Cargo Sous Terrain

The providers claim to establish a complete, automated, flexible and durable underground cargo system which allows the transport of pallets and crates for packages, individual items, break bulk cargo and bulk goods, as well as their intermediate storage. Tunnels are scheduled to connect the sites of production and logistics. In the municipalities, under ground cargo is scheduled to distribute the goods by environmentally friendly vehicles in cooperation with partners of the Swiss retail syndicate IG DHS (Interessengemeinschaft Detailhandel Schweiz), among them Coop, Denner, Manor and Migros, Rhenus Logistics, Swisscom and Swiss Post. The privately owned company claims also to contribute to waste disposal. The Swiss national logistics provider SBB Cargo pulled out of the project == Network ==

The new type of underground freight infrastructure will be complementary to the Swiss road and rail network, and relieve it at critical points. The first scheduled section of about in the central Swiss Plateau (Mittelland) will connect Härkingen/Niederbipp and the city of Zürich from the early 2030s. Later, a comprehensive network is planned between the Bodensee in eastern Switzerland and Lake Geneva in western Switzerland, with offshoots to Basel and Luzern. The tunnels will be built at a depth of up to and have a diameter of . In these tubes, three tracks will be placed, one in each direction plus a service lane in the middle, operating fully automated and unmanned vehicles which can transport two EUR-pallets and containers. Via ramps or lifts, these small vehicles, powered by electromagnetic induction, will load and unload automatically. The initiators believe that the vehicles will be able to travel round the clock and round the year at a speed of . An additional monorail system for packages, suspended in the crown of the tunnel, may run at twice that speed. The main shareholders Migros, Coop, Swisscom, Swiss Post, Credit Suisse, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Mobiliar and Helvetia as well as the foreign partner Meridiam from France will contribute 100 million Swiss francs; the Swiss federal authorities have to ensure the legal framework for the project, the Executive Board announced at a media conference on 23 January 2018. Originally Dagong Global Investment Group from China was one of the foreign partners as well. However, in 2020 CST distanced themselves from investments from China. == Costs (first phase) ==

The total cost for the first phase are estimated at 3.55 Billion Swiss Francs (CHF) of which 71 percent are scheduled for the construction of the tunnel. For matters of expense include CHF 282 million for the planning, CHF 344 million on the construction of ten hubs for loading and unloading. CHF 410 million francs are intended for the procurement of the vehicles. == See also ==