Congestion on Switzerland’s motorways worsened sharply in 2025, with traffic jams reaching almost 68,000 hours, around a fifth more than a year earlier, according to figures published by the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO).
The country’s busiest motorways—the A1, A2 and A3—accounted for much of the increase. Congestion on the A2 between Basel and Chiasso rose by 31% to 15,740 hours. Around Lake Geneva, traffic jams increased by a more modest 9.2%, although several routes around Geneva experienced much steeper rises. The urban motorway linking Geneva Airport to Perly was among the worst affected, while sections of the A9 towards the Simplon Pass also saw heavier congestion.
FEDRO said several key stretches of the motorway network were no longer congested only during rush hour but remained close to saturation throughout the day. As a result, even minor breakdowns or accidents were enough to trigger lengthy delays. Congestion at the Gotthard road tunnel, by contrast, remained broadly unchanged.
Longer and less predictable journey times are increasingly diverting drivers onto cantonal and municipal roads, particularly along the A1 and A2 corridors. In many cases, traffic on parallel local roads grew faster than on the adjacent motorways.
The rise in congestion was driven overwhelmingly by traffic volumes rather than roadworks. FEDRO attributed 89% of traffic jams to demand exceeding the network’s capacity, while fewer than 4% resulted from construction work. Most of the remainder were caused by accidents.
Vehicles travelled around 30bn kilometres on Switzerland’s national road network in 2025, 1.4% more than in the previous year. Passenger cars accounted for roughly 25bn kilometres, while van traffic also increased. Although motorways make up only about 3% of Switzerland’s road network, they carried nearly 45% of all road traffic.
To ease congestion, FEDRO has expanded measures such as harmonised speed limits and the temporary use of the hard shoulder as an additional traffic lane. The latter significantly reduced delays on the A6 between Thun and Bern and on the A1 near Winterthur. On the A6, total congestion fell by 117 hours, or 12%.
A similar scheme between Morges-Est and the Ecublens interchange cut congestion by around 40% on the approach to Lausanne. Traffic in the opposite direction, however, deteriorated further, with congestion rising by 20% to a record level.
More on this:
FEDRO article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook and X.
