News hardware Switzerland is fed up with the transport of goods which clogs up its roads. His plan: travel underground
Published on 07/24/2022 at 17:25
In Switzerland, the issue of road congestion, noise and pollution has been at the heart of discussions for years. The main designated culprit has been identified, it is the freight transport sector. And to avoid arriving at an irreversible situation, the country took a radical decision: to transport the goods underground.
Summary
- Switzerland fears saturation of its roads by 2040
- Switzerland launches Operation Cargo Sous Terrain
- How will the Cargo Sous Terrain project work?
Switzerland fears saturation of its roads by 2040
In Switzerland, and even more so than elsewhere, time and the environment are money. Small country of 8.1 million inhabitants and an area of 41,285 km²wedged between France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein (let’s not forget them!), we know it above all for its watches, its chocolate, its ski resorts, its neutrality and its banks .
Well established in the top of the 5 countries where the inhabitants are the happiest in the world (in 2022, Switzerland is 4th in a
ranking dominated by Finland
), the Swiss Confederation (the famous CH on cars) is however experiencing a major problem, namely a considerable increase in its flow of goods transport.
According to their studies, if nothing is done soon, it will be 37% higher than 2010with all that entails, saturation of roads, railways, more accidents, more pollution, more noise, etc etc etc.
Among the solutions considered, curbing the flow of goods is obviously not viable and would put the country’s economy at risk. Increasing the size and number of roads would have disastrous consequences on the environment and the living environment so dear to the peaceful inhabitants. And if finally the solution was not on earth or in the air, but underground?
Switzerland launches Operation Cargo Sous Terrain
After having studied all the solutions, in length, in width and across, it is finally the project baptized “Cargo Sous Terrain” (CST) which was retained. This consists of digging and creating an ambitious and vast underground network of several hundred kilometerswith a multitude of branches, between the lakes of Constance, located at the northeast end of the country, and Geneva, located to the southwest, on the French border.
The project, which will start in August this year, is due to end by… 2045. The first section, approximately 70 km long, will run from the small town of Härkingen-Niederbipp to Zurich and should be operational in 2031, barring any setbacks.
For this first 70 km section alone, including the logistics and hardware part, but also all the software part as well as the machines, it should cost at least 3 billion Swiss francs (3.05 billion euros). An already significant sum, but very far from the overall cost of the operation which is estimated, watch your eyes, at… 30,000 million (yes yes, thirty thousand million!) Swiss francs (€30,500 million). A sum entirely financed by the market itself as well as the private sector.
Without going into overly technical details, the Cargo Sous Terrain project will connect depot centers to each other for large goods, but also to urban centers from which delivery people with light electric vehicles will be able to deliver to private homes.
Everything will be automated with ecological and electric vehicles, therefore without driver, moving on rails and in three-lane tunnels at a speed of 30 km/h. 100% of the energy will come from renewable sources and it will be possible to move furniture and materials as well as fresh products.
Although the project is of a titanic scale, its creators believe that this will make it possible to reduce heavy goods vehicle traffic on the motorways by more than 40%, while significantly reducing the level of pollution and noise pollution. Who knows, maybe other countries will follow suit?
