A Visit to the SBB Train Control Office in Olten - Friday 30 August 2024

The sun was good for the view across the river towards the covered bridge at Olten as Paul and I walked over to the SBB for a private appointment with a Senior Expert Railway Operations and Technology. This was the format of our meeting

  • Welcome & Introduction
  • Presentation about SBB & Operations
  • Tour through the most modern Control Centre in Olten
  • Optional Simulator working desk and demonstration of our Signalling & Traffic Management Layers
  • Discussion & Questions

The presentation was very good and our questions and comments were well answered. The contrast with Canada was quite interesting - for example there are some 1400 railway grade crossings on the SBB -  I had to contend with some 50,000! 
Train control is divided into some four sections across the system, however, the systems used are all common and staff are trained so as to be familiar regardless of location. The traffic control centres are broken down into smaller sections which contain signallers as well as dispatchers.  Care has been taken to ensure that staff feel comfortable in areas such as lighting and there are facilities to allow short breaks, quiet time and even short sleeps. The whole system is digitized. Train crew carry SBB phones which are hooked into the overall system so that they may be contacted quickly.
We also talked about the coordination necessary with other railways and transport concerns (e.g. Post buses, tramways, funiculars, lake shipping) to ensure that a coordinated national transport timetable can be produced annually. It seems that SBB, being by far the largest player, is able to exert some influence.
The visit to the Traffic Management Centre was fascinating. As anticipated security was very tight and no photographs were allowed.

Paul and I wound down from this great experience over a Migros Restaurant lunch and decided to spend the afternoon looking at the narrow gauge trains around Langenthal. This did not go quite as expected.
At Oensingen we found an Re 620 that we had seen at Bulach a week or so ago

The narrow gauge train at Oensingen took us through Niederbipp to Langenthal.
However, the construction at Langenthal is a complete mess and we decided to get away as quickly as possible to Solothurn. The easiest was to do this was the narrow gauge but this went via Niederbipp with a side trip to Oensingen. The ride to Solothurn was very pleasant and we enjoyed a Magnum there. It was hot and we decided to come back to Olten, again via the narrow gauge through Oensingen.
Back at Olten we were lucky enough to find this SBB Historique locomotive No. 11425. This is an Ae 6/6 and was a fore runner of the Re 620 class which are still very common on freight trains. It was built in 1957 and is in good working order.





 

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