The problem is that nobody seems to have a plan. The SBB do have a couple of infrastructure projects in the pipeline, but those will not be enough to meet the increasing demand. The example of Bahn 2000 has shown that an impoved rail infrastructure quickly increases the strain on the rail system and leads to new bottlenecks. Cost is one major obstacle for the new infrastructure projects until 2030, because building new tracks in a densely populated country like Switzerland is no easy feat and requires many civil engineering works like tunnels or bridges. The railway stations also need to improve their capacity and more and more they need to expand underground.

Tweaking the existing system will clearly not be enough because the marginal cost of squeazing more capacity out of the rail infrastructure is rising. What is needed is technological alternative that surpasses some of the limitations of the rail system but most of all creates additional transport capacity. A direct service with Swissmetro between the major cities would free capacities on the exisiting rail system that could be used for improved local and regional connections. With a speed of 500 km/h and a much better energy efficiency Swissmetro means a leap in transport technology. Unfortunately, Switzerland doesn’t seem to realize the need for this innovation yet.

Both projects benefit from the advantages of maglev technology: speeds up to 500 km/h, quick acceleration and high frequency as well as low wear operation. Compared to Swissmetro the project Swiss-Rapide-Express has the advantage that the technology has already been developed and connects Shanghai – Pudong International Airport since 2004. Moreover, building the track above ground seems to be less costly than boring the tunnels for Swissmetro.

Swissmetro has the complete underground track in its favor. Above ground the aerodynamic drag increases with the square of the speed. Tripling the speed to 500 km/h requires an input of 9 times the normal amount of energy, in order to overcome the aerodynamic drag. This creates a lot of noise, which carries quite far because the track is elevated on pillars. The Swissmetro tunnel, by contrast, is under a partial vacuum so it only needs to overcome about 10% of the normal air pressure. This is why the energy consumptions of Swissmetro is very low and it does not create any noise. The Transrapid also requires tunnel sections, because there is no other way to get to the city centers due to the high noise level and the costs for the land required for the tracks. Even in Shanghai the Transrapid is unable to run as far as the city center and the project of a Transrapid connection between Munich airport and the city center had to be given up because of the expensive tunnel sections.

If tunnels are unavoidable, we should make full use of their advantages. The Swissmetro tunnels lower the energy consumption, avoid scarring the landscape, save the cost of buying land, eliminate all noise emissions, thus avoiding resistance of the residents and a protracted approval process. Today, the only way a new highspeed connection can be built in a densely populated country like Switzerland is to go underground like Swissmetro.

Transportation projects take decades until they are realized. Cutting back spending on transportation projects now will save money in the short term but will lead to a lack of adequate infrastructure in the long run. The time frame of the discussions and thinking about the current crisis rarely goes beyond an economic recovery expected in a couple of years. Nevertheless, we have to make long term decisions to find sustainable solutions for our future transportation needs.

Swissmetro is an innovation that provides much needed transportation capacities in a sustainable way. The economic environment may not be very favorable right now but Swissmetro is viable in the long run, far beyond the next economic recovery. Automakers go bankrupt because they didn’t innovate new solutions, airlines look forward to the economic recovery but at the same time they fear rising oil prices and train passangers keep increasing every year but the costs for maintenance and new capacities explode. That is why Swissmetro needs our support now.

There are 2 main reasons why it is not possible to finance Swissmetro only with private investors. A project of such dimensions needs a favorable political framework, and that means a public stake. Nobody is going to invest in this project and run the risk of a new minister of transport suddenly changing the transportation policy during the project duration of 20 years.

Secondly, the high interest makes private financing impossible. Private investors need need a high return on the invested capital as soon as possible. A large part of the profits would have to be used to service the credits because of the high initial investments. The substantial indirect benefits of the project for the public are not worth anything to private investors, because they cannot be easily quantified and invoiced to the state. The project does pay off for the state. Instead of an interest on the invested funds, the state profits from the macroeconomic benefits.

The public loans would also be repaid and part of it could be financed through reduced investments in other transportation infrastructure projects. While there is no direct return on the public funds invested in the infrastructure, the state profits indirectly from macroeconomic improvements such as the time passengers save, reduced social costs of accidents, air and noise pollution, and saved energy. The cost of Swissmetro is also an investment in Switzerland’s economy and research. Directly or indirectly Swissmetro is profitable for all the involved parties.

By way of comparison, the cost of AlpTransit (NEAT) was estimated at 14,7 billion Swiss francs in 1998, but the actual total cost will be as high as 24 billion Swiss francs. Taking into account the longer distance, Swissmetro would cost less than NEAT. First of all because the diameter of the tunnel is much smaller and secondly because the tunnel is constructed near the surface in relatively soft molasse instead of hard gneiss and granite. The geology of the area is known much better, so the costs and risks can be estimated much more accurately.

Swissmetro is an advanced project for the future of the booming transportation sector. Swissmetro uses new technologies to solve old problems and avoid indirect costs such as land use, noise or air pollution. It creates urgently needed additional capacities on the main lines and drastically reduces the travel time. Swissmetro needs just 12 minutes from Zurich to Bern.

Unfortunately, Switzerland still hasn’t found the political will that is necessary to realize a project of such a scale. The costs of Swissmetro are an investment to strengthen Switzerland’s position in science and economy. Crises are also opportunities and Swissmetro is an ideal focal point to overcome our short term orientation and invest in a sustainable future.

Given that most of the available double-deck trains already serve the busiest regions, it seems unlikely that new rolling stock alone will be enough to meet the rapidly increasing demand. Moreover, the new double-deck trains will lead to an increase in cost for infrastructure maintenance because they wear out the tracks at a higher rate. Looking to 2030 and beyond, it is clear that we need new technologies to increase the passenger traffic capacities between the main urban centers. Better rolling stock for the Federal Railways is a good thing, but conventional rail technology clearly reaches its limits and faces rising maginal cost as the costs for rolling stock, infrastructure maintenance and laying of new track will go through the roof as it is being maxed out.

Swissmetro is an ideal alternative. It provides additional capacities between the main urban centers where the passenger volumes are highest and where the biggest increases are expected. It makes use of new technologies instead of updating a technology that is 200 years old and so avoids some of the major problems of the latter: it triples the speed, creates no noise, requires no land for tracks and thanks to maglev technology circulates without friction, thus minimizing wear and infrastructure maintenance costs. Swissmetro has its price, to be sure, but it takes public transport to the next level and solves some fundamental problems instead of practicing a more-of-the-same approach.