Travelling Between Zürich and Luzern This May? Construction ahead
SBB is closing the line on two consecutive weekends for bridge works. Here is what you need to know.
Commuters and weekend travellers heading between Zürich and Luzern should plan ahead this May. Swiss Federal Railways is closing the Luzern–Ebikon section of the Zürich–Zug–Luzern line on two consecutive weekends, with replacement buses operating in its place.
The closures run from Friday evening at 22:00 through to Monday morning at 04:30 on both weekends of 1–4 May and 8–11 May. In addition, a series of shorter overnight closures between 23:50 and 05:10 are planned across several nights in late April and mid-May, as part of preparatory and follow-up works.
The cause is the ongoing restoration of the Reussbrücke Fluhmühle — a 144-metre single-track railway bridge built in 1921 that is listed as a heritage structure. The bridge carries around 200 trains daily and last had its corrosion protection renewed in 1987. Rather than close the entire line for months, SBB has developed a staged approach: each of the three bridge arches, weighing roughly 185 tonnes apiece, is lifted out individually by a crawler crane, transported to a riverside workshop for restoration, and then reinstalled — with a temporary replacement structure keeping the line operational in between. The weekend closures are timed to coincide with these lift operations, with crane activity expected around 09:00 on Saturday 2 May and later that afternoon, and again around midday and evening on Sunday 10 May. Anyone curious can watch the lifts from the Xylophonweg on the left bank of the Reuss.
The full project runs until autumn 2027, with SBB investing CHF 15.3 million in total. The work is designed to extend the bridge's service life by a further 50 years — necessary given that train frequency on the line is projected to rise by around 18 percent to approximately 240 daily crossings by 2035.
Travellers are advised to check the SBB app or online timetable before travelling on affected dates, as journey times will be extended and some connections will be altered.
