The operation of the Lötschberg base route
Track maintenance in the base tunnel
Track maintenance in the Lötschberg base tunnel is carried out by BLS. The aim is to be able to maintain the facilities at the lowest-possible cost and without any significant impairment of availability. To this end, the entire tunnel is closed each Sunday night, with the southern section also being closed in one direction only on Monday nights. Additional maintenance periods are scheduled during a four-week period each summer. These restricted maintenance periods and the long journeys to the worksites make high demands on employees and equipment. BLS has therefore commissioned a series of new vehicles specially for use in tunnel maintenance, which are stationed in the new Frutigen maintenance and intervention centre. These include diesel locomo-tives, self-propelled breakdown intervention vehicles and self-propelled maintenance vehicles with modular super-structures and transportation vessels (crew containers and mobile workshops).