Swiss Pin Competitive Hopes on High-Speed Rail Piggyback Freight Truck Runs

One of Switzerland’s more curious sights may soon become common--freight trains zooming along at 100 m.p.h. loaded with trucks carrying goods.

The Swiss hope this piggyback system will be the answer to the growing confrontation between this small central European country and its neighbors who are members of the European Community (EC).

The European Commission in Brussels opens talks in January with the Swiss on road transit through Switzerland. It is expected to push for recommendations made to it in November by the European Parliament that retaliatory measures be taken against the Swiss unless they open their roads to heavy truck traffic.

Whatever the outcome, the talks may be a test of nonmembers’ ability to negotiate with a community determined to forge a single market by 1992. And in the eyes of environmentalists--the only Parliament members against retaliatory measures--it is an early skirmish in an economics-versus-environment battle. Growth has slowed in the last three years, but from 1970 to 1985, road freight’s share of all cargo hauling in Europe climbed from 54% to 69%.

Natural Corridor

The dispute is not new. Switzerland limits trucks on its roads to 28 tons, while the EC permits 40-ton trucks, with the result that international haulers circumvent Switzerland--and regularly object to the situation

The country is a natural north-south transport corridor, and with the EC gearing up for 1992, a common and efficient transport system has become an EC priority.

It is Switzerland’s refusal to permit the trucks at all that galls the EC. The EC argues that Switzerland unfairly forces the larger foreign trucks to take long, indirect routes. The Swiss insist that their road system is inadequate for heavier trans-European traffic and that environmental damage, particularly to Alpine forests, would be too great.

The battle lines are drawn. EC parliamentarians voted 260 to 7 in favor of retaliation against Swiss companies that run 40-ton trucks outside Switzerland. Although the European Parliament’s vote is only advisory, the Swiss already are resisting. Foreign Affairs Minister Rene Felber reacted angrily by denouncing Parliament’s tactics. “The fact that they are talking about retaliatory measures before the (formal) talks even open will jeopardize the quality of the negotiations.”

Alternative Urged

Swiss Transport Minister Adolf Ogi warned the nation that Switzerland would have to quickly come up with an alternative solution.

Under study is a rail/road piggyback system, similar to one already operating near the Italian border on a limited basis. The EC does not object in principle to the idea, but the Swiss would have to build a tunnel through the mountains, which would take several years, slowing the EC’s timetable.