Further development of Switzerland’s Cargo sous terrain (CST) has been made possible after the Federal Council approved a first draft of the Sectoral Plan for Underground Transport.

The Federal Council’s decision is based on the Federal Act on Underground Freight Transport (UGüTG), under which it designates areas for the construction of facilities.

As a first step, the Federal Council has defined interim results for the tunnel section planned by CST between Härkingen and Zurich, which enables further planning and co-ordination of the project.

“With its decision, the Federal Council specifies the framework conditions for the CST project and provides binding initial results for spatial co-ordination for the authorities. This represents an important milestone for the implementation of the CST logistics solution, as the sectoral planning specifications create greater planning certainty,” CST said in a statement.

Consultation with cantons and municipalities last year showed that further clarifications were required before the final locations for the logistics centres, landfills, and tunnel routing could be determined. Groundwater protection measures must also be defined.

CST is currently developing solutions for the outstanding issues raised in the consultation. In the next stage of the sectoral plan, which runs until 2027, stakeholders’ interests will be examined further. The final site selection will take place in this next sectoral plan stage.

Once the site selection has been made, CST can apply for planning approval from the Federal Office of Transport. In addition to the sectoral plan process, the federal government required CST to have its own project assumptions independently verified to demonstrate the project’s feasibility. This has been completed and submitted to the Federal Office of Transport as a basis for further procedural steps.

The planned freight network system will stretch from Geneva to St Gallen, providing a tunnel network for automated, driverless electric freight vehicles. The first 70km section, connecting the Härkingen-Niederbipp hub with Zurich Airport, is scheduled to open in 2031 and CST plans to create a 500km nationwide network by 2045.

CST began geotech work in 2023 and consulation was launched last year.