Zug digs itself out of the snow masses

The heavy snowfall of the past few days has presented major challenges for transport companies, police and public services.

The heavy snow over the past two days may have made children's hearts beat faster, but they have also provided problems for the local transport companies, the police and the public services. The Zug police reported nine traffic accidents on Friday morning, January 15, and the Zugerberg mountain railway has had to stop running. "We’re still in the process of clearing the track by hand," informs Karin Fröhlich, media spokeswoman for Zugerland Transport (ZVB).

The railway stopped operations early on Thursday evening, 14 January, and the snow clearance work will continue until at least Saturday lunchtime. The current situation is continually updated on the www.zbb.ch website, and travellers are recommended to check the current situation. "Replacement buses are in use for the basic connection to the Zugerberg, and run via Allenwinden," reports Fröhlich. "We would also like to point out that the roads on the Zugerberg are covered with snow. Because of the amount of snow lying at the side of the road, things can be difficult when vehicles have to cross" The toboggan trail is closed. "We are doing everything we can to resume

Photo 1: As in this picture from 2019, the employees of the Zugerland transport company ZVB are also up to their hips in fresh snow these days when shovelling the tracks free.                         Photo: PD
Photo 2: Lots of snow in the city of Zug
Photo 3: The Straumann family (Tobias Straumann and Claudia Straumann with child Kaia) build a snowman at the Quai in Zug.     
        Photos: Matthias Jurt (Zug, 15 January 2021)

Buses operating with snow chains
Bus operations, on the other hand, have been able to be maintained for the most part, despite the heavy snowfall. The buses of line 11 coped with the steep ascent between Casino and Schönegg by using  snow chains on Friday morning, 15 January. "Individual stops or sections of the line could not be reached at times until the snow clearance work had been carried out," says Fröhlich. Otherwise, there were no significant interruptions or incidents in bus traffic. "Passengers had to expect delays, however."

Train delays and cancellations
The heavy snowfall over the past 24 hours has also affected passenger traffic by rail. Some City Rail (FLIRT) trains ran with long delays, or had to be cancelled altogether. This was partly because tourist trains were delayed. On several occasions, it could be said that all rail traffic in Switzerland was affected by the snowfall, and the railway information website for fault reports www.sbb.ch/166 couldn’t be reached at times. It is expected that rail traffic will be stable again by Friday evening.