BLS invests in modern travel

BLS AG is one of the biggest transport companies in Switzerland. Apart from operating various train lines through the Emmental region, in the Jura, Seeland, Simmental regions, to Interlaken or via the Lötschberg mountain route, BLS also maintains a 420 km long railway network as well as 119 railway stations and stops.

The employees of the maintenance workshops of BLS make sure everyday that passengers can commute and travel in clean, safe and well-maintained trains. To ensure this remains this way, the workshops must continually be adjusted to the current offer and to longer trains. Consequently, the workshops in Spiez and Bönigen have been reorganised for efficient and effective operation. In this way, the BNIH workshop for minor maintenance will remain as before in Spiez, while the workshop for major maintenance can with immediate effect be found in Bönigen.

Exhaustive planning was the main perquisite for moving the workshop for major maintenance to Bönigen. After intensive organisation of the deployment activities by Bauberger’s experienced project manager, Christian Schumacher, the Bauberger team set off for the beautiful Bernese Oberland several times in order to transport the many machine tools and installations in several stages from Spiez to Bönigen.

“Thanks to outstanding planning by Bauberger in the run-up to the move, everything ran smoothly from A to Z,” according to Michael Tschiemer from BLS, “there really wasn’t anything to criticise.”

For example, during the individual activities for the grinding machines, innumerable small machines and various small parts in Spiez were demounted, unloaded, transported to Bönigern and installed there at their new location. BLS provided a rolling truck for the heaviest mechanical installations. The CNC milling machines and lathes weighing up to 18 tons were placed on the rolling truck fitted with cross girders with the Montylift and thus moved internally in Bönigen.

“This procedure produced an enormous time-saving for us, since otherwise the installations would have had to be brought via transfer tables in an elaborate procedure from the old to the new building,” said Etienne Keller in describing this special stage of the move and then continued, “The cooperation with the BLS officials on-site was a complete success and thanks to the good and open mutual communication and discussions, all deployment activities were completed without any problems.”

Special equipment

  • Montylift-16 and Montylift-36
  • Forklift truck with crane arm
  • Chassis 12-ton
  • Various yokes + girders

Team

Hansjörg, Reto, Etienne, Roland