RhB Albula Line Temporarily Closed - 16th June 2023 onwards

[Mike at C&M]

Following a huge landslide in the mountains above the valley between Teifencastel and Surava, all modes of transport through the Landwasser valley have been closed, and where necessary, evacuations have taken place. It is unknown how long this closure will be in place.

 

The landslide happened through the night, and the authorities are today assessing the lie of the land - quite literally. The area was known to be a danger and steps had been taken, including evacuating the village of Brienz (not the one near Interlaken) some 3 weeks ago. 

 

The local television station, BlickTV, have a live webcam on it, unfortunately the landslide occurred under darkness, or the footage would undoubtedly gone viral on the internet.

 

The live feed is on https://www.blick.ch/schweiz/graubuenden/wann-kommt-der-bergsturz-verfolge-die-situation-in-brienz-im-livestream-id18571815.html

 

A Blick TV report is on https://www.blick.ch/schweiz/graubuenden/felssturz-droht-phase-blau-in-brienz-gr-id18559784.html . See how your Romansch language is!

 

And if you follow Tom Scott on Youtube, be did a video about this 

 

[Jim Easterbrook]

A bit about this on the BBC web site: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65926381

[Frutigen]

http://www.albula-alvra.ch/Aktuelles/default.htm
 

This page from the local council in German - there’s a useful map - shows the current situation. The railway is now open as normal and the alert level has been reduced to orange. There’s an exclusion zone where you have to get special permission to enter and the railway is effectively the boundary of that zone. Agricultural activity is permitted below the village but not above (it’s peak silage time so this matters). 
 

Before Monday it was red alert and nobody was allowed in the zone for any reason. Before that an even higher alert level blue was briefly in force, when the road and railway in the valley bottom were also closed. According to the RhB website, passengers were directed to travel via Landquart and Davos and rejoin the truncated Albula service at Filisur. GEX and BEX trains were also diverted via Davos. 
 

The text appears to foresee a future move to yellow and then green status. 
 

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Frutigen

[MikeB]

I was in Chur when the Blue status was activated and it was not a good day for the RhB. Despite the planning for the Brienz rockslide, catenary problems closed the line between Kueblis and Klosters Platz on the same day  between approx 0700 and 1300. There were some bus replacements over the closed section to/from Klosters but also cancellations of services between Landquart and Scuol-Tarasp, St Moritz and Davos. The informal advice from station staff was "don't try to travel to St Moritz  from Chur / Landquart", while the apps indicated probable delays.  The Chur-Tirano-Chur BEX was cancelled, and I assume some of the westbound GEX services as the stock was trapped at St Moritz.  I abandoned a planned return trip to Tirano and went on a journey to Andermatt, Bellinzona and back to Chur on the post bus, before a late afternoon visit to Arosa, which was 45 minutes late leaving Chur for other reasons.  The Albula line was subject to delays all week, one reason being slow running thorough the unstable area beteween Filisur and Tiefencastel. Naturally, the RhB wanted to make sure the rails were level with each other and a metre apart! 

Edited June 30, 2023 by MikeB

[Gordonwis]

To put this into perspective, I was travelling through Pulborough (Sussex) at the weekend and even there, the A29 has got temporary SALT traffic lights and large concrete blocks holding back a landslip in the middle of town!