Cross-border Milan–Chiasso rail traffic back to normal after early-morning outage

Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) reported at 12:40 CET on 28 July 2026 that services on the Milan–Chiasso main line had “returned to normal” following a signalling fault that occurred shortly after 06:00. During the six-hour disruption, up to 18 regional and EuroCity trains connecting northern Italy with southern Switzerland were cancelled or severely delayed, affecting around 9,000 commuters and tourists. The Milan–Chiasso corridor is the busiest passenger and freight artery between the two countries, feeding direct connections to Zurich, Basel and Germany. This morning’s outage stranded several overnight cargo trains, forcing logistics operators to reroute sensitive pharmaceutical consignments via the Domodossola–Brig line and causing knock-on delays of up to four hours at the Chiasso Smistamento freight yard. RFI technicians traced the problem to a power surge at the Seregno interlocking station. The incident comes only three weeks after demonstrators disrupted the Modane–Turin line and underscores the fragility of cross-alpine rail infrastructure during the summer peak, when engineering possessions are already compressing capacity on alternative routes. From a mobility-management perspective, companies running assignment programmes between Lombardy and Swiss offices should review contingency plans that rely on same-day rail commuting. Travel managers are advised to keep flexible air or coach options on GDS systems and to monitor RFI’s Infomobilità portal, which now issues push notifications in English. Rail operators Trenitalia and Trenord have offered full refunds or itinerary changes for today’s affected passengers. Freight forwarders, however, warn that capacity will remain tight for 24 hours while backlog is cleared, potentially impacting just-in-time deliveries for the fashion and automotive clusters around Monza and Como.