Fewer trucks through the Alps

The volume of goods transported by truck through the Swiss Alps decreased by 2.5 percent last year to 11.7 million tons. According to the Federal Office of Transport (FOT), a total of 975,000 heavy vehicle journeys were recorded in 2016. This is around 35,000 or 3.4 percent fewer than in 2015, with transalpine road freight traffic falling to levels last seen in the mid-1990s.

Rail transports increased
By contrast, the railroads' market share in transalpine freight traffic rose to 71 percent. This is the highest figure since 2001. However, at 40.4 million tons (+3.7 percent), more goods were transported through the Swiss Alps than ever before. The volume of goods transported by rail grew to around 28.6 million tons (+ 6.4 percent). According to the Federal Office, the main reasons for this are the improvement in the economic situation in Germany, Italy and Europe in general. In addition, the comparatively high availability of the rail infrastructure and the continuation of the accompanying measures to promote modal shift.

Individual areas different
Wagonload traffic again grew strongly by 12 percent. The transport of containers and semi-trailers (unaccompanied combined transport) increased by a good 5 percent. This continues to clearly dominate transalpine rail freight transport with a market share of 63 percent. By contrast, transports by rolling road (RoMo) declined by 6.3 percent.