Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has issued a late-breaking notice for passengers heading to northern Italy this weekend. From Friday 9 October at 20:20 until Monday 12 October at 04:20, Italian infrastructure manager Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) will close the Monte Olimpino 1 tunnel for maintenance. During the 56-hour blockade EuroCity trains running between Basel/Bern/Geneva and Milano Centrale will skip the key business hub of Como S. Giovanni. Regional cross-border services TILO RE80, S10 and S40 are also affected, forcing travellers to change to replacement buses or use alternative stations such as Chiasso or Milano Rogoredo. SBB’s online timetable and the SBB Mobile app have been updated, but the operator urges passengers to re-check their connection shortly before departure because last-minute engineering overruns are possible. The Monte Olimpino corridor is a vital artery for Swiss exporters, Swiss-based multinationals with Italian production sites, and leisure traffic to Lombardy. Skipping Como will lengthen door-to-door journeys by up to 30 minutes and could disrupt meetings arranged around Como’s growing life-science cluster. Companies that buy corporate Saver Day Passes should note that unused reservations for Como are non-refundable during the works. Logistics firms using the four-metre freight corridor via the Gotthard base tunnel will not be directly impacted, but lorry drivers should anticipate heavier traffic at the Chiasso road crossing as some travellers opt for cars. Mobility managers may want to advise staff to fly into Milan Malpensa or take the Zürich–Lugano–Milano EuroCity that bypasses Como entirely. Normal service is scheduled to resume at 04:20 on Monday. Two further weekend closures of the same tunnel are planned for 13–16 November and 20–23 November, indicating an intense final push to complete the upgrade before the winter timetable change on 13 December.
