Switzerland: Facts & Stats

TRANSPORTATION

Roads:

Switzerland has a network of two-lane national roads. These roads usually lack a median or central reservation. Some stretches are controlled-access, in that all traffic must enter and exit through ramps and must cross using grade separations.

Two of the important autobahns are the A1, running from St. Margrethen in northeastern Switzerland's canton of St. Gallen through to Geneva in southwestern Switzerland, and the A2, running from Basel in northwestern Switzerland to Chiasso in southern Switzerland's canton of Ticino, using the Gotthard Road Tunnel.

Autobahn (plural: Autobahnen) is the German name; in French-speaking Switzerland they are known as autoroutes (singular: autoroute), and in Italian-speaking Switzerland they are known as autostrade.

Swiss autobahn have general speed limits of 120 km/h (75 mph).

Railroads:

The railways of Switzerland include standard gauge (i.e. 1435 milimetres (4 ft 8½ ins ) and narrow gauge (usually 1,000 mm (3 ft 33?8 in), occasionally less).

• Network size: 5,063 km
• standard gauge: 3,652 km 1,435mm gauge (3,641 km electrified)
• narrow gauge: 1,383 km (1,353 km electrified), mostly 1,000 mm (3 ft 33?8 in) gauge, some 800 mm (2 ft 71?2 in) gauge and one line (Waldenburgerbahn, 13 km) 750 mm (2 ft 51?2 in) gauge.
• street tramways: almost all 1,000 mm (3 ft 33?8 in) gauge.

The Swiss Federal Railways run some 5000 passenger trains covering approximately 274,000 kilometers daily, half of which are train operated by longdistance services the other half being regional and suburban services. In 2001, 304 million passengers used the Swiss Federal Railways.

Rail transport in Switzerland also include car and truck transportation service (German: Autoverlad). But for private cars it is limited in some mountainous areas where the passes are closed in winter or simply does not exist (Lötschberg).

Urban rail

Urban commuter rail networks are focused on the country major cities: Zürich, Geneva, Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Neuchâtel.

Lausanne is the only city with a metro system (Lausanne Metro), which includes two lines, the first being a light metro, while the other being a fully-automated metro opened in 2008. After its opening, Lausanne replaced Rennes as the smallest city in the world to have a full metro system.

Maglev

In response to the increasing need of transport capacity and the cost of ground surface infrastructures, an underground transportation has been proposed and studied. The train would use linear motor and magnetic levitation to reach speeds about 500 km per hour. The project is not likely to be realized in the near future but a license for application has been deposited for a pilot-line between Geneva and Lausanne.

Mountain rail

Rail builders in the alpine regions of Switzerland faced many challenges. Trains cannot climb steep gradients, so it is necessary to build lot of track in order to gain height gradually. Transversals through the Alps were made possible with the use of hidden circular tunnels, which are called Spiral. In the case of extremely mountainous terrain, railway engineers opted for the more economical narrow gauge construction.

The many railway viaducts of the Rhaetian railways in the canton of Graubünden, built for the most part in the early 20th century, have become a tourist attraction as well as a necessary transport system, drawing rail enthusiasts from all over the world.

Some railways were built only for touristic purposes as the Gornergrat or the Jungfraujoch, Europe's highest station in the Bernese Oberland, at an altitude of 3,454 meters (11,330 ft.).

Aviation:

• 66 (2002)
• Airports - with paved runways
• total: 41
• over 3'047 m: 4
• Zurich International Airport
• Geneva Cointrin International Airport
• Basel-Mulhouse International Airport
• Payerne Airport
• 2'438 to 3'047 m: 5
• 1'524 to 2'437 m: 10
• 914 to 1'523 m: 9
• Bern Airport
• Lugano Airport
• under 914 m: 14 (2002)
• Airports - with unpaved runways:
• total: 25
• 1'524 to 2'437 m: 1
• under 914 m: 24 (2002)
• Heliports: 1

Zürich Airport(IATA: ZRH, ICAO: LSZH) also called Kloten Airport, located in Kloten, canton of Zürich, Switzerland and managed by Unique Airport is Switzerland's largest international flight gateway and hub to Swiss International Air Lines and Lufthansa.

In 2003, Zürich International completed an expansion project in which it built a parking garage, a midfield terminal, and an automated underground train to move passengers between the existing terminal complex and the new terminal.

Zürich Airport handled 19.2 million passengers in 2006.