Roads in Switzerland

Switzerland has a dense network of roads and railways. The Swiss public transport network has a total length of 24,500 kilometers and has more than 2600 stations and stops.

The crossing of the Alps is an important route for European transportation, as the Alps separate Northern Europe from Southern Europe. Alpine railway routes began in 1882 with the Gotthard Railway with its central Gotthard Rail Tunnel, followed in 1906 by the Simplon Tunnel and the Lötschberg Tunnel in 1913. As part of the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA) in 2007 the Lötschberg Base Tunnel opened and in 2016 the Gotthard Base Tunnel opened on 1 June.

The Swiss road network is funded by road tolls and vehicle taxes. The Swiss motorway system requires the purchase of a road tax disc - which costs 40 Swiss francs for one calendar year - in order to use its roadways, for both passenger cars and trucks. The Swiss motorway network has a total length of 1,638 kilometres (as of 2000) and has also - with an area of 41,290 km² - one of the highest motorway densities in the world.

Zurich Airport is Switzerland's largest international flight gateway, handling 24.9 million passengers in 2013. The second largest airport, Geneva Cointrin, handled 14.4 million passengers (2013) and the third largest EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg 6.5 million passengers; both airports are shared with France.

Switzerland has approved billions of francs for the improvement of its public transportation infrastructure. The modal split for public transportation is one of the highest in Europe, standing at 21.3% in 2010. In many cities with a population above 100,000, the modal split for public transportation lies above 50%.

Railways

Switzerland has a very high density of railway network, with an average of 122 km of track for every 1,000 km² (average of 46 km in Europe). In 2008, each Swiss citizen traveled, on average, 2,422 km by rail, which makes them the most frequent users of rail transport.

Many of the Swiss standard gauge railway lines are part of the nationwide Swiss Federal Railways system, although other standard gauge lines are operated by independent companies such as BLS AG. In addition numerous narrow gauge railways are operated, the largest company of its kind being the Rhaetian Railway. In total 5,100 km of rail network are used.

The Swiss Federal Railways run some 5000 passenger train services covering about 274,000 kilometres daily. Half of these train services are long distance services; the other half are regional and suburban services. In 2013, 366 million passengers used the Swiss Federal Railways.

Rail transport in Switzerland also includes a car and truck transportation service (German: ''Autoverlad'') on some lines.

Urban rail

Urban commuter rail networks are focused on the country's major cities: Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Neuchâtel.

Lausanne is the only city with a metro system ( Lausanne Metro), which includes two lines: one is light rail; the other, 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.

Maglev

In response to the increasing need for transport capacity and the cost of ground surface infrastructures, an underground transportation system has been proposed and studied. The trains 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 trial line between Geneva and Lausanne.

Mountain rail

Trains cannot climb steep gradients, so it is necessary to build large amounts 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