The Swiss railway system is famous for its reliability and punctuality. Being one of the densest railway grids in the world, millions of commuters rely on trains. Disruptions due to snow used to be very rare. On Sunday evening, the 400 Passengers of a local train between Sion and Lausanne had to be evacuated by rescue teams, after they were stuck in the train for 5 hours.

This was near lake Geneva at c. 400 meters altitude in a densely populated region, not on a high alpine route.

Rescue teams had to connect the railway cars to an emergency power source to provide heating. As the nearby roads were also blocked be snow, 200 passengers were accommodated in an emercency  sheltered overnight in a school in Bex.

The local.ch

Heavy snow disrupts Swiss roads, rails and airports

In the canton of Valais, which was particularly badly hit by snow, the train line between Aigle and Bex was shut on Sunday afternoon after a train got stuck between the two.

Its 400 passengers had to wait five hours to be evacuated because accessing the train proved difficult for rescue services, a spokesman told news agency ATS.

Rail traffic partly restarted on Monday morning but only on one line, the other remaining blocked.