The Switzerland Traveler

Each month here at b5media, we have a theme day, where all blogs in a channel all produce a post on the same topic. This month, MJ, our channel editor (incidentally, you’ll find loads of great travel tips from her over at flyawaycafe)  has asked us to rant. Rant? Me? A man of my advancing years – what on earth was she thinking?

So what’s annoying me at the moment? As you may have guessed from the title, it’s the amount of roadworks in Switzerland. Of course, in a way that’s a good thing, because it means that the roads are usually in an excellent state, and that means I can drive the two-seater along country lanes without being shaken to pieces like I would be in the UK.

But the problem is that all of the roadworks are done at the same time. And again I understand why, because when it’s cold, that’s not a good time to be making nice smooth roads – something to do with water and ice apparently. But there is no coordination between various towns and villages, so what tends to happen is that all the local communities dig up their roads at the same time. And when the Swiss decide to dig up a road, they do it properly.

Step 1 is to totally strip the surface off from a section of road about 2 km long, and then go off to a restaurant for a nice long lunch. Or go away on holiday. I have no idea what they do but it takes ages. In the meantime they’ll install temporary traffic lights which stay on red for a minute, and green for 10 seconds. That’s on a good day.

When they are actually putting the mirror-smooth surface down, the road will be completely closed for a few days. And as Switzerland is very hilly, there’s often no alternative than to drive down the next valley. 

 OK, so I have to take an alternative route to work for eight weeks. But what’s this? A notice that the next valley has roadworks planned starting next week? Which means I can’t go that way either?

Honestly, there have been times when I’ve taken an extra 20km detour on a 20km trip to work, only to find that the motorway has been closed down to one lane because of road works, and then been stuck in traffic for an hour.

To be fair though, there is a solution to all this. Take the train. Because Switzerland has arguably the best train network in the world. If you know somewhere that has a better public transport system, feel free to let me know.

So, fellow traveller, you probably won’t be affected by my pet hate, unless you are travelling round by hire car. Or driving through Switzerland on your way to somewhere sunny, like Italy. And then we don’t mind you suffering because we’ll charge you a full years motorway tax (40 CHF) for the pleasure of a single trip along roadwork infested motorways. It’s an ideal tax – it penalises foreigners but is trivial for locals.

So no need to worry then, just take the train, and if you happen to look out of the window and see a grey sports car stuck in traffic with smoke coming from the driver’s seat, allow yourself a wry smile. That could be me.

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