Rail Transport Agreement between Germany and Switzerland

Federal Minister of Transport Scheuer signed an agreement on cross-border rail transport today during a virtual meeting with his Swiss counterpart, Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga. The motto could be “Better late than never!”, at least as far as the German side is concerned. The expansion will primarily benefit freight transport.

(Berlin/Bern) The agreement builds on the departmental agreement from 1996 and lays the foundation for future cooperation between the two countries in the field of rail transport.

Federal Minister Andreas Scheuer: “Twenty-five years ago, our two countries agreed on how to increase the capacity of the North-South axis on rail. A wise decision, as the globalized world has brought us more passenger and freight transport, and at the same time we face the challenges of climate change, which we must primarily address with strong rail transport. Germany has expanded various sections of the Rhine Valley Railway between Karlsruhe and Basel to four tracks. In addition, the German parliament has approved the full expansion along with the necessary funding. Advancing rail transport requires effort. Therefore, we greatly appreciate the cooperation with Switzerland.”

The main objectives of the new departmental agreement are:

• Strengthening cooperation in the areas of research, development, innovation, and digitalization.
• Intensive collaboration in the development and establishment of a coordinated timetable concept in international rail passenger transport.
• Enhanced cooperation in harmonizing technical parameters in cross-border rail transport.
• Promotion of cross-border cooperation among railway companies to intensify day and night train connections in international long-distance rail passenger transport.

The full agreement can be found here: www.bmvi.de/abkommen-von-lugano

Photo: © Loginfo24/Adobe Stock / Caption: Freight train of SBB Cargo on the Rhine Valley Railway near Offenburg