Holiday-makers returning from Ticino and Italy faced a familiar but record-breaking ordeal on Easter Monday as cars and camper-vans stretched for 20 kilometres outside Switzerland’s Gotthard road tunnel. The Touring Club Switzerland (TCS) measured waiting times of more than three hours at the north portal and up to 90 minutes southbound, turning the A2 motorway into a stationary car park throughout the day. The Easter weekend is traditionally the busiest period on Switzerland’s main north-south artery, yet 2026 surpassed previous years thanks to a combination of fair weather, strong domestic tourism and reduced rail capacity through the base tunnel, where several passenger services were capped for crowd-control reasons. Despite official advice to take the A13 San Bernardino or the Lötschberg car-train shuttle, alternative routes quickly became saturated, with tailbacks reported as far as Bellinzona and Chiasso on the Italian border.
![Easter Monday Gridlock: 20-Kilometre Jam at Gotthard Tunnel Paralyzes North-South Traffic]()
While mobility bottlenecks are harder to solve, keeping your travel paperwork flawless is not. VisaHQ’s Swiss section (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/) lets drivers, passengers and logistics crews check visa, transit and passport requirements for Switzerland, Italy and onward destinations in minutes. Their streamlined online process and live customer support ensure that when diversions or unexpected border crossings arise, you won’t be held up by documentation issues on top of tunnel queues.
Logistics operators were hit as badly as leisure travellers. Same-day deliveries between northern Europe and northern Italy missed guaranteed slots, and several Swiss supermarket chains warned of restocking delays for fresh produce on Tuesday. Cross-border commuters heading to Lombardy for early Tuesday shifts were advised to leave before dawn or work remotely. The incident has reignited debate over Switzerland’s long-term mobility strategy. The second Gotthard road-tunnel tube, under construction since 2022, will not be ready until the end of the decade, leaving at least four more Easter weekends with no additional road capacity. Environmental groups are urging policymakers to shift more holiday traffic onto rail by introducing dynamic tolling on peak days, while haulage associations argue that timed slot bookings could keep freight flowing. For now, travellers can only plan smarter: avoid peak return windows, pre-book the San Bernardino car-train when possible and consult real-time TCS alerts before committing to the A2. Corporations with regular north-south staff movements should build generous buffers into itineraries between April and October, when tourism volumes are highest.
While mobility bottlenecks are harder to solve, keeping your travel paperwork flawless is not. VisaHQ’s Swiss section (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/) lets drivers, passengers and logistics crews check visa, transit and passport requirements for Switzerland, Italy and onward destinations in minutes. Their streamlined online process and live customer support ensure that when diversions or unexpected border crossings arise, you won’t be held up by documentation issues on top of tunnel queues.
Logistics operators were hit as badly as leisure travellers. Same-day deliveries between northern Europe and northern Italy missed guaranteed slots, and several Swiss supermarket chains warned of restocking delays for fresh produce on Tuesday. Cross-border commuters heading to Lombardy for early Tuesday shifts were advised to leave before dawn or work remotely. The incident has reignited debate over Switzerland’s long-term mobility strategy. The second Gotthard road-tunnel tube, under construction since 2022, will not be ready until the end of the decade, leaving at least four more Easter weekends with no additional road capacity. Environmental groups are urging policymakers to shift more holiday traffic onto rail by introducing dynamic tolling on peak days, while haulage associations argue that timed slot bookings could keep freight flowing. For now, travellers can only plan smarter: avoid peak return windows, pre-book the San Bernardino car-train when possible and consult real-time TCS alerts before committing to the A2. Corporations with regular north-south staff movements should build generous buffers into itineraries between April and October, when tourism volumes are highest.
