Fires in long railway tunnels - the ventilation concepts adopted in the AlpTransit projects

For long railway tunnels such as the Gotthard Base Tunnel (57 km) or the Lotschberg Base Tunnel (34 km) the eventuality of a fire requires special measures to reduce the probability of an incident (preventive measures) and to limit the consequences of an incident (curative measures). Over the last years the safety department of the AlpTransit working group on Aerodynamics and Climate has developed an emergency ventilation concept for these long railway tunnels. Based on a number of key principles and different studies on smoke propagation, a ventilation concept containing rescue stations and cross-passages has been developed. This concept is currently being refined further. The paper describes the key principles, some of the most important findings from the smoke propagation studies and the adopted solutions for the layout of the rescue stations. In addition, possible ventilation schemes for an incident outside a rescue station are presented.