On October 29, 2022, the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) in Switzerland set a new record for running the world’s longest passenger train, supported by its long-standing technology partner ABB. The achievement is certainly a testament to the progress of electric rail transport. The record passenger train with 100 cars, 4,550 seats and a total weight of 2,990 tons traveled a distance of 24 km through the Swiss Alps, with an altitude change of 790 m, in 45 minutes. ABB’s newest traction converter provided 1.6 MW of power to each of the 25 train units powering the train. During the world record attempt an 80-m-long model railway was presented at the end station.

The RhB has relied on ABB technology for electrifying its tracks and rolling stock for more than 100 years. Some 12 million passengers and 620,000 tons of goods are transported each year on its 385 km of all-electric tracks. As ABB continually innovates its technology and improves the performance of solutions, the performance of customers like the RhB also improves. The “Capricorn” Stadler-trains, equipped with ABB’s latest Bordline traction converters are so energy-efficient RhB saves some 900 MWh per year, enough to power 200 Swiss households. Additionally, RhB includes dry transformer and battery charging solutions from ABB as integral parts of their rolling stock.

The Swiss railway network is some 5,500 km long and 100% is electrified¹. As the only European country with all railway lines electrified, Switzerland is the frontrunner for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly rail services on the continent, with ABB being a leader in providing the technology and solutions. The average share of electrified railway systems across all European countries stood at 56% of a combined length of 200,161 kilometers in 2019. The length of the Deutsche Bahn AG railroad network in Germany was 33,401 kilometers in 2021 and less than 60% is electrified.