Transport in Switzerland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Being in the center of Europe, Switzerland has a dense network of roads and railways. The crossing of the Alps is an important route for European transportation, as the Alps separate Switzerland from some of its neighbours. Alpine railway routes began in 1882 with the Gotthard Rail Tunnel, followed in 1906 by the Simplon Tunnel. The Lötschberg Base Tunnel opened in 2007. The Gotthard Base Tunnel is yet to open.
The Swiss road network is funded by road tolls and vehicle taxes. The Swiss autobahn/autoroute system requires the purchase of a vignette (toll sticker) - which costs 40 Swiss francs - for one calendar year in order to use its roadways, for both passenger cars and trucks. The Swiss autobahn/autoroute network has a total length of 1,638 km (as of 2000) and has also - with an area of 41,290 km² - one of the highest motorway densities in the world.
Zürich Airport, managed by Unique Airport, is Switzerland's largest international flight gateway, handling 20.7 million passengers in 2007. The second largest airport, Geneva Cointrin, handled 10.8 million passengers and the third largest Basel Airport 4.3 million passengers, both airports being shared with France.
The public transportation network carefully integrates different companies and forms of transports - railways, buses and boats, to make travel easier with uniformized timetables and fares.
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[edit] Railways
Switzerland has a very high density of railway network, with an average of 122 km of track for every 1000 km2 (average of 46 km in Europe)[1]. In 2007, each Swiss citizen ran on average 2,103 km by rail, which makes them the keenest rail users.[2]
Nearly all of the Swiss standard gauge railways are part of the nationwide SBB-CFF-FFS (Swiss Federal Railways) system, which also includes affiliated standard gauge lines such as BLS (Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon). In addition numerous narrow gauge railways are operated, the largest company of its kind being the Rhaetian Railways. In total 5,100 km of rail network are used.
The Swiss Federal Railways run some 5000 passenger trains covering approximately 274,000 kilometers daily, half of which are train operated by longdistance services the other half being regional and suburban services. In 2001, 304 million passengers used the Swiss Federal Railways.
Rail transport in Switzerland also include car and truck transportation service (German: Autoverlad). But for private cars it is limited in some mountainous areas where the passes are closed in winter or simply does not exist (Lötschberg).
[edit] Urban rail
Urban commuter rail networks are focused on the country major cities: Zürich, Geneva, Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Neuchâtel.
Lausanne is the only city with a metro system (Lausanne Metro), which includes two lines, the first being a light metro, while the other being a fully-automated metro opened in 2008. After its opening, Lausanne replaced Rennes as the smallest city in the world to have a full metro system.
[edit] Maglev
In response to the increasing need of transport capacity and the cost of ground surface infrastructures, an underground transportation has been proposed and studied. The train would use linear motor and magnetic levitation to reach speeds about 500 km per hour. The project is not likely to be realized in the near future but a license for application has been deposited for a pilot-line between Geneva and Lausanne.
[edit] Mountain rail
Rail builders in the alpine regions of Switzerland faced many challenges. Trains cannot climb steep gradients, so it is necessary to build lot of track in order to gain height gradually. Transversals through the Alps were made possible with the use of hidden circular tunnels, which are called Spiral. In the case of extremely mountainous terrain, railway engineers opted for the more economical narrow gauge construction.
The many railway viaducts of the Rhaetian railways in the canton of Graubünden, built for the most part in the early 20th century, have become a tourist attraction as well as a necessary transport system, drawing rail enthusiasts from all over the world.
Some railways were built only for touristic purposes as the Gornergrat or the Jungfraujoch, Europe's highest station in the Bernese Oberland, at an altitude of 3,454 meters (11,330 ft.).
[edit] Roads
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Switzerland has a network of two-lane national roads. These roads usually lack a median or central reservation. Some stretches are controlled-access, in that all traffic must enter and exit through ramps and must cross using grade separations.
Two of the important autobahns are the A1, running from St. Margrethen in northeastern Switzerland's canton of St. Gallen through to Geneva in southwestern Switzerland, and the A2, running from Basel in northwestern Switzerland to Chiasso in southern Switzerland's canton of Ticino, using the Gotthard Road Tunnel.
Autobahn (plural: Autobahnen) is the German name; in French-speaking Switzerland they are known as autoroutes (singular: autoroute), and in Italian-speaking Switzerland they are known as autostrade.
Swiss autobahn have general speed limits of 120 km/h (75 mph).
| Total | National roads | Cantonal roads | Municipal roads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 71'345.6 Km | 1'763.6 km | 18'136 km | 51'446 km |
[edit] Road passenger transport
Local bus services cover the whole country. Postauto cover the smaller urban areas and every region not connected to the rail network.
[edit] Air transport
- 66 (2002)
- Airports - with paved runways
- total: 41
- over 3'047 m: 4
- 2'438 to 3'047 m: 5
- 1'524 to 2'437 m: 10
- 914 to 1'523 m: 9
- under 914 m: 14 (2002)
- Airports - with unpaved runways:
- total: 25
- 1'524 to 2'437 m: 1
- under 914 m: 24 (2002)
- Heliports: 1
Zürich Airport(IATA: ZRH, ICAO: LSZH) also called Kloten Airport, located in Kloten, canton of Zürich, Switzerland and managed by Unique Airport is Switzerland's largest international flight gateway and hub to Swiss International Air Lines and Lufthansa.
In 2003, Zürich International completed an expansion project in which it built a parking garage, a midfield terminal, and an automated underground train to move passengers between the existing terminal complex and the new terminal.
Zürich International lost traffic when Swissair shut down its operations. When Lufthansa took over its successor Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), traffic grew again.
Zürich airport railway station (Zürich Flughafen) is underneath the terminal. There are trains to many parts of Switzerland; frequent S-Bahn services, plus direct Inter-regio and intercity services to Winterthur, Bern, Basel and Lucerne(Luzern). By changing trains at Zürich Hauptbahnhof most other places in Switzerland can be reached in a few hours.
Zürich Airport handled 19.2 million passengers in 2006.
[edit] Water transport
[edit] Inland waterways
- 65 km; Rhine (Basel to Rheinfelden, Schaffhausen to Bodensee)
- 12 navigable lakes
[edit] Ports and harbours
Basel is the only port with access to the sea (North sea).
[edit] Merchant marine
- total: 29 ships (1'000 GRT or over) 597'049 GRT/1'051'380 metric tons deadweight (DWT)
- note: includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: UK 6, US 1 (2002 est.)
- ships by type: bulk 16, cargo 6, chemical tanker 2, container 2, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 1, specialized tanker 1
[edit] Ship lines on lakes
- Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le lac Léman on Lake Geneva
- Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft on Lake Zürich
[edit] Pipelines
crude oil 314 km; natural gas 1'506 km
[edit] See also
- AlpTransit
- List of mountain passes in Switzerland
- Vehicle registration plates of Switzerland
- Swiss Transport Museum
[edit] References
- ^ Rail swissworld.org
- ^ Schienenverkehr admin.ch (German)
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Transport in Switzerland |
- http://www.autobahnen.ch/ — A website about Swiss motorways
