Limmattalbahn reports 1.5 million passengers
The Limmattalbahn has already been used by around 1.5 million passengers since it began operating in December 2022. It also achieves high punctuality values of 97 percent.
After the first 100 days of operation, Aargau Verkehr AG(AVA) is taking positive stock of the new Limmattalbahn in terms of user numbers and punctuality. According to a media release, around 1.5 million passengers have used the railway since the start of regular service on 11 December 2022. On a weekday, the light rail system carries 16,000 passengers.
The busiest stations include Dietikon and Zurich Altstetten stations, the Zentrum stop in Schlieren, Oetwilerstrasse in Dietikon and at the Shoppi Tivoli shopping centre in Spreitenbach. The AVA emphasises the high punctuality: 97 percent of the light rail vehicles arrive at their destination with less than three minutes delay.
The commissioning was preceded by a good twelve years of planning and construction. Before the start of regular service in December, test and training runs were carried out in the second half of 2022 to ensure a functioning interaction between infrastructure, control and information systems. In daily passenger operations with higher loads, there were isolated disruptions and delays in the first weeks of operation, according to the AVA’s statement. These irregularities could be remedied by technical adjustments and optimisations to the vehicles and the systems. The initially tight transfer times were optimised in the first weeks of operation.
The railway operates on 92 per cent of its route on its own track independently of the rest of the traffic. Where it shares the route with individual traffic, traffic lights and barriers ensure safe operation. Since the start of operations, there have reportedly been seven collisions between passenger cars and light rail vehicles. In all cases, the cause was misbehaviour or inattention on the part of the motorists.