Generally speaking, Swissmetro will provide a high safety level, equivalent to, if not higher than, that of other forms of rail transport, such as surface trains or underground systems. Moreover, it will offer considerable safety advantages inherent to its design, such as:

• the use of two separate tunnels, one in each direction, making the collision of two vehicles impossible;
• one single type of traffic (no dangerous goods, no slow traffic to integrate, a simple operating concept);
• a guiding system which prevents derailment;
• total independance of climatic conditions;
• protected site and accesses, easy to supervise (no obstacles on the line; no sabotage, hijacking or malicious acts possible from outside);
• a fire probability of vitually nil, thanks to use of fireproofing materials and low oxygen concentration in the tunnel.

In addition, in the event of a serious accident, emergency repressurisation of the tunnel will be activated: this will allow, as in civil aviation practice, a viable pressure of approximately 0.6 atm to be reached in 2.5 minutes, corresponding to atmostpheric presssure at an altitude of 5,000 m. Passengers will then be able to breathe adequately in both the vehicle and tunnel.

Subsequently, for comfort reasons, restoration of pressure will be continued up to approximately one atmosphere.

Finally, the transverse connections between tunnels will greatly facilitate the arrival of assistance and passenger evacuation.