Safety Doors in the World's Longest Tunnel under the Gotthard: Outstanding Requirements and Performance Feed-back from the Bidding Phase and Results from the Testing Phase on Selected Prototypes

The 57 km Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) will be the world’s longest railway tunnel. The tunnel is the central part of the new transalpine rail line in Switzerland. The two single-track tubes are linked by 178 cross passages approximately every 325 m, and two multifunctional stations with an emergency stop station for each tube located one-third and two-thirds along the base tunnel. During regular operation, high speed passenger trains with a top speed of 250 km/h as well as slower freight trains (160 km/h) will run through the tunnel. In the worst case scenario e.g. a fire on a passenger train, the doors of the cross passages and those of the emergency stations will be essential elements of the safety concept. This paper gives a short presentation of the safety concept in the case of fire on a passenger train and an overview of the most important requirements of the different door-types. It also includes the state of progress of the special procedure for the commissioning and feed-back from the tests on selected prototypes.