Switzerland is expected to see a dramatic increase in road traffic, following the news that the Rolling Highway project will be closing down at the end of the year. The service, which sees lorries cross Switzerland on freight trains, allows thousands of truckers to pass through without clogging up the motorway network.
What is the Rolling Highway in Switzerland?
Since 2001, any lorry driver who wants to travel through Switzerland has been able to use the so-called Rolling Highway. As part of the transport service, drivers load their trucks onto specially designed rail carriages in Germany and Italy, which take them through Switzerland and customs without interacting with the road network at all.
During transit, drivers can either rest in their trucks or sit in the attached rail cars. Today, the only route that runs is between the Italian city of Novara and Freiburg in Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg.
The Rolling Highway is one of the many policies enacted following the approval of the Alpine Initiative in 1994. As part of the referendum, designed to protect the country from excessive traffic, the government is constitutionally obliged to shift cargo transport from road to rail, with a target of reducing the number of lorries passing through the Swiss mountains to 650.000 a year.
Between its official launch as the Rolling Highway in 2001 and 2021, 1,7 million lorries were transported across Switzerland by train, saving 600.000 tonnes of CO2. Thanks to the Rolling Highway and other policies, 75 percent of transalpine freight traffic travels by rail rather than road.
Rolling Highway to close at the end of 2025
However, this service is now set to come to an end in 2025, three years earlier than planned, operator RAlpin has confirmed. According to the company, construction work and “unforeseen events” have led to massive disruptions to the service. In 2024, 10 percent of Rolling Highway trains were cancelled, leading to a loss of 2,2 million francs. Just 800 trains now run every three months, compared to over 1.000 a year ago.
The closure will almost certainly mean an increase in the number of lorries on Swiss roads and motorways, leading to heavier traffic and gridlock. The Tages-Anzeiger noted that the number of lorries on the road has been rising steadily since 2020, and is still well above the 650.000 vehicle annual target set by the Alpine Initiative.
Opponents warn of "flood" of trucks on Swiss roads
“From 2026 onwards, a new flood of trucks in transalpine transit traffic threatens," Pro Alps, the successor organisation to the backers of the Alpine Initiative, warned. "While freight transport by rail faces high costs, transit traffic by road benefits from indirect subsidies," Pro Alps Policy Officer Silvan Gnos told the Tages-Anzeiger.
The Transport Workers’ Union also came out against the closure, arguing that it would lead to a “massive shift of freight transport back to the road - a significant setback for climate policy.” For their part, the Federal Office of Transport said it “regretted” the closure, and promised that the money saved from scrapping the Rolling Road would be used to promote other forms of freight rail.