The Touring Club Suisse (TCS) issued its annual Ascension-and-Pentecost traffic forecast on 11 May, cautioning motorists heading south toward Italy and France to brace for jams of up to 20 kilometres at the Gotthard and Mont-Blanc tunnels. While primarily a domestic mobility alert, the advisory has cross-border relevance for business travellers and expatriate families planning long-weekend trips abroad.
![TCS Warns Holidaymakers of Multi-Hour Queues at Alpine Tunnels Over Ascension & Pentecost Weekends]()
Before setting off, travellers should also confirm that their passports and any required visas will remain valid for the entire journey. VisaHQ’s Switzerland portal (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/) offers a fast, step-by-step tool to determine whether a Schengen visa, residency card update or transit permit is needed for crossings into Italy, France or onward destinations, and can even arrange courier pickup so motorists avoid an extra errand during the holiday rush.
TCS expects the first north-portal queues at Gotthard to form from Wednesday noon (13 May). Peak delays could exceed three hours on the Ascension holiday itself and rise to 200 minutes on the Saturday of Pentecost, when spring school breaks begin in parts of Germany and the Netherlands. Return traffic on Pentecost Monday is forecast at 4–7 kilometres, but spill-over from a demonstration-related closure of Italy’s Brenner motorway on 23 May may extend congestion on Swiss routes. To mitigate disruption, the motoring club recommends flexible departure times, alternative routes via the San Bernardino (A13) corridor once Gotthard queues top one hour, and consideration of car-train shuttles through the Lötschberg or Simplon tunnels—although Simplon services are running on a reduced two-hour cadence until 28 May because of maintenance. For corporate travel managers, the alert is a timely reminder to verify rental-car bookings, advise executives on teleworking options and, where feasible, switch to rail or short-haul flights via Zurich and Geneva airports, which remain unaffected. Logistics firms moving time-sensitive goods between northern Europe and Italian ports are already rerouting via France’s Frejus tunnel to avoid potential stand-stills.
Before setting off, travellers should also confirm that their passports and any required visas will remain valid for the entire journey. VisaHQ’s Switzerland portal (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/) offers a fast, step-by-step tool to determine whether a Schengen visa, residency card update or transit permit is needed for crossings into Italy, France or onward destinations, and can even arrange courier pickup so motorists avoid an extra errand during the holiday rush.
TCS expects the first north-portal queues at Gotthard to form from Wednesday noon (13 May). Peak delays could exceed three hours on the Ascension holiday itself and rise to 200 minutes on the Saturday of Pentecost, when spring school breaks begin in parts of Germany and the Netherlands. Return traffic on Pentecost Monday is forecast at 4–7 kilometres, but spill-over from a demonstration-related closure of Italy’s Brenner motorway on 23 May may extend congestion on Swiss routes. To mitigate disruption, the motoring club recommends flexible departure times, alternative routes via the San Bernardino (A13) corridor once Gotthard queues top one hour, and consideration of car-train shuttles through the Lötschberg or Simplon tunnels—although Simplon services are running on a reduced two-hour cadence until 28 May because of maintenance. For corporate travel managers, the alert is a timely reminder to verify rental-car bookings, advise executives on teleworking options and, where feasible, switch to rail or short-haul flights via Zurich and Geneva airports, which remain unaffected. Logistics firms moving time-sensitive goods between northern Europe and Italian ports are already rerouting via France’s Frejus tunnel to avoid potential stand-stills.
