RoLa through Switzerland ended
posted on 13th Dec 2025 10:27
With the end of the 2025 timteable season, the RoLa (Rolling Highway) system through the Swiss Alps ended. Although the Swiss parliament decided on this step anyway, it ended three years earlier than originally planned, as the economics of the Freiburg - Novara line were being disrupted too much (especially in Germany) by planned and unplanned closures and infrastructure restrictions announced at short notice, and the outlook for 2026 was no better. RAlpin, a joint venture between Hupac, BLS Lötschbergbahn and SBB Cargo, therefore announced on 5 May 2025 that it would cease operations of the line.
The last trains left Novara and Freiburg on Thursday, 11 December 2025, a day earlier than originally planned; the reason for the change was a nationwide general strike by the Italian trade union confederation (CGIL). However, this technically and economically demanding system, with its relatively low capacity (with a small share of goods tare weight in the total weight of the train), was introduced in its last stage of existence in Switzerland anyway only as a temporary solution on the way to the transition to unaccompanied combined transport.