Every year at Easter there is a risk of traffic jams on Swiss roads. Many are drawn to the south by car. So also this year.
The Easter traffic jam in front of the Gotthard tunnel amounted to more than 20 kilometers on Friday afternoon. So progress was very slow even before the Seelisberg tunnel between Amsteg and Beckenried.
ela./ran./pop./fra. The canton of Ticino attracts Easter with summer temperatures: the meteorologists expect up to 26 degrees on Holy Saturday. The rush on Good Friday is correspondingly high. In front of the north portal of the Gotthard tunnel, cars were backed up for 22 kilometers at midday. That corresponds to a waiting time of almost four hours, as the automobile club TCS announced on Twitter.
#A2 – Lucerne -> Gotthard – between Buochs and Göschenen 22 km traffic jam, overload, loss of time of up to 3 hours and 40 minutes
— TCS Verkehr Gotthard (@TCSGotthard) April 15, 2022
In the course of the afternoon, the waiting times in front of the north portal decreased again. However, people who wanted to go south still had to be patient. Even later on Friday afternoon, the waiting times were still more than two hours. Shortly after 10 p.m., the cars were still backed up for a kilometer. According to TCS, this corresponds to a waiting time of up to ten minutes.
#A2 – Lucerne -> Gotthard – between Wassen and Göschenen 1 km traffic jam, overload, loss of time of up to 10 minutes
— TCS Verkehr Gotthard (@TCSGotthard) April 15, 2022
Traffic had already been backed up for eleven kilometers in front of the north portal of the Gotthard road tunnel on Thursday.
The wave of return journeys begins later on Easter Sunday
The Federal Roads Office (Astra) wrote a few days ago that people’s desire to travel had increased again after the corona-related restrictions of the last two years: “This will have an impact on road traffic on Easter 2022. There is likely to be a high volume of traffic on the north-south axes in particular.”
According to Astra, the start of the return journey on the south-north axis is expected later on Easter Sunday, and increased return travel is also to be expected on Easter Monday: “It is advisable to make the return journey outside of these days if possible.”
The canton of Ticino, which is heavily geared towards tourism, had more visitors in the second year of Corona than before the pandemic. Many Swiss, who otherwise go on holiday abroad but were slowed down by Corona regulations, rediscovered their home holiday regions. Holiday home broker Interhome experienced the best season in its 56-year history in 2021, and Ticino was the most popular region.
“70,000 passengers a day” at Zurich Airport
Alternatives to the Gotthard route are the San Bernardino route, the tunnel through the Great St. Bernhard, the Simplon Pass and the car train through Lötschberg and Simplon.
There are also many people at Zurich Airport. However, the higher rush was expected, says media spokeswoman Elena Stern on request. “Basically, we expect an average of 70,000 passengers a day over Easter,” says Stern. That corresponds to about 70 percent of the peak days before the corona pandemic. Passengers should expect longer waiting times, but be prepared. Enough people had been planned – for example at check-in.