Switzerland plans to reduce the transportation of goods by land routes
Switzerland announced the start of a new project in the logistics sector. The parliament allowed the construction of private underground tunnels designed for the transportation of goods. It is expected that such structures will reduce the traditional transportation by roads by 40%.
Work on the construction of such tunnels will begin in 2026, and from 2031 the products will be transported through the underground Cargo sous terrain systems. It will be fully automated and require no human intervention or the use of trucks with internal combustion engines. The system is designed to operate around the clock, it will connect major logistics hubs and cities across the country. Small parcels as well as containers and pallets will be delivered through such tunnels.
According to the initial plan, the distance of Cargo sous terrain will be 70 km, the system will connect Zurich and the city of Herkingen-Niederbipp. In the future, the authors of the project want to develop the network to include Geneva, Basel, St. Gallen and others. A separate branch of the system should be a route from Bern to Thun. It is expected that the introduction of this network will reduce ground transportation by 40%.
By 2045 in Switzerland they want to build a system of underground tunnels, which will extend for 500 kilometers. The amount of investment in this project is estimated at 32 billion euros, the figure is 2 times higher than the total cost of building three tunnels in the Alps – through Chenery, Lechberg and Gottard. And the construction of the system will be carried out on private investments, not allocated from the budget.
In addition, there will be parallel work to optimize logistics operations in major cities. They will also attract companies to carry out the “last mile” delivery.
The Swiss are not the first to implement the concept of underground transportation of goods. American start-up Boring, owned by Elon Musk, has presented a variant of two-lane tunnel, which will allow transporting containers. Its concept lies in the greater width of the tunnel with a diameter of 6.4 meters, which is 2 times greater than the standard design. This will allow two containers to be placed side by side at the same time, thus increasing the transport volume. For transportation in this case a special platform that operates on batteries is used.
Many experts note the effectiveness of the technology from Boeing. Similar tunnels are already working on the territory of the company itself. However, there are two factors for the spread of the concept – the cost of implementation and finding a place for construction. In addition, for the time being, transportation by land roads is more profitable from an economic point of view. It is possible that in the future the use of tunnels will be more in demand and they will be actively built.
