Dominating the timetable change on December 13 2020 in Switzerland will be a raft of changes triggered by completion of the giant AlpTransit project. Also known as Neue Eisenbahn-Alpentransversale (NEAT, or NLFA in French and NFTA in Italian), this huge scheme has been at the heart of a long-term national policy to switch transit freight from road to rail. The final piece in the NEAT jigsaw was the ceremonial opening on September 4 of the Ceneri Base Tunnel, albeit with a scaled-back celebration because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then random services have been diverted through the Base Tunnel for final tests and training purposes ahead of the full opening to commercial service with the timetable change - the first passenger service to traverse the Ceneri Base Tunnel was IC1458 from Chiasso to Zurich on September 14.
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