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Tourist cars should no longer park in the middle of Lucerne. The city wants to test an underground variant.
Before Corona, the city of Lucerne was flooded by group travelers. Masses of cars drove into the middle of Lucerne’s old town, and tourists got on and off at Schwanenplatz and Löwenplatz.
Getting through was often hardly possible and the number of travelers to Lucerne grew steadily. The bus rides and streams of tourists increasingly disturbed the population, and the car regime became a bone of contention for years.
Legend:
Before Corona, this was a common sight: groups of tourists flocked to the old town of Lucerne.
Keystone/ Urs Flüeler
Suggestions on how to deal with the flow of tourists were born and discarded. The Lucerne City Council examined 59 ideas and has now decided to take a closer look at one of them.
The city government wants to examine the so-called “city passage” for its feasibility. One thing is already clear: it is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking.
Cars and tourists come under the ground
The “Stadtpassage” is an idea that was launched by a private interest group in 2021. It provides for the cars to be housed in the newly planned multi-storey car park at the cantonal hospital in Lucerne. To ensure that the cars do not burden traffic and the districts, access to the multi-storey car park is to be via a new, underground road tunnel about 200 meters long.
The tour groups would then reach the old town on foot through another 800-metre-long tunnel on escalators. Estimated costs of the whole project: 90 to 150 million Swiss francs
How realistic is such a project? Adrian Borgula, Mobility Director of the City of Lucerne, says that this is now being clarified: “We want to have the facts on the table as to whether it is technically and financially possible.” It should also be clarified whether the whole thing is appropriate.
Advantage also for the cantonal hospital
Synergies with the Kantonsspital Luzern should be used. The cantonal hospital is building a new car park anyway, so you could integrate an additional car park.
And Adrian Borgula sees another advantage in the project: “We don’t know how tourism will develop. If it develops differently than we expect because of Corona, the pedestrian tunnel can still be used: for the employees of the canton hospital and the visitors. » It would also be conceivable to transport district heating via a tunnel to the city center and access the district by bicycle.
Walking through an 800 meter long tunnel into Lucerne’s old town doesn’t sound particularly attractive. Mobility director Adrian Borgula also knows this: “You have to design the tunnel in such a way that you feel comfortable and safe.” You have to imagine it a bit like at an airport.
Lucerne Tourism supports the project
Marcel Perren, Director of Lucerne Tourism, could very well live with the “Stadtpassage” solution if it were to be implemented. “I don’t know of a better variant,” says Marcel Perren. “For us it is important that the tourist groups go directly to the old town and that would be the case with this project.”
On September 22, the Lucerne city parliament will decide whether the feasibility of the “Stadtpassage” will be examined in detail. The project would not be implemented before 2030.