Swiss Federal Railways to test long-distance double-decker train in 2025

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) wants to test a converted FV-Dosto train on long-distance services in 2025. As SBB CEO Vincent Ducrot explained in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the prototype should ensure a smoother journey. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox Ducrot admitted mistakes in the procurement of the FV-Dosto, in particular that the expectations of the trains had been too high. The trains were plagued by many breakdowns and failures. “The train we got is not the train we ordered. There were over a thousand subsequent adjustments. That is a lesson for us,” said Ducrot. He estimated the conversion costs for the 62 double-decker trains to be in the high double-digit millions. Ducrot also spoke about the additional costs of CHF14 billion ($15.5 billion) for the rail infrastructure up to 2035, which had become necessary due to changes in standards and requirements. “Today we have better measurement and simulation methods. They show that ...