I wrote about the fire-fighting trains of the Swiss Federal Railways the other month, but they aren’t the only specialised vehicles used to fight fires on the railways of Switzerland – they also have road-rail fire trucks.
Photo via Interkantonales Feuerwehr-Ausbildungszentrum
Matterhorn Gotthard Railway
The Matterhorn Gotthard Railway runs trains through the 15.4 kilometre long Furka Base Tunnel, and so in 2020 they acquired two road-rail fire and rescue trains – for each of the tunnel portals in Realp and Oberwald.
Photo via Interkantonales Feuerwehr-Ausbildungszentrum
Each train consist of three vehicles: a road-rail passenger transport vehicle, a rail-bound ambulance vehicle and a road-rail firefighting vehicle.
Photo via Interkantonales Feuerwehr-Ausbildungszentrum
The two road-rail vehicles are 12.5 metres long and can reach a maximum speed of 40 km/h on the rail; with a standard driver’s cabs at one end and a secondary cab at the other, so can be controlled from both the front and the rear. The centre ambulance vehicle is 13.7 metres long and also has a cab, allowing the train to be broken up into two portions.
The side doors on the side of each vehicle are sliding to suit the narrow tunnel profile, along with a hydraulically operated rear ramp for easy access. The fire and rescue vehicle has a 5,000 litre water tank and fire pumps, while the passenger vehicles can transport 60 passengers between them in a secured positive pressure air space.
While able to run on road, the choice of road-rail vehicles was made due to cost – self-propelled vehicles were desired, but acquisition of suitable locomotives would have been more expensive.
Rhaetian Railway
The Rhaetian Railway has a fleet of six road-rail fire trucks, which entered service in 2017, following legislative changes to the Railways Act (EBG) that made railway operators responsible for rescue operations on their tracks.
The vehicles were manufactured by Müller Technologie AG with firefighting equipment by Brändle AG. Each vehicle cost around 900,000 Swiss francs, with a total project cost of around 6 million Swiss francs including the construction of 57 road-rail pads where the vehicles can switch from rail to road and vice versa.
The new vehicles were deployed to fire brigades at Samedan-Pontresina, Bergün-Filisur/Albula, Ilanz, Arosa, Poschiavo and Thusis; while brigades at Klosters and Zernez already had road-rail vehicles for use in the Vereina Tunnel, the longest railway tunnel on the RhB network.
Sources
- Modern intervention vehicles for the Rhaetian Railway in case of emergency
- Unique rescue apparatus with special technical features
Further reading
Hong Kong also has road-rail fire trucks, for use on the 26 kilometre long tunnel underground section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail line.