SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) has officially launched construction of the SFr 3.3bn ($US 4.09bn) MehrSpur Zürich - Winterthur upgrade, marking the start of work on what will become the railway’s largest infrastructure project and a key capacity upgrade for the Swiss network.
The project's centrepiece is the 9km Brüttener Tunnel, which will eliminate one of Switzerland's busiest rail bottlenecks by creating a new double-track line between Bassersdorf and Winterthur. Together with station upgrades and associated infrastructure works, the scheme will expand the Zürich - Winterthur corridor to four tracks and increase line capacity by around 30%.
The official groundbreaking ceremony took place in Bassersdorf on July 2 and was attended by federal councillor, Albert Rösti, Zurich Cantonal councillor, Martin Neukom, and SBB CEO, Vincent Ducrot. The location is significant at approximately the halfway point of the 30km corridor and the future launch area for tunnel boring machines.
The upgraded corridor is expected to accommodate around 900 trains and more than 150,000 passengers each day while reducing journey times, improving reliability and creating additional capacity for both long-distance passenger, Zürich S-Bahn and freight services.
Growing passenger demand
Neukom described the project as “a bypass at the heart of public transport in Switzerland,” adding that it would support future plans to introduce quarter-hourly services across the core Zürich S-Bahn network to meet growing passenger demand.
Ducrot added that the scheme is “the largest construction site in Switzerland and currently SBB's largest infrastructure project.”
"Up to 1000 people work on the 30km-long perimeter,” he says. “We are investing around SFr 1m per day during the 10-year construction period. With the Brüttener Tunnel and the expansion of the four railway stations... we are enabling more capacity on one of the busiest railway lines in Switzerland.”
Tunnel excavation is scheduled to begin in 2029, with the Brüttener Tunnel due to enter service in 2037. Upgrades at Wallisellen, Dietlikon, Bassersdorf and Winterthur Töss stations will be commissioned in phases between 2028 and 2034, allowing capacity benefits to be delivered progressively while rail operations are largely maintained throughout construction.
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