The shift in Swiss cross-border commercial freight transport from asphalt to rail has been a complete failure. This is evident from recently published transport figures from Swiss customs for the 2024 fiscal year.
Thirty years after the Swiss decided in a referendum to shift as much road transport as possible through the Alpine state to rail, customs officials have found that road transport has actually gained market share compared to rail in terms of tonnage, while the supply of cargo in inland waterway transport has stagnated.
Transport figures for 2024 show that the majority (67%) of all cross-border transport was handled by trucks. Ten years ago, this figure was 65%. Rail transport accounted for 13% of transport last year, compared to 14% in 2015. Inland shipping stagnated at an 8% share.
Bulk transport
Swiss customs transport figures are based on measured international tonnages entering or leaving the country. This leads to some bias in favor of rail transport in the figures, as bulk transport, which is primarily handled by rail, carries more weight in the statistics than road transport.
This article was originally published by our sister publication NT.nl