Tilo train stopped in Busto Arsizio for almost three hours (cross-border guide)

Context

In brief

• Tilo stationary for almost three hours near Busto Arsizio
• Train bound from Malpensa to Biasca
• Passengers unable to leave the carriages
• Another train pushed it into the station

Key facts

• Location → approximately 200 meters from Busto Arsizio station
• Route → Milan Malpensa-Biasca
• Duration of the stoppage → almost three hours
• Suspected cause → technical fault
• Solution → coupling and pushing to the station

The stoppage near the station

On 28 September 2026, a Tilo train bound from Milan Malpensa to Biasca remained stationary for almost three hours approximately 200 meters from Busto Arsizio station. A Ticinese who was on board the train reported what was happening. Several accounts were sent to the newsroom.

According to the account, passengers could not leave the carriages. As time passed, the situation caused tension among the people on board to rise. The witness described an increasingly exasperated reaction, while numerous expletives can be heard in the audio made available.

According to reports, a technical fault is believed to be behind the stoppage. The train was outside the station, a few hundred meters from the point where passengers would have been able to get off. Italian police were present outside the train and did not allow people to leave the carriages.

The doors were opened from time to time to let air circulate. The account, however, speaks of people left without water and of the presence of small children who were crying. There were also passengers on board who urgently needed to return home.

The stoppage therefore involved people with different needs, all forced to wait inside the train while the situation remained at a standstill near Busto Arsizio station. The source reports that, for a long time, it was not possible to walk to the station or continue the journey toward Biasca.

Operational details

The tension inside the carriages

The accounts collected

The account from the Busto Arsizio area mainly conveys the conditions experienced by passengers while they waited. The train was close to the station, but no one could get off. For those on board, this short distance made the duration of the stoppage even more difficult to understand.

“No one can leave the carriages. The people on board are going crazy. They’re saying all kinds of things,” the witness reported. The audio provided confirms the tense atmosphere: numerous curses can be heard, while the journey toward Biasca remains suspended in the Busto Arsizio area.

The difficulties reported include a lack of water, small children crying and several people urgently expressing their desire to get home. The doors were opened only occasionally to allow air to circulate. Outside, the Italian police prevented passengers from getting off the carriages.

The witness also reported that one person became hysterical and attempted to leave the train to escape by crossing the tracks. The authorities then stopped them. The incident occurred within a situation already marked by the prolonged wait, the impossibility of leaving the train and uncertainty over what solution to adopt.

For a few minutes, the possibility of taking the train back to its departure point began to circulate, so that the passengers could be transferred to another train. The witness explained, however, that it was not yet clear how the operation would be managed and warned that the wait could become even longer.

The prospect fueled frustration among those on board. The train was a few hundred meters from a station, but it remained stopped. The source thus describes a wait accompanied by protests, physical discomfort and questions about how the disruption was being managed.

Key points

The train convoy pushed to the station

Coupling and moving

The turning point came in the 17.55 update. According to what the witness at the scene explained, a solution had finally been found to move the train from where it was.

Another train coupled to the Tilo convoy and pushed it for about 200 metres, as far as Busto Arsizio station. In this way, after almost three hours of waiting, the passengers arrived at the point that was a few hundred metres from the stopped train.

The account highlights the gap between the short distance and the length of the wait. For the witness, that stretch could have been covered on foot in a few minutes, but the passengers had remained inside the carriages until the intervention of the other train.

The solution made it possible to reach the station, but it did not erase the questions about the preceding hours. The witness hypothesised that being kept in those conditions might have been due to safety reasons. At the same time, he reported that the passengers still had doubts about whether a valid alternative existed for managing the stoppage.

The coupling and pushing represented the decisive stage of the incident: the convoy was brought to the station after having remained stuck a few metres from the arrival point. The source provides no further details about the subsequent arrangements for the journey towards Biasca, nor does it indicate the departure time.

It therefore remains documented that the train’s stoppage near the station was followed by its being moved by another train, after the waiting and agitation experienced on board. The person who had attempted to cross the tracks was also stopped by law enforcement, according to what was reported in the reconstruction.

Source: tio.ch