Voters to decide on major Swiss motorway expansion

The Swiss people will cast their votes on motorway expansion on November 24. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The Swiss government wants to widen one of the country’s major motorways to at least six lanes in key stretches between Bern and Zurich and between Geneva and Lausanne, at a cost CHF5.3 billion ($6.2 billion). Opponents of the plan have launched a referendum. The Swiss people will cast their votes on November 24.

The A1 motorway stretches 410 kilometres from the east to the west of Switzerland. It is the longest motorway in the country. It is also the most congested, with 16,279 hours of traffic jams in 2023, according to the Federal Statistical Office. To solve the problem, the government has proposed to parliament the financing of six motorway expansion projects that are ready to be implemented. Five of them are in the German-speaking part of the country and one is in the French-speaking region.

Parliament approved the plan in September 2023. This prompted a broad alliance led by the Swiss transport association (Verkehrs-Club der Schweiz, VCS) and the environmental group actif-trafiC, acting in the name of climate protection, to launch a referendum on the plan. Dubbed “Stop motorway construction mania”, it received 100,000 signatures in three months – twice the number needed to go to the polls – with the support of the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party, among others.

The government’s road development plan

As part of the 2030 strategic development programme for national roads, the government is launching construction projects worth CHF11.6 billion to ensure that the network keeps running smoothly. Every four years, it submits a development phase to parliament for consultation.

The 2023 development phase, against which the referendum has been launched, concerns six motorway expansion projects. In French-speaking Switzerland, the Le Vengeron-Coppet-Nyon axis, linking cantons Geneva and Vaud, is to be widened to two times three lanes over a distance of some 19 kilometres. In German-speaking Switzerland, the Wankdorf-Schönbühl section (in canton Bern) is to be increased from six to eight lanes, and the Schönbühl-Kirchberg section (also in canton Bern) is to be increased from four to six lanes. Three sets of tunnels are also to be doubled: the Fäsenstaub tunnel (canton Schaffhausen), the Rhine tunnel (cantons Basel City and Basel Country) and the Rosenberg tunnel (canton St Gallen).

Arguments in favour

The government wants to increase the capacity and safety of motorways, and remove bottlenecks at strategic points to improve traffic flow. The goal is also to help relieve congestion in surrounding towns and villages. At present, when traffic builds up on the motorway, drivers often divert onto secondary roads, clogging up inhabited areas and harming the quality of life of local residents.

As the Swiss population continues to grow, the advocates of building more lanes stress the need to modernise a motorway network that is considered outdated. Increased mobility needs can only be met thanks to appropriate, functional and reliable infrastructure, they stress. Mobility is synonymous with freedom, employment and prosperity, says Peter Goetschi, president of the automobile association Touring Club Switzerland (TCS).

Supply security is also at stake, economic circles warn, as motorways play a systemic role in the transport of goods.

Arguments against

The road development projects are incompatible with the climate objectives assumed by the Swiss government on ratifying the Paris Agreement, the referendum alliance argues. Road traffic is already responsible for one-third of CO2 emissions in Switzerland. There is therefore an urgent need to think about sustainable mobility and to develop public transport, rather than expanding the motorway network, the Swiss transport association VCS says: the planned expansion is “excessive and outmoded”.

Any new road acts as a pull factor – supply creates demand, the projects’ opponents point out. Many are also worried about the “concreting over” of Switzerland, which is ruining the countryside and destroying farmland and forests, biodiversity sites and recreational areas.

Above all, the cost of the new infrastructure is deemed “exorbitant” – a real “waste of money”, says the environmental group actif-trafiC. The price of the projects is CHF5.3 billion, not counting the billions that will have to be spent on future maintenance. On top of this, even if the cost of the projects is covered by fuel and vehicle taxes, it is ordinary people who will “bear the external costs of the harm caused by the traffic: accidents, noise, pollution, health problems, climate and environmental impacts”, warns actif-trafiC.

Who is in favour?

The government and parliament are in favour of expanding the motorways. Among the main political groupings, the right-wing parties – first and foremost the Swiss People’s Party – are calling on voters to accept the projects. Unsurprisingly, automobile associations such as the TCS and auto-swiss, as well as business organisations such as the Swiss Union of Arts and Crafts (usam) and economiesuisse, support the plan. Grouped together in an alliance called “Yes to ensuring the future of national roads”, they have already launched a campaign for the vote under the slogan “For a Switzerland that moves forward”.

Who is against?

A broad alliance is seeking to halt the expansion of the six planned motorway sections. It includes environmental and climate protection organisations such as Greenpeace, WWF, Climate Alliance Switzerland and BirdLife, as well as the Green Party, the Social Democratic Party, Doctors for the Environment, the Anti-Noise League and farmers‘ organisations such as Uniterre and the Small Farmers’ Association.

Edited by Samuel Jaberg. Adapted from French by Julia Bassam/gw