Swiss underground freight project rethinks strategy

Cargo Sous Terrain faces "traffic jams" and local opposition Keystone

A Swiss underground freight project is floundering as the initial version of the plan shows weaknesses, and opposition grows louder.

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Cargo Sous Terrain (Underground Cargo, CST) aims to build an underground tunnel system for transporting goods around Switzerland.

+ Future freight project gathers steam

The project was launched in 2013 by the Swiss Confederation and private stakeholders. The idea is to develop automated electric vehicles that transport goods underground 24 hours a day, from Geneva to St Gallen. The goal is environmentally friendly, but also to reduce heavy goods vehicle traffic by 40% in Switzerland.

Traffic jam risk

But today, the new boss of Cargo Sous Terrain, who has been in office for six months, is abandoning the initial project: “Simulations have shown that the planned system risks traffic jams in the tunnel, just as on a busy road,” Christian Späth told Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

“Furthermore, we are concerned that inductive charging of vehicles will generate too much heat. We would then have had to build cooling systems that are very expensive to build and operate,” he adds.

To address these problems, a new project has been developed. Cable-drawn wagons will replace electric vehicles, a cheaper technology. According to Cargo Sous Terrain, the cost has dropped from CHF35 billion to CHF25 billion.

However, some of the shareholders, including Migros, Coop, Swisscom and La Poste, will no longer invest while others are rethinking their strategy, reports SRF Schweiz Aktuell.

Growing opposition

Opposition is also emerging in the municipalities where the first section of Cargo Sous Terrain is to be built. “We believe that the planned plots are too small to accommodate all the necessary logistics,” says Markus Mötteli, president of the municipality of Spreitenbach, in canton Aargau. 

The new Cargo Sous Terrain project with cable vehicles appears to be the last chance to see – perhaps – a large number of trucks disappear from Swiss roads.

Adapted from French by DeepL/mga

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