Swissmetro

The travel time between Bern and Zürich would have been reduced from around 1 hour by intercity train or motorcar to a mere 12 minutes with Swissmetro.

At this time, however, the Swiss Federal Government was already fully absorbed with large national infrastructure projects (Rail 2000, Gotthard AlpTransit, etc.).

In addition, the Swiss Federal office of Transportation (BAV-EVED) had some reservations (switch, capacity, safety, choice of the pilot track, financial concepts, etc.).

The conditions for the resumption of the Swiss project are now very favourable (completion of Rail 2000 and Gotthard Alptransit, low interest rates, new technical advances, etc.).

In addition, SwissMetro-NG meets all possible requirements regarding CO2 emissions, landscape protection, speed, sustainability, tourism, capacity, safety, costs, network capability, economic efficiency, etc.

[citation needed] Because of its high performance and capacity, the system can draw traffic away from short-haul aviation and intercity highways and thus reduce CO2 emissions whilst simultaneously improving the transportation services.