It is understandable that the Bern City Council is committed to making the city a livable place. Less noise, better air quality, and greater urban compatibility are things that no one would seriously dispute. However, when it comes to the Wankdorf transport hub, the City Council is threatening to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
What the Trade and Industry Association of the Canton of Bern is saying is not alarmist wishful thinking, but economic reality: the Wankdorf junction is a hub for commercial traffic in the Mittelland region. Failure to alleviate this bottleneck will ultimately harm not only transport companies, but also SMEs, security of supply, and Bern’s attractiveness as a business location.
The current infrastructure is overloaded, as evidenced by regular traffic jams, delivery delays, and high costs. The HIV sums it up succinctly: commercial traffic needs reliable framework conditions, and that includes functioning transport routes. Anyone who slows down investment now risks gridlock tomorrow—both economically and socially.
Of course, urban planning optimizations, climate targets, and enclosures can and should be discussed. But the principle must remain: The city of Bern must not become Switzerland’s bottleneck. The Wankdorf transport hub is simply too important for that.
Transport policy must be pragmatic, not ideological. And it must not play commercial transport off against environmental goals – both are important. Therefore: debate yes, block no. The region does not need symbolic politics, but responsible infrastructure decisions with vision.
