The aim of the agreement is to provide a sustainable and efficient intermodal transport chain throughout the country as well as improving the ecological balance.

Projects which aim to deliver this objective include the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA), which will be completed at the end of 2020 with the opening of the Ceneri tunnel. This project will provide a seamless 4m corridor between Basle and northern Italy and make the transition of transalpine freight from road to rail a practical proposition with additional capacity for over 240,000 semi-trailers a year.

Other measures already underway include the development by SBB Cargo of an automatic coupling system and brake tests, and the planned trimodal Basle North terminal.

However, with the Swiss Office for Spatial Development (ARE) projecting that freight traffic on the Swiss transport system is set to increase by 37% by 2040, more measures are needed to cope with this increase including further investment in the railway network to support freight traffic.

Plans

These plans will be outlined in the next stage of Switzerland’s Strategic Development Plan (Step) for 2040-45 and could include projects to boost the handling capacity for import-export freight in Ticino. Other proposals include a new assessment of network utilisation according to demand, and boosting overnight rail freight traffic.

It is hoped that the new agreement will facilitate greater cooperation to deliver these benefits for the overall freight system.

“For 16 years it was rail versus road, and now it’s both together,” says SBB CEO Mr Andreas Meyer. But there is still a lot of work to do, Meyer added, with additional tracks and handling facilities needed, not to mention extra train drivers.

Mr Frank Furrer, VAP general secretary, agreed: “We’re not yet where we need to be; a voluntary modal shift is not yet a reality and we have to plan logistics centres in the right places.”