He must save Cargo Sous Terrain, the CFF megaproject

The Cargo Sous Terrain project wants to transport goods on a sort of conveyor belt under Switzerland. But for some time now, the concept has had a bad reputation. A civil engineer must now try to turn the tide.

Stefan Ehrbar and Patrik Müller / ch media

Here he is, the one who must bring to fruition the most futuristic project in the country. Some consider it a fantasy, others a utopia. But this project does not hover high in the sky, it is rather anchored deep in the earth since it is about an underground freight line through Switzerland, financed by the private sector to the tune of more than 30 billion: the Cargo sous terrain (CST). A project almost twice as expensive as the NLFA, the New railway line through the Alps.

Christian Späth, 56, walks steadily towards a meeting room. He is nothing like Elon Musk, or someone who wants to change the world. Tall, dressed in a light shirt, a slightly long dark jacket and round glasses with thin frames. We would rather see him at the Federal Office of Transport than in a start-up that wants to revolutionize Swiss infrastructure. We would buy things from this serious man. But would we also take this famous “Underground Cargo”, or CST?

Christian Späth started at the beginning of October and is faced with a mountain of problems. Credit Suisse is one of the main shareholders. The bank was once founded by Alfred Escher and largely financed his then-unpublished railway plans, on which the SBB was based. It is in this spirit of innovation that the civil engineer and the thinking heads of the CST imagine themselves. They may have another thing in common with the big bank: they might run out of money.

An extension to 35 billion

Christian Späth must somehow restart the machine after the negative headlines and layoffs of the summer. He worked for more than ten years at Implenia, where he was most recently responsible for civil engineering. His most important task, according to him?

So far only the development and planning phase has been funded. For this, the eleven main shareholders, including Coop, Migros, Swiss Post, Swisscom and Zurich Cantonal Bank as well as smaller players, injected 140 million francs. This sum supports 28 employees, including engineers and specialists in IT and logistics, based in Olten (SO).

140 million, peanuts compared to the amounts still owed. According to current estimates, it will take more than three billion for the first section, planned from Härkingen (SO) to Zurich. The final extension with a network from St. Gallen to Geneva and a line to Basel would swallow up 35 billion francs.

Severe criticism from Zurich

The basic idea of ​​the CST is attractive: transport goods in underground tubes at a speed of around 30 kilometers per hour between the country’s urban centers. Thanks to this system, goods do not flow from logistics centers only when a truck or train is full, but continuously. They do not get into traffic jams and do not cause traffic, but instead save on truck journeys – an advantage also for the environment.

The system could be used for almost anything that fits on a pallet – from clothing and electronics to food and everyday items.

As the 100 million start-up capital required by the Confederation was raised, in 2021 it created the first legal basis for this pioneering project with the Federal Act on Underground Goods Transport. Then the problems started. Indeed, for concrete development, a sectoral plan from the Confederation must be submitted to a public inquiry. The bases that CST has developed for this purpose have earned it severe criticism.

The city of Zurich does not mince its words. Most of the documents do not even meet the legal requirements, she said in the spring. She criticizes the three sites planned for the hub in the city, in particular because they are located in residential areas where it would not be possible to add traffic. Indeed, if Cargo Sous Terrain reduces the number of trucks on the highways outside the city, the packages rise to the surface and must still be distributed. The CST would therefore only lead to a traffic reduction of less than 1% in the city of Zurichaccording to the latter’s calculations.

The timetable is not realistic

The Canton also concluded that the approach was promising, but that several conditions were “not met.” He made this known to the Confederation. The position taken by the Aargau authorities was in the same direction: there are still “various fundamental reservations as well as uncertainties or unease.”

Christian Späth does not let himself be discouraged, however. “Switzerland has proven time and again that it can implement such projects,” he said. He no longer wants to give a precise timetable.

He is now thinking about smaller deadlines. He is working to ensure that the Federal Council sets the sectoral plan in next year’s intermediate result. The opening of the first section, initially announced for 2031, has been postponed.

What this delay hides are the many stages of the procedure carried out in parallel, believes the engineer.

But direct democracy decision-making processes work differently. The examinations and analysis feedback follow one another, instance after instance. All of this then goes into further planning.

Transport of CO₂ in the CST underground?

The representative of an office involved claims that the quality of the documents was partly insufficient, probably also due to the procedure chosen by the CST. What matters is technical feasibility, not political feasibility. To connect two Zurich sites, Cargo Sous Terrain, for example, proposed the option of building transport tubes several meters in diameter along the entire track – “a project which has almost no chance”.

The manager now wants to adapt the procedure to what is usually done. Over the coming months, he intends to hold discussions with authorities and potential partners and find compromises. The entire project will also be subject to a realism check. For the Zurich hubs, for example, it will be necessary to review the accounts and show the city more precisely how it can benefit.

It also appears that a sort of treadmill could replace the autonomous vehicles envisaged so far. Christian Späth will also examine the possibility of laying tubes in the tunnel floor to transport CO2 produced, for example, by household waste incineration plants. It could be shipped to Scandinavia via Basel and stored in the ground there – a process called “CO2 capture”, which is already in practice.

This will provide the necessary experience for the next phase, during which legal issues will become central. But the manager must still respect a schedule. Without significant revenue, Cargo Sous Terrain would currently spend between five and eight million francs per year. Späth does not comment on this figure. But in a few years, everything must be ready to start construction. Otherwise, the coffers will be empty and there will no longer be any point in finding financial partners for the project.

The Alemannic person firmly believes in this “pioneering project”. He is convinced there is a viable business model. “What we want to build doesn’t yet exist anywhere else,” he says.

(French adaptation: Valentine Zenker)