train goes on schedule, thats not very practical.

also, so far I've only seen those trains carrying commercial cargo trucks.

In 6 years I will be old and wont want to drive anymore

Furka tunnel car train

I've been on it. An efficient operation.

Doesn't get you to Ticino though.

But yes, it's much better than driving over the Furka pass. On busy weekends, it can be a long wait as well though.

I need to try that, although there is 30/60 mins schedule still.

I wonder how busy it gets once there is a traffic jam, surely everyone must arbitrage it.

There's one from Bern to Iselle (Italy).

Or, night driving.

Yeah that's a good one if it fits your itinerary.

For Gotthard region though, if there is traffic, almost always better to take the pass (assuming it's open of course).

That's not the "problem" - that's the "point"!

This is the whole point of the new tunnel.

At least as long as present laws are in place (Alpeninitiative) they are not allowed to add capacity. The entire justification of the new tunnel is based on providing relief to be able to close the old one for refurbishment.

I expect eventually they will find a sneaky way to circumvent the laws and open both tunnels at the the same time. But officially that's not the plan.

That sucks

Yes, but there's also the added safety. Although there will be no increase in traffic flow, after 2032, they'll use one tunnel for each direction but with the second lane as a 'hard shoulder".

People can't really complain about the traffic jams if they voted for this.

They ought to allow private enterprise to build a tunnel with a toll (20 CHF one way or something like that).

Just imagine if the English channel crossing had no Eurotunnel and was limited to a couple of ferries a day....

Eurotunnel has narrowly slithered past bankruptcy several times.

For the original shareholders it was a very poor deal.

The infrastructure for the car train through the Gotthard still exists and was used in winter for a few weeks a few years ago when the tunnel was blocked and the pass closed due to snow. With the new train tunnel in operation I really don't see why this service cannot be restarted?

Having to pay a toll would lead to even greater queues most likely as people fumble with credit cards, cash etc. unless they use a system such as the one used for the Pedemontana.

I'm sure by the time a new toll-tunnel would actually be built, credit cards and cash will be long gone and they'd be a much more advanced payment system in place.

Having said that, even now the Dartford tunnel under the Thames in the U.K. does not take cards or cash any more. It's all online and you can pay after you've been through.

Ever heard of Telepass or Autostradada Pedemontana ?

Payments problem was solved about 20 years ago

I think the pirate has never heard of it.

To be fair, having waited at Italian motorway tolls for many hours this summer, Telepass only works at peak times if everyone has it.

oh sorry, I'm blind.



Also one note on payment systems - Swiss and Austrian vignettes have been in use for years as well.

Was it a two lane motorway with only 1 working credit card/cash gate ?

Three lanes of motorway, multiple toll booths, some with cash or card, others Telepass, others with card only. Easy for people to get in the wrong queue, not easy to move to the right queue. Swiss pushing in and blocking left, right and centre.
Sometimes they'd go in the Telepass queue, making that queue longer and they try and cross three or four lanes to get to the credit card one just before they reached the toll booths.

I think I spent 3 or four hours that day queuing at various motorway tolls.

My fault for driving on a Saturday in summer!