Switzerland Proposes EUR 515m to Keep Freight on Rail Through the Alps to 2035

Switzerland's Federal Council proposed in June 2026 spending roughly EUR 515 million to keep freight moving by rail through the Alps until 2035, after the sector lost market share to trucks for a fourth consecutive year.

The money would extend operating subsidies for unaccompanied combined transport — containers and swap bodies moved by rail without their drivers — which are currently due to expire in 2030. Under the plan, the Confederation would provide the equivalent of about EUR 58-63 million a year between 2027 and 2030, tapering to an average of roughly EUR 53 million annually thereafter.

The backdrop is a slow erosion of Switzerland's flagship transport policy. Rail carried 68.6 per cent of freight crossing the Swiss Alps in 2025 — still far above the European norm, but the fourth straight annual decline. Swiss law has long committed the country to shifting transalpine freight off the roads, a goal that underpinned the multi-billion-franc Gotthard and Loetschberg base tunnels.

For operators and shippers on the north-south corridor between Germany and Italy, the proposal signals continuity. Without an extension, per-shipment support would have fallen away at the end of the decade, at a point when combined transport is already squeezed by cheap road haulage and by disruption on the German network. The proposal still requires parliamentary approval.