Misleading: Video shows track work in Switzerland, not Poland destroying China-EU corridor

14 October 2025

The footage shows a tram track renovation work in Bern, Switzerland, in 2023. It has nothing to do with the China-Europe Railway Express.

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A screenshot of a Douyin video showing an excavator dismantling railway tracks was circulated with a claim that Poland demolished sections of the China-Europe Railway on Sept. 19. While the original Douyin video appears to have been deleted, the screenshot image was widely discussed on social media platforms such as X (here and here) and Threads (here).

A tweet on X in Chinese, for example, stated that “Poland begins violent demolition of China-Europe Railway” and quickly gained more than 3,100 likes and 300 reposts.

A Taiwan-based media outlet, Newtalk.tw, also included the screenshot in an article about China’s Belt and Road Initiative, alluding that the railway linking China to Europe has been damaged.

However, this claim is false.

Annie Lab found the same video posted in 2023 showing tram track renovation in Bern, Switzerland. The viral image captured from this video is unrelated to either the China-Europe Railway or any events in Poland in September 2025.

Screenshot of a Douyin video found across various platforms, falsely claiming Poland dismantled sections of the China-Europe Railway

In our investigation, we also encountered a similar claim made by a self-media account on Baidu, featuring the same video. It said China is “removing tracks in Lithuania” due to the country’s support for “Taiwan independence.”

Origin of the video clip

Reverse image searches first led to a reel (archived here) on Instagram posted by user @big_machinery on April 22, 2024. Its caption stated that the track removal machinery was operated by a Swiss construction company, Eberhard, and the footage was captured in 2023 in Bern, central Switzerland.

We then located the same video in the user’s Story collection, titled “Gleisabbruch” in German (meaning “track demolition” in English), dated March 27, 2023.

[Update on Oct. 27: We reached out to the account owner, Ugo Boillat, and he confirmed that he shot the video on March 27, 2023.]

Identifying location

The excavator in the video bore the logo of Eberhard Unternehmungen, a Swiss company. According to its LinkedIn profile and official website (archived here and here), the company manufactures machinery and undertakes projects including pit excavation, track dismantling, earthworks, and hydraulic engineering.

The excavator in the video appears to be a “Schienenhobel,” or a rail scraper (archived here). On the company’s Instagram account, we identified another video (archived here) which appears to show the same demolition work at the same location from a different angle.

Matching objects in the video include the building, yellow containers, and red-and-white warning tape. Product images from the Eberhard website (archived here) confirm the excavator is the same model.

All these video clips we found show an identical site featuring a two-story building with a black-tiled roof, red-framed windows, and a distinctive long white billboard that reads “Thunstrasse 42 Me,” among other things.

A search for “Thunstrasse 42” on Google led to a website of a Bern-based advertising company called Messerli Kommunikation (archived here). Its logo can be seen on the building’s exterior in the video. According to the company’s website, its office is located at Thunstrasse 42, 3074 Muri b. Bern.

All three images—from the video, official website, and company records—display the same address (highlighted in the red box).

Other elements in the video, such as the “Marti” logo on yellow metal containers, led to a page by Marti AG Bern (archived here), a construction contractor in Bern.

After going through the contractor’s documents and videos, we learned that the video shows the early phase of a 1.2-km tram track renovation project between Muri and Egghölzli from February to October 2023.

Marti, Eberhard, and Frutiger, another company identified from a logo we found in the video, are all listed as part of the construction team.

The Bern government’s website provides a construction plan of this project that aligns with the tram tracks in the video.

[Update on Oct. 27: In the e-mail confirmation to Annie Lab, Boillat said Eberhard Bau AG acted as a subcontractor and was responsible for the track demolition work during the project.]

Comparison of the construction plan with Google Maps. The area highlighted in red aligns with part of the construction, including the location of Messerli Kommunikation.

Marti’s project page includes a video showing the site in question undergoing renovation work, which was also shared on Eberhard’s Facebook page.

Comparison of Marti’s official website and Instagram videos by @big_machinery confirms the site is part of the Thunstrasse Muri project.

Poland-China corridor

On Sept. 19, Poland closed its border with Belarus, leading to a temporary halt in rail traffic for the China-Europe Railway Express at the Małaszewicze-Brest junction. However, news coverage from media sources such as Forbes and Politico EU (archived here and here) reported no demolition of railway infrastructure.

According to Caixin Global and Radio Free Europe (archived here and here), Poland reopened the border on the morning of Sept. 25. Annie Lab found no evidence that suggests physical railway destruction in the country.