Federal Council wants to accelerate modal shift to rail with action package
Published: Wednesday, Nov 29th 2023, 16:30
Updated At: Wednesday, Nov 29th 2023, 16:31
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Higher heavy goods vehicle tax, greater promotion of shorter rail transports, but no increase in the rail electricity price: with these and other measures, the federal government wants to force the shift of freight traffic through the Alps from road to rail.
At the beginning of 2025, the performance-related heavy vehicle charge (HVC) will be adjusted in line with inflation, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. The tariffs, which have remained unchanged since 2012, will therefore be increased by five percent.
The Federal Council also wants to create the legal basis for additional support for rail freight transport on routes of up to 600 kilometers. In particular, Swiss domestic traffic to and from Ticino and import and export traffic to and from southern Germany and eastern France should benefit from this. At the same time, compensation for long-distance services is to be reduced over the next few years.
The federal government has also decided not to raise the rail electricity price for freight transport at the beginning of 2024 as planned. The price will remain at 12 centimes per kilowatt hour. This will reduce the burden on freight transport by around CHF 10 million per year, as announced by the Federal Council.
More detour for roadworks
Last fall, the national government also announced that it wanted to base the HVF on the CO2 emissions of trucks in the future. A corresponding bill is currently being drafted. The Federal Council also wants to ensure that sufficient detour capacities are created for construction sites along the NRLA access routes.
Funding for the Rolling Highway (Rola) will continue until 2028 as requested by Parliament. The Federal Council only wanted the measure to run until 2026.
The Federal Council also calls on all parties involved to improve the operational situation for transit traffic through Switzerland. International coordination and cooperation must be further intensified so that the NRLA can develop its potential even better.
Relocation target still unachieved
In 2022, practically the same number of trucks drove through the Alps as in the previous year - and still significantly more than the statutory modal shift target, namely a maximum of 650,000 journeys. Last year, around 880,000 truck journeys through the Alps were recorded.
Meanwhile, rail's market share of freight traffic through the Alps remained stable at a high level: it amounted to around 74%. The completion of the NRLA and the corridor for transports with a corner height of four meters on the Gotthard axis in 2020 gave a boost to the shift of goods to rail.
Various factors such as the difficult economic situation in Europe, the numerous construction sites on the rail network and the delays to many trains are currently hampering the shift, as the Federal Council writes. Further measures are therefore needed.
Environmentalists demand more
The Alpine Initiative, the association that initiated the modal shift goal years ago, expressed its dissatisfaction with the 2023 modal shift report in a statement on Wednesday, saying that the federal government was not taking the necessary measures to finally fulfill the article on the protection of the Alps.
The Alpine Initiative described the adjustment of the HVF to inflation proposed by the Federal Council as overdue. "The adjustment would be possible as early as 2024 and by up to 10 percent, as the HVF has only been adjusted to inflation once in the past twenty years, and that was minimal," it said.
The reallocation of funding for transalpine rail freight transport will also be far from sufficient. This is because with the current measures and strategies, road transport will continue to grow, as it has become even cheaper in relative terms compared to rail due to the rise in track and electricity prices for rail freight.
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