Swiss government to propose new road and rail project priorities
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Swiss government to propose new road and rail project priorities
The Swiss government plans to set priorities for the expansion of the country's transport networks on the basis of a report it commissioned from the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.
The report, published on Thursday, comes on the heels of billions in additional costs being anticipated for the expansion of the rail infrastructure, and nearly a year after voters rejected a plan to expand national motorways.
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Now the government has outlined how it intends to proceed. By the end of January 2026, the environment and transport ministry will propose projects to be included in the national roads and rail infrastructure expansion programme as well as in the fifth agglomeration transport programme.
For railway infrastructure, the ministry will present a variant that assumes more revenue but does not contradict the federal savings package, which is currently being discussed in parliament. Road projects and agglomeration programmes should be based on existing financial framework conditions.
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The government plans to bundle the expansion steps for road and rail as well as the contributions to the agglomeration transport programme in the consultation process and thus show the overall planning of the next expansion steps. However, it plans to hold separate referendums on the decisions regarding rail and road.
The government also intends to maintain the staggered expansion, insofar as this makes sense in terms of content. In the consultation draft, it therefore intends to apply for a 2027 expansion stage for road, rail and contributions to the agglomeration transport programme. At the same time, it wants to provide an outlook for the further expansion stages in 2031 and 2035.
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A draft of the consultation text should be available at the end of June 2026. The government’s approach is based on the report commissioned by Transport Minister Albert Rösti last January and which was presented in Bern on Thursday.
The report was prompted by the Swiss electorate’s rejection of motorway expansions, and the fact that around CHF14 billion ($17.4 billion) in additional costs are expected for the approved railway expansion phase, for example due to additional projects. The report was led by Ulrich Weidmann, a professor of transport systems at ETH Zurich.
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