Saturday May 26th, the Saturday before Ascension.

Southbound, was ok at 8ish, build up so 8km at midday, 10km (2 hours) bewteen 1pm and 3pm, then gradual decline to 2km at 6pm.

Today, Sunday 27th, 1km peak.

Continuing my public information broadcasts for queues at the Gotthard

Wednesday, May 29th, day before Ascension bank holiday
Lunchtime, 4km
4pm, 10km (2 hours)
10pm, 7km
Midnight, 4km

Today, Ascension, Thursday 2019
6am, 5km (1 hour)
8am, 10km
10am, 8km

Thanks for the service.

Any chance of having them a day in advance?

Well I can tell you 3 days in advance, Sunday northbound will be terrible!

I spent an hour at midnight on Saturday northbound after Ascension once.
Easter Monday, a colleague spent 4 hours northbound at the tunnel.

Basically stayed at 8km queue southbound until 2pm-ish then gradual decline to 2km at 6pm.

Saturday after Ascension day.
Northbound.
Good start
3km by midday
10km by 3pm (3 hours)
7-8km rest of the day, down to 3km at 10pm

Sunday after Ascension day. (the big one)
9am, 3km
Midday, 7km (a bit less than 2 hours )
2pm, 11km
4pm, 13km
6pm, 15km (best part of 4 hours)

Sunday after Ascension day. (the big one returning North)
9am, 3km
Midday, 7km (a bit less than 2 hours )
2pm, 11km
4pm, 13km
6pm, 15km (best part of 4 hours)
8pm, 16km
11pm, 11km
2am, 8km
4am, 3km


So concludes the Easer and Ascension traffic reports.
Hopefully it will help someone in the future contemplating what time to travel.

Never ceases to amaze me why on earth people would travel south over the long weekend. You get a days bank holiday that you want to make the most of, I get that, but what’s the point when you lose a day sat in your car?! May as well go another time when it’s less busy.

I think people don't believe the hype over the queue.


A colleague, who I had forewarned, came back 2pm Sunday, took an extra 3 hours via San Bernadino, due to a breakdown and weight of traffic.

Wasn't busy Thursdays on the Bernina down south, nor Saturday on the Spluga/Splügen up north.

I drove to Milano on Thursday mid-morning. After a short bottleneck around Thüsis (south of Chur), it was clear all the way to Milano. I drove back Saturday around 4:30PM. Again, save for a short delay in the same spot (where the highway narrows to a single lane after a double-lane stretch) it was completely clear. But the signs in Bellinzona showed a 7km Stau in Gotthard.

This guy wasn’t too pleased to be spending 6-8 hours in his car in front of the Gotthard.

https://twitter.com/zischek/status/1135429117682356225

That's interesting. My times were from the TCS twitter account.
This means that the queueing time gets progressively worse as the queue lengthens. (before anyone else says it, 'No shit, Sherlock!')

ie, 3km is 30 mins, 6km is closer to 90 mins.


Sounds like he joined at say 16km.


That said, also there was a breakdown at one point.

I've often thought the best way to handle this on very busy days, is to allow for example heavy Northbound traffic to use both lanes in the tunnel for say 20 minutes, then the lighter Southbound for 10 minutes, with the times posted.

Not really sure if it's feasible or even if it would work to clear the traffic but perhaps food for thought and I'm sure someone here could work out the logistics.

The tunnel is how long? 17kms?


It takes how long to cross it? 15 or 20 minutes?


You'd need to "empty" the tunnel before you give the green light on the other side. So you'd have traffic for 10m and then 20m wait-time... not sure if it's such a great idea...

The tunnel has a length of 16.9 kilometers. You have to be really, really sure that no car remains in the the tunnel before you could open it in the other direction. This is around 20 minutes after the last car entered the tunnel.

They would have to have an official car that was the last in and last out....and then rinse/repeat in the other direction. I wouldn't want that job.

I think they do this with lorries at the Mont Blanc.

Maths was never my strong point! Of course I realised the tunnel would have to be clear, and they have plenty of cameras to ensure that, but I guess my idea is not really workable.

Have you ever been at a road-works with a traffic-light because only one direction is drivable at a time?


The longer that stretch of road is, the longer it takes to switch from red to green for precisely the above reason. It can drive you insane.