Why new workshops are needed

This should be the case in the future too. This is why the BLS workshops are being expanded and modernised:

• More and more people are travelling with BLS. They currently amount to 180,000 passengers a day, and this is forecast to rise to some 260,000 passengers by 2030.
• Newer and more modern trains need considerably longer concourse and track facilities.
• The older workshops are in poor condition. The Oberburg workshop is therefore expected to be abolished in 2025.
• The Aebimatt workshop in the western part of Bern Railway Station has been unavailable for use since late 2019.
• Every train and locomotive visits one of the workshops once a week.

BLS wants to ensure that its fleet can be serviced and maintained at three sites in the long term so that S-Bahn Bern can continue to operate efficiently and powerfully in the future.

Spiez workshop

The Spiez workshop has been comprehensively renovated in recent years. This is where BLS conducts servicing work such as wheel inspections and repairs to doors, air-conditioning units, heating systems and lighting.

Bönigen workshop

The Bönigen workshop is being converted and renovated; the work will last until 2025. This is where BLS carries out more extensive repairs and upgrades to its trains.

New facility planned in Chliforst Nord

In 2016, BLS Ltd’s board of directors decided to follow the recommendation of the “BLS workshop” monitoring group and plan a new facility in Chliforst Nord to the west of Bern as well as the Spiez and Bönigen workshops. Working in close partnership, BLS, the City of Bern, the Canton of Bern and the affected population are expected to create Switzerland’s most modern competence centre for the servicing and maintenance of trains by 2028.

More capacity in Givisiez

In order to bridge the transitional period between the discontinuation of the Bern-Aebimatt workshop (2020) and the planned commissioning of a new facility, BLS has signed an agreement with Transports publics fribourgeois (tpf). BLS can rent temporary workshop tracks from tpf in Givisiez, guaranteeing maintenance of vehicles without interruption for the transitional period up to 2025.

The new facility in Chliforst Nord to the west of Bern and the conversions and expansions in Spiez and Bönigen offers a great many advantages:

• The busy railway lines around Bern will make it more and more difficult for trains to get to the workshops in the future. A facility near Bern Railway Station will help free up the access routes, which will benefit passengers.
• The operational stability and flexibility will increase (e.g. quick replacement of defective trains).
• Fewer and shorter empty trips to the workshops will reduce noise pollution for local residents as well as power consumption.
• Concentrating on three sites instead of four will allow for work forces to be planned in a more flexible way.
• Better utilisation of the workshop infrastructure will reduce operating costs – which is also in the interests of passengers and tax payers.