20 Minutes. Dubbed the “Superveloce”, the new high-speed journey is expected to start operating between now and 2020. Made possible by the opening of the new Gotthard train tunnel, the trip should take only 2 hours and 45 minutes. Since the world’s longest train tunnel was opened in December 2016, 2.3 million passengers have passed through […]
Avoiding long queues at Gotthard tunnel
20 Minutes. According to TCS (Touring Club Suisse), a queue of 10 km was reported on the northern side of the Gotthard road tunnel on Friday 14 July. Some waited 1 hour and 40 minutes. On the southern side of the tunnel queues stretched 3 km, leaving motorists waiting around 45 minutes. The long queue […]
Swiss Rail boss says ticket prices should stay stable
20 Minutes. Andreas Meyer, the head of Swiss Rail, told the newspaper Le Matin Dimanche that Swiss Rail ticket prices should remain stable in the future. He said prices could even go down in order to compete with road travel. “Car makers want to make road journeys cheaper…. This is why we are working to […]
Volkswagen to recall 22,000 of its cars in Switzerland
20 Minutes. The newspaper 20 Minutes reported that around 22,000 Volkswagen cars in Switzerland are to be recalled because their ABS brake system does not function correctly. On Wednesday, blick.ch published a statement made by Dino Graf, a spokesperson for Amag, a Swiss car importer, that confirms the manufacturer’s recall plan. Swiss VW owners will be […]
Swiss driverless buses a hit despite accident
By Peter Hulm Sion’s driverless public shuttle buses celebrated their first anniversary of experimental operation in the mainly pedestrian precincts of the Valais capital on 23 June 2017. Switzerland’s PostAuto/PostBus, responsible for the 11-seater yellow electric vehicles built by the French company Navya, said the two SmartShuttles carried more than 21,500 people through the Sion […]
Swiss road tax vignettes set to become electronic
Switzerland’s federal council, or executive branch of government, has made further progress on coming up with an electronic replacement for the nation’s motorway tax sticker, or vignette. It released a report last week with details that bring its plans closer to reality. The sticker, which costs CHF 40 a year and was introduced in 1985, is […]
Swiss traffic worse in 2016, especially in Lausanne
Recently published traffic statistics by the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) show an increase in road traffic and the number of hours spent in traffic jams. In 2016, the total collective distance covered by drivers on Switzerland’s national network of motorways grew 2.4% to 25.9 billion kilometres, equivalent to travelling to the moon and back 33,750 […]
A small change to Zurich’s parking rules pushed ticket numbers up 21% in 2016
20 Minuten. In 2016, Zurich city raked in more than CHF 60 million in traffic fines, according to the city’s latest financial statements, published on 15 June 2017. The number of tickets issued rose by 20.7% to 503,888, and the reason why is quite clear. At the beginning of 2016, the policy of allowing a standard […]
Get ready for heavy traffic
Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) issued a traffic warning today ahead of the long weekends in May and June. The public holiday this Thursday (Ascension) means many will take a day of leave on Friday to make a four-day weekend. Monday 5 June is also a public holiday (Pentecost) creating a three-day weekend. Later in […]
Swiss still show strong preference for car over train
Despite one of the world’s most efficient train networks, Swiss residents still overwhelmingly prefer hopping in their cars than getting on trains or other forms of transport. Of the 90 minutes an average Swiss resident spends moving every day they spend the vast majority of it in a car. In 2015, two thirds of trips were made […]
