Easter and the start of the holidays bring traffic jams on the Gotthard
Keystone-SDA
The Easter weekend and the start of the holidays in 19 Swiss cantons are likely to cause heavy traffic on the roads heading south from Thursday. According to the TCS, the Gotthard tunnel in particular is expected to be very busy.
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Anyone travelling south by car before Thursday can expect a maximum waiting time of one hour before the Gotthard, according to the Touring Club Switzerland (TCS) forecast on Monday. By midday on Thursday, travellers will be stuck in traffic jams for over two hours.
The high volume of traffic jams is likely to continue until Good Friday. Travellers who want to cross the border at Chiasso after the Gotthard will have to reckon with additional delays, wrote the TCS. The return journey is expected on Easter Monday. In the course of the coming week, there could be traffic jams towards the evening.
If you want to travel south without stress at Easter, the TCS recommends getting up early or choosing an alternative route. Travellers from eastern Switzerland and around Zurich could take the San Bernardino route – the bypass is worthwhile if the waiting time at the Gotthard is more than an hour, it said.
+ Eight things you should know about the Gotthard
Travellers heading south from the Mittelland can alternatively take the car train through the Lötschberg or Simplon. Travellers from western Switzerland can travel through the Great St. Bernard Pass or the Mont Blanc Tunnel. As most of the Alpine passes are still closed, TCS has ruled them out as alternatives.
A week before the Easter holidays, there were already traffic jams in front of the Gotthard north portal at the weekend. Last Tuesday, the Federal Roads Office therefore announced that the single-lane section on the A9 Simplon Pass route at Casermetta would be closed over the holidays.
Additional trains will be running at the Lötschberg car transport station during the Easter holidays. The Swiss Federal Railways is also expanding its services for the busy days with 27 extra trains and more than 70,000 additional seats.
Adapted from German by AI/ts
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