ON OCTOBER 3 Swiss Federal Railways allocated SFr145m to fund design and preparatory works for a second underground station beneath Zürich Hbf. The existing S-Bahn through platforms under Museumstrasse on the east of the station are approaching capacity, and the intention is to build a second four-track through station to the west.
The grant will fund construction of a box shell beneath three terminal platforms between the main signalbox and the River Sihl. A deep-level tunnel will connect the new platforms to the existing northern routes at Oerlikon, opening up the possibility of new cross-city services. Around a third of the money will come from canton Zürich to cover the costs of adapting the layout to accommodate the planned Eurogate development on a raft above the same part of the station.
The SBB board has allocated SFr58m for the total renewal of the main station buildings at Bern, in conjunction with the redevelopment of the city centre. Another SFr55m will go on station modernisation on the Lichtensteig - Schmerikon line, and SFr40m for stations between Winterthur and Schaffhausen.
- Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG and logistics company Drier AG are launching a freight shuttle to move 420000 tonnes of paper a year from the mills of Papierfabrik Biberist AG to the Hupac intermodal terminal at Aarau. The service is expected to remove 12500 lorry journeys a year from the parallel A1 motorway.
