BLS has awarded IG Valbt, a consortium of Swiss engineering companies led by SRP Ingenieur, a contract to plan to the extension of double-track in the Lötschberg Base Tunnel.
The Lötschberg base tunnel is currently the most modern, secure and technically complex rail tunnel in the world. It was designed with twin single-track tubes to ensure optimum reliability, but for financial reasons, only one of the tubes was fully equipped, while the second with a 14km central section running between Ferden and Mitholz was completed but was left largely as a shell. The 7km northern section of the second running tunnel between Mitholz and Frutigen was not bored. Funding for planning the Ferden – Mitholz project has already been allocated by the Swiss federal government through the FABI rail infrastructure fund.
BLS is largely in public ownership, the largest shareholders being Bern canton (55.8%) and the Swiss Confederation (21.7%).
Around 42 passenger trains – 30 between Bern and Valais and 12 to and from Milan – and up to 80 goods trains use the new high-speed link on a daily basis.
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