View of railway construction site in Lausanne, May 2, 2024.
© Keystone / Martial Trezzini
The federal government intends to invest CHF16.4 billion ($18.1 billion) in railway infrastructure between 2025 and 2028, CHF2 billion more than for the current period.
The larger financial envelope will go towards compensating for rising prices but also to provide more resources to the railways, the government said a press statement on Wednesday. The additional resources will be used in particular to implement projects to promote accessibility for people with disabilities.
+ Swiss Federal Railways returns to profit for first time since Covid
More broadly, the package will give railways the necessary means to renovate their aging infrastructure. They will be able to maintain the quality of the rail network, modernise it if necessary and adapt it to the current state of technology, the government said.
As well as finances, the government expects the railways to guarantee better safety on the rail network and the performance of the infrastructure.
+ Swiss Federal Railways negotiates with neighbours to cut train delays
The Federal Council notes that overall Switzerland’s rail infrastructure is in fairly good condition but with heavy traffic. Federal expenditure for operations and the maintenance is financed by the federal railway infrastructure fund.
+ How to behave on a Swiss train
For the 2025-2028 period, the government has also requested a credit of CHF185 million for investment contributions in private sorting and trans-shipment facilities.
The Federal Council intends to continue to encourage rail freight and the transfer of transalpine transport of goods. Financing is ensured via a tax on mineral oils used as fuels and by other allocated resources.
Adapted from French by DeepL/sb
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
