Mobility of the future
Is Switzerland’s future of transport underground?
09.10.2020
Are tunnels a saviour in transport policy? Is conquering the underground part of a sustainable and networked vision of mobility? Safe for goods, hardly safe for people or passenger traffic – that is how things stand today.
In Swiss city centres, there is no progress at peak times. And traffic continues to grow unabated on our national roads, as the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) recently reported: Between 2018 and 2019, an increase of 100 million vehicle kilometres was registered – out of a total of 27.8 billion vehicle kilometres. At the same time, experts estimate that the volume of freight traffic in Switzerland will increase by 37% by 2040 compared with 2010. The question therefore arises: Does the solution lie in depth, where theoretically unlimited space is available?
Goods by metro from Geneva to St. Gallen
“Cargo Sous Terrain (CST) is one of today’s most innovative transport projects,” writes David Vonplon on nzz.ch. “Over the next 25 years, an underground freight transport system will be set up across Switzerland that will significantly relieve the strain on motorways and railways.” Self-driving vehicles will transport pallets and containers from logistics centers to cities, and that’s not all.2-Free and 100% powered by renewable energies. Behind the 33 billion project is a private consortium with potent companies such as Coop, Migros, Swisscom, Swiss Post, SBB, Mobiliar and Panalpina. There is also political support for the freight metro: In January 2020, the Federal Council decided to create the legal basis for CST. The project timetable is ambitious: the first section of the line from Zurich to Härkingen is due to be commissioned in just ten years’ time. Incidentally, there is a project with similar approaches in Germany with the “Güter-Rohrpost” CargoCap.
«Tunnels shall be built for an operating period of at least one hundred years. That is why political decisions are needed today.»
Passenger transport not yet on the agenda
While visions, donors and legal foundations exist in the freight sector, the expansion of underground passenger transport is “not at all on the agenda,” as Dr Tobias Arnold, Head of Transport and Space at the Lucerne-based consulting firm Interface, mentions. “Loading goods underground is much easier and more accepted than doing the same with people,” adds the transport specialist. Underground individual passenger transport is “a completely different number” to subways as part of public transport. Beyond the technical and financial aspects, the crux is that people do not want to spend longer travel times in the dark.
«People don’t want to travel in the dark.»Dr Tobias Arnold, Transport and Space at the Lucerne-based consulting firm Interface
Sustainability questionable
“If the economic dimension is also taken into account in sustainability considerations, underground passenger transport does not perform particularly well,” adds Prof Ueli Häfeli, traffic scientist at Interface. Tunnelling consumes enormous sums of money and the controllability of the soil harbours unpredictable risk factors such as the penetration of new sediment layers and dewatering, especially in inhabited areas. In addition, there is the legally unresolved question of where the underground boundary between private ownership and public ownership runs. “On the other hand, I see ground potential in stationary traffic,” says Häfeli. “Pedestrian and bicycle traffic upstairs, car parks downstairs.”
Parking underground and roofing motorways
Parking spaces take up a lot of space and are to be regarded as independent urban spaces in an urban environment. The idea of laying them more underground is not new, but there is still considerable potential for expansion. The city of Zurich is playing a pioneering role in terms of regulation: Its “historic” inner-city parking space compromise of 1996 provides for any dismantling of an above-ground car park to be compensated underground. In 2019, this compromise was tightened by the softening of the carbon offset obligation; above-ground parking spaces up to 10% below 1990 levels should now be able to be removed without compensation. Another approach to the creation of green spaces and recreation areas is spacious, walkable roof areas created by enclosing motorways. This is currently being demanded by the city of Kriens, for example, as part of the Lucerne motorway bypass.
Seamless and close
Whichever part of the traffic flows will be underground in the future, it is imperative that the surface transport infrastructure be connected as seamlessly as possible. “It would also be nice if “short distances’ could become part of a vision of the future of transport. A new concept of neighbourhoods, so to speak, where we no longer have to go or drive far to satisfy our needs,” concludes transport specialist Häfeli.
We can’t wait to see what happens next.
Sources: e.g. cst.ch (Cargo Sous Terrain), energieschweiz.ch/komo