Rolling country road: truck flood on streets threatens

The freight trains of the “Rolling Landstrasse” will be discontinued at the end of the year. This should lead to a relocation of railway trucks on the street.

Nobody had expected that. At the end of the year, the “Rolling Landstrasse” (Rola), the railway loading of entire trucks for the trip through the Alps, will be set. This was announced by the operator Ralpin AG, based in Olten a few days ago. The decision was made according to the company, although the demand from the customer was good and despite the federal financial aid. In fact, in 2023, the parliament had decided to support the Rola by the end of 2028 and thus maintain the transport of up to 80,000 trucks annually via train. The federal framework granted is a good CHF 100 million.

The main reason for the ROLA decision is construction sites arranged at short notice and the quality problems on north-south rail transport. Already in 2024 10 percent of the trains failed; There was a deficit of -2.2 million francs. The three shareholders of the RALPIN (BLS, Hupac and SBB) also approved the premature from the Rola in consultation with the federal government, but still guarantee financing until proper operating settings.

In 2024, 72,000 camions were transported between the terminals in Freiburg im Breisgau and Novara (Italy). As a rule, the trains drive in the night because then there is a driving ban for truck in Switzerland. The chauffeurs are located in an extra car of the train with berths. The freight forwarders like to use these trains because there are no periods in transit.

Too many trucks cross the country

But what are the consequences of the decision? « It can be assumed that some of the goods transported on the Rola are first relocated to the street, » says Ralpin’s media release. This message has called on environmentalists and representatives of Pro Alps (formerly Alpine initiative), which from 2026 expect massive growth of camions in the Alpine -crossing freight traffic. « You don’t have to be a prophet to predict what happens to the trucks that were previously transported through the Alps on the rails, » says the SP Uri in a message.

At the moment around 960,000 camions are crossed Switzerland per year, which means that the legal target of 650,000 is far exceeded. With the ROLA decision, the situation is likely to deteriorate, even if the opinions about the extent of the re-relocation diverge. Ralpin boss Ludwig Näf believes that many customers could choose a path across the Brenner or France, also because they are no longer used to the transit formalities. If you chose Switzerland, the A2 is the most likely axis.

The Ticino National Councilor Bruno Storni is in great concern. In an interpellation, he states that the Federal Financial Control stipulated in a 2018 report that 75 percent of ROLA trucks would end up on the street in the event of an offer of the offer. Together with another 17 national councils, he proposed to continue the Rola and use the unused funds from the framework loan.

Construction sites slow down the train

Ludwig Näf dampens the hopes in relation to this proposal, because the amount of the compensation is not the problem: « The problem is the very short -term train cancellations as a result of construction blocks for maintenance work in Germany, also strikes, lack of train drivers and problems with the rolling material. » In contrast to freight trains with containers, the chauffeurs on the train are not sustainable for several hours. He makes a current example: Ralpin assumed that 312 trains were being able to drive in June at the beginning of April 2025. Now it is clear that there will be a maximum of 268 trains. Reason: An additional construction site in the Katzenberg tunnel (between Basel and Freiburg). The possibility of using the loading point in Basel-Kleinhüningen had also had to be checked, but had to be rejected.

There is an agreement among experts that the combined traffic with the transport of entire trucks is a discontinued model via train. The future belongs to the unaccompanied combined traffic (UKV) with the loading of containers, which is delivered at a point of truck and picked up on another. So far, however, many camions are transported on the Rola, whose saddle trailers are not crane; So you cannot easily switch to the UKV.

The Federal Office of Transport (BAV) regretted the early end of the Rola at the end of 2025. At the same time, on request, it states that the federal government will continue its commitment to relocating from the road to rail. As many of the transports that took place on the Rola as possible should continue to take place by train. In this context, it is checked, among other things, whether part of the funds that would have been intended for ROLA operation by 2028 could be used for funding measures for rail transport in the UKV. However, the UKV also suffers from the poor quality of the railway corridors.