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The number of freight trains crossing the Alps fell in 2024. Once again, too many trucks were crossing the Swiss mountains instead. (archive image)
Keystone
The target of 650,000 trucks crossing the Alps was once again significantly exceeded last year. According to a report by the Federal Office of Transport (FOT), this was probably due to numerous roadworks that slowed down freight trains.
Last year, 960,000 trucks transported goods across the Swiss Alps. That is 310,000 too many and 44,000 more than in the previous year. In contrast, the share of freight trains in all journeys fell from 72 to 70.3 percent, as the FOT announced on Thursday.
The reasons for this are likely to be an exceptionally large number of construction sites on the north-south rail corridor, it added. In summer 2024, for example, the route between Basel and Karlsruhe (Germany) was closed for three weeks. There were also numerous restrictions in Italy.
In future, the Federal Council wants to coordinate construction site planning more internationally. To this end, Switzerland took over the chairmanship of the newly created North Sea-Rhine-Mediterranean freight corridor together with Belgium at the beginning of 2025.
20.03.2025, 14:46
