzerland has no high-speed trains of own yet. french tgv (tgv lyria) , german ice lines extend switzerland, given dense rail traffic, short distances between swiss cities (because of country s small size) , difficult terrain, not attain speeds higher 200 km/h (ice3) or 160 km/h (tgv, ice1, ice2). fastest swiss trains icn tilting trains, operated swiss federal railways since may 2000. can reach higher speeds conventional trains on curve-intensive swiss network, top speed of 200 km/h can reached on high-speed lines. former cisalpino consortium owned swiss federal railways , trenitalia used pendolino tilting trains on 2 of international lines. these trains operated swiss federal railways , trenitalia.

to address transalpine freight , passenger bottlenecks on roads , railways, switzerland launched rail2000 , nrla projects. first stage of rail2000 project finished in 2005, included new high-speed rail track between bern , olten operating speed of 200 km/h. nrla project has built faster north-south rail tracks across swiss alps constructing base tunnels several hundred metres below level of old tunnels. 35 km lötschberg base tunnel opened in 2007 new pendolino trains run @ 250 km/h. 57 km gotthard base tunnel (top speed 250 km/h) opened in 2016. second stage of rail2000 includes line upgrades in canton valais (200 km/h) , between biel/bienne , solothurn (200 km/h). start of work planned 2012–2016.