Fire brigade has had to deploy to Zug railway station 4 times

The fire brigade has deployed four times in the past few months due to a defective lift at the Zug railway station.

One of the lifts at the Zug railway station has repeatedly become stuck in the past few months and the fire brigade have had to be called in. As one reader reports, this was always the lift vis-a-vis the Confiserie Sprüngli. A look at the website of the Zug volunteer fire brigade (FFZ) confirms that it was called out four times due to this lift, with the last time being on December 5th. There were three separate incidents in August. FFZ commander Daniel Jauch confirmed the operations. "Depending on the time of day and the type of breakdown, the lift company will ask us to carry out this kind of rescue work." In each case this year, the problem was resolved and people were freed from the lift.

The fact that the fire brigade was called up to a lift at the train station four times within a year was unusual. Jauch refers to it as an accumulation. A look at the fire department's operational reports shows that it was deployed a total of twelve times for lift rescues last year - including the four at the station. There were seven incidents in the previous year, two of which related to Zug railway station, whereas the fire department was never called to the railway station In 2017.

When asked about the breakdowns, the SBB media office only provided short and cautious information. "In the past few months, it has occasionally happened that the fire brigade was deployed in parallel with the maintenance company's on-call operator," the office confirmed.

“It can happen that a fault occurs in a lift, despite proper maintenance by the manufacturer or the maintenance company. We naturally regret any inconvenience.”

The company did not provide a specific answer to questions regarding the age of the lifts, the maintenance intervals or how the problem can be solved. SBB spokesman Oli Dischoe writes: “We do not have any statistics on this. We are glad that nobody was harmed. Railway traffic was not affected by the defective lift.”

One of the lifts at Zug train station already made headlines in September 2018. In one of the two lift rescue operations, the fire brigade not only had to deploy, but also had to take action. Seven people were stuck in the lift, as “20 Minuten” reported at the time. In such cases, the electricity is turned off, the machine room is opened and the lift is brought into its usual position by hand with the appropriate wheel, Jauch explained at the time.