ERSTFELD - Freight through the Gotthard Base Tunnel held up in late March, with SBB Cargo and open-access operators reporting steady north-south volumes. Passenger half-hourly patterns have added wear that SBB would later call a reason to replace rails early. In March that was still a maintenance footnote.
On the road, the first long weekend queues of the spring formed toward Ticino. Police treated them as a rehearsal for April.
Steel is a consumable
The tunnel was sold as a century of engineering. The track inside it is not. Our September report puts a date on that fact.