Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has announced that the main station in Lucerne will be closed for the vast majority of this weekend as they carry out crucial maintenance work. The public transport provider confirmed work will begin on Saturday, March 18 and will conclude on the morning of March 20, 2023.
To make trains arriving and departing Lucerne more punctual, SBB has been carrying out frequent maintenance and upgrading works around the main station of the Swiss city since September 2022. This has included installing new signalling systems and track layouts, and even building a brand new technology centre in nearby Gütsch.
While the majority of this work has been carried out at night, to minimise disruption for the nearly 680 trains that arrive and depart the station every day, authorities say that they will need to use the majority of tracks in the station to build five new points system, and replace a section of walkway at the Kreuzstutz underpass.
Therefore, from 12.30am on Saturday, March 18, until 5am on Monday, March 20, no Intercity, Interregional or any other SBB, BLS, Lucerne S-Bahn or Südostbahn (SOB) trains will be running from or to the main station in Lucerne. The only exceptions will be the S4 and S5 lines run by the Zentralbahn.
During this time, the vast majority of people wishing to travel to Lucerne will need to use trains stopping at Ebikon, Sursee, Emmenbrücke, Littau or Luzern Verkehrshaus. SBB confirmed that replacement bus services will be available from Ebikon, Emmenbrücke and Littau, which will run to Lucerne Inseliquai and back again - VBL bus lines 6, 8 and 24 will run from Luzern Verkhershaus as normal.
SBB spokesperson Fabienne Wittwer said that the residents of Lucerne have been informed of the disruption via their various media channels on the internet, and that “newspaper advertisements were published and advertisements were placed on the screens in trains and buses", informing travellers about the work well ahead of time.
She advised that anyone wanting to travel to Lucerne over the weekend should check the live timetable regularly to find out where to head, or ask one of the “numerous SBB employees [that] will be on duty at the stations throughout the weekend to support travellers."
Thumb image: Shutterstock.com / Michael Derrer Fuchs