In the first half of 2023, trucks and trains that have through the Swiss Alps transported 19.19 million tonnes of goods, with a decrease of -5.2% compared to the volumes of transported in the first half of last year. If away 5.24 million tonnes were transported, with a -2.7 %, the most significant was the decrease in the number of loads transported by rail, which amounted to to 13.94 million tonnes (-6.0%). In the first six months of 2023 the share of rail transport in all freight traffic fell by -0.9% to 72.7%.

The semi-annual report on transalpine freight traffic published today from the Swiss Federal Office of Transport (FOT) indicates that in the first half of this year, the Swiss Alps were a total of 463 thousand trucks (-2.6%), of which 336,000 via the Gotthard (-3.9%), 66,000 vehicles via the San Bernardino (+4.1%), 47 thousand through the Simplon pass (-4.2%) and 14 thousand via the Great St. Gotthard.

Of the loads transported by rail, in the first half of the of this year, 10.02 million tonnes passed through the Gotthard (-2.4%) and 3.92 million tonnes via the Simplon (-14,2%). The activity of unaccompanied combined transport handled a total of 9.96 million tons of goods (-6.6%), of which 7.30 million tonnes via the Gotthard (-0.5%) and 2.66 million tonnes via the Simplon (-20,2%). Wagonload traffic handled 3.32 million tonnes (-7.7%), of which 2.70 million tonnes through the Gotthard (-7.9%) and 625 thousand tons through the Simplon (-7,1%). Finally, the rolling highway (RoLa) has moved 665 thousand tons (+15.9%), of which 644 thousand tons via Simplon (+12.4%) and 21 thousand tons via the Gotthard, a route on which In the first half of 2022, about a thousand tons passed through of loads.

The FOT noted that the overall decline in traffic of goods is a consequence of economic developments in Europe, with reduced production in the steel industry, chemical and automotive industries, which has led to a decrease in the demand for transport services on this route. The FOT specified that The least pronounced impact of the drop on the road is from likely to be due to the balancing effect of traffic internally, in contrast to developments in Europe that have affected the directly the railway. To this they have probably added the negative effects of the still insufficient reliability of transit traffic, with only about half of the trains goods that have arrived at their destination on time.

The Federal Office noted that in 2024 it is also expected that whereas north-south rail traffic will be reduced in in view of the many construction sites planned on this corridor which will lead to significant capacity limitations.