Swiss railway development suffers from excessive planning, says former transport chief

Peter Füglistaler, the former director of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport (OFT) who served from 2010 to 2024, has criticized the current state of Swiss railway development. In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Füglistaler stated that Switzerland has moved away from actual construction, focusing instead on excessive planning. He cited the Basel S-Bahn project as an example of being “over-planned” in a search for a perfect solution rather than proceeding with implementation.

Füglistaler admitted to being part of a system that prioritized planning over action, noting that he did not intervene to stop certain processes at the time. He warned that significant budget cuts will be necessary regarding the ‘Transports’45’ project, a federal consultation currently underway to coordinate road and rail infrastructure through 2045. He noted a massive discrepancy between the scale of proposed projects, valued at over 100 billion francs, and the available 20 billion francs.