Six Swiss Cantons Call For Rail Network Expansion

2026-01-17 02:08:13

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Six Swiss cantons - Basel City, Basel Country, Geneva, Ticino, Valais and Vaud - have submitted a joint request to the Federal Council demanding urgent investments in rail services and infrastructure to deal with an overloaded network. This content was published on January 17, 2026 - 11:35 3 minutes Keystone-SDA

Italiano it Sei Cantoni, tra cui Ticino, chiedono ampliamento rete ferroviaria Original Read more: Sei Cantoni, tra cui Ticino, chiedono ampliamento rete ferrov

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“Every day tens of thousands of people commute for work and freight traffic continues to increase. Already today the network is overloaded,” the cantons declare in a joint statement. The cantons fear that the situation will get even worse if no measures are taken.

Ministers from the cantons responsible for construction, infrastructure and transport signed the document at the recent third national railway congress, Bahn26, held in Basel.

+ Read more: Swiss are keenest rail users in Europe

The ministers have made three demands: planning must be supply-oriented, CHF24 billion must be set aside for the expansion of the rail network, and the east-west and north-south axes must be expanded, with regional traffic strengthened and international rail connections promoted.

Each canton has also presented specific project requests. For canton Ticino, the priority is to strengthen the north-south axis and to improve capacity and journey times to Milan. The low operating speed and bottlenecks, particularly in the Bellinzona, Lugano and Mendrisio areas, as well as on the Italian side, reduce the efficiency of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the document states.

In order to ensure stable growth in passenger and freight traffic and the achievement of national modal shift and climate targets, an increase in capacity on the axis to Locarno is also deemed essential.
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