Throughout Switzerland, 350 SBB Intervention employees ensure that unexpected events impact rail traffic as little as possible and that operations quickly return to normal. To do so, they have 16 special fire-fighting and rescue trains at their disposal along with a range of other rail and road vehicles.

SBB Intervention is a professional organisation operating from 16 sites throughout Switzerland. Its employees respond to over 9,000 incidents each year, including technical problems affecting safety installations, fires and the evacuation and towing of incapacitated trains. In the case of an unexpected event, they are the first ones to arrive at the scene, implementing initial emergency measures and ensuring that SBB takes a leading role in the response vis-à-vis internal and external partners. Through their round-the-clock efforts, they are the ones making sure that rail operations return to normal as quickly as possible. The SBB Intervention specialists also participate in scheduled events – those involving a large number of people or vehicles, for example – by ensuring everything proceeds smoothly and increasing the level of safety through their presence in rail stations. Intervention’s sites are located in a way that enables Intervention employees to reach any point on the railway network within 15 to 30 minutes. The fire-fighting and rescue trains’ teams have their quarters at these sites. This way, they can be ready for action within only a few minutes even during the night.