World’s first ETCS L2 project successfully implemented.

At the end of April 2002, SBB became Europe’s first railway to use ETCS Level 2 for scheduled train services (on the Zofingen-Sempach route). Once initial teething problems had been overcome, the system’s performance was above the network's average.

In this pilot test, ETCS Level 2 was used over a number of months for scheduled services, with more than 1000 trains a week (both passenger and freight) operating under ETCS L2 with very high operational reliability. ETCS Level 2 can now therefore be regarded as service proven.

The pilot phase was completed at the end of 2003 and the route reverted to conventional trackside signalling. This pilot project made it possible to verify the operational and technical viability of ETCS and to gain valuable experience for the implementation of other ETCS projects.