About this journey

Basel SBB station, rebuilt in 1907, sits at the intersection of Swiss and French rail systems, its catenary infrastructure capable of switching between 15 kV 16.7 Hz AC and 25 kV 50 Hz AC to serve cross-border traffic from both networks. From here, the SBB Cargo 193 — a Siemens Vectron — heads south on one of Europe's most storied freight corridors, the Rotterdam–Basel–Genoa axis that carries heavy cargo through the heart of the Alps.

The Gotthard railway, whose construction began in 1872, opened fully in 1882 once the 15,003-metre Gotthard Tunnel was complete — at that time the world's longest rail tunnel. The mountain profile demanded extraordinary civil engineering: 36 tunnels totalling 31,216 metres and seven spiral tunnels to manage the severe gradients on the approach ramps. Electrification followed in 1922, using the 15 kV 16.7 Hz AC system that still powers the route today. The line's apex through the tunnel sits at 1,151 metres above sea level, and the descent to Bellinzona reaches only 241 metres — a drop that makes the southern ramp one of the most dramatic on any standard-gauge railway in Switzerland.

Bellinzona station, which first opened in 1874, now carries the nickname Porta del Ticino — Gate of Ticino — a role formalised by the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016, which positioned the station as the pivot between the two great base tunnels reshaping Alpine rail.