It is also important that the railways do all they can to improve their productivity and competitiveness. Switzerland has therefore been progressively implementing rail reforms since 1999, thus also satisfying the relevant EU Directive. Since the Land Transport Agreement has come into force, a train path price has to be paid for free access to the network. As part of the rail reform, the debts of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) were largely cancelled and it became a limited company, which remains in the possession of the Confederation. The aim of the increasing competition between railway companies on transalpine rail freight axes is to improve the quality of rail freight transport and the offer of innovative services, in order to strengthen the railway’s ability to compete with road.
The Federal law on the transfer of transalpine goods traffic to rail To supplement the measures mentioned above, the Swiss Federal Council and Parliament in 1999 adopted the Federal law on the transfer of transalpine goods traffic from road to rail, which includes accompanying measures.
These help to cushion the consequences of raising the weight limit to 40 tonnes. Additional funds to promote rail freight traffic form part of these accompanying measures.
Intermodal transport is the future market in the transport industry, and thus an important pillar in the modal shift policy, which is supported by the state. Part of the funds have been used to bring down slot prices and for the provision of additional intermodal services (including an efficient truck-on-train service between Freiburg/Germany and Novara/Italy).