The recent succession of accidents in Alpine tunnels and the restrictions imposed by various European countries are pushing Switzerland to reconsider the integration between railways and road transport as a solution to the logistics emergency. This question emerged significantly during the opening session of the international conference "A sea of Switzerland", underway in Lugano at the Lac.
The protagonists of the debate were the hauliers and the Swiss railways, who, abandoning old ideological conflicts, underlined the importance of collaboration between the two modes of transport to guarantee sustainable and efficient mobility in Switzerland.
Reto Jaussi , Secretary General of ASTAG (the Swiss Road Transport Association), and Alexander Muhm , Head of Freight Transport at Swiss Railways SBB, highlighted how only close cooperation between rail and road transport can lead to significant improvements in terms of quality and quantity of movements along the north-south axis.
Maurizio Longo , secretary general of Trasportounito , reiterated the importance of this integration, also considering the time and costs of the ecological transition. An electric truck, he emphasized, costs three times more than a diesel truck, making the integration of rail and road transport a pragmatic solution.
The Mayor of Genoa, Marco Bucci (in the photo alongside), announced important developments in port logistics, with the start of work for the construction of a road tunnel under the port of Genoa starting from November. Furthermore, it revealed the upcoming definition of a logistics pact between the regions of Liguria, Lombardy and Piedmont, and between the cities of Genoa, Milan and Turin, further promoting integration and collaboration in the field of transport and logistics in Switzerland and beyond national borders.
