An alliance has been forged between the Canton of Ticino and the three Italian regions most directly affected – Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria – to press their governments, and in particular the Swiss federal authorities, to move forward with the completion of the major Alpine railway crossings, with the Gotthard line at the centre. On 24 September 2025, two Swiss delegations delivered in parallel two key papers: to the cantonal government in Bellinzona and to the Federal Department of Transport (Datec) in Bern. The documents, the 2024 Memorial and the appeal of the Alliance South of the Alps, urge the completion of the Alpine rail network.
Once again, it was the association Pro Gotthard–Railway of Europe, founded in 2016 to promote the completion of the Gotthard transversal, that encouraged this convergence of interests. The main focus is on the Swiss authorities, since both the federal government and several cantonal administrations consider the AlpTransit project complete following the opening of the Gotthard, Ceneri and Lötschberg base tunnels. In reality, however, the full potential of the Alpine railway corridors can only be achieved once the northern and southern access routes are also completed. The stakes are high, as Switzerland’s current infrastructure planning makes no provision for such investments beyond the completion of the Lötschberg tunnel with its second bore. Even long-term policy papers such as “Rail 2050 Perspective” offer no guarantees in this regard.
According to Pro Gotthard, which also set up Swissrailvolution, a campaigning association for a nationwide integrated rail system, the Federal Council’s next investment packages, due in 2026 and 2030, must look beyond ongoing projects and address the future development of the network. Within this framework, completing the Alpine transversal must at least enter the political agenda at a preliminary planning level, so that phased implementation can realistically begin from 2045. Particular priorities include planning freight bypasses around Bellinzona and Lugano and completing the access links to the base tunnels towards and from Milan.
As noted, two documents were formally submitted on 24 September 2025 by Pro Gotthard in Bellinzona and Bern: the 2024 Memorial and the appeal of the Alliance South of the Alps. The latter broadens the political scope, having been jointly signed by the Canton of Ticino and the regions of Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria. The “spontaneous legislative and cross-border alliance of intent” calls on “the relevant authorities at regional, national and European level to do everything possible to ensure the completion of AlpTransit, with the necessary access lines, as swiftly as possible, in continuity with the major projects currently under way in Italy and Switzerland, and to guarantee the functionality of the TEN-T network and the North Sea–Rhine–Mediterranean Corridor”. According to Pro Gotthard, AlpTransit, which cost more than €20 billion, remains an unfinished project: “the heart has been built, but the arteries are missing”. The challenge remains to push Bern into committing to an estimated additional cost of more than €8 billion.
Piermario Curti Sacchi
