Every year the traffic-news editorial team at Viasuisse produce traffic congestion forecasts before Easter – as well as other public holidays and key holiday travel dates.
The detailed forecasts are made available by Viasuisse to radio stations, print and on-line media as text information and as map graphics. Once again, interest was very big. For the Easter traffic in 2011, the Viasuisse editorial team gave numerous interviews and sent in special reports to various radio stations. Nearly 40 such traffic reports were logged.
Easter Monday, 2011: 10 km (6 mile) tailback at the southern entrance to the St Gotthard Tunnel As the traffic experts at Viasuisse had correctly predicted, the congestion in the night from Maunday Thursday to Good Friday did not ease off until 1 a.m. in the morning. Even on Easter Saturday there were quite long waits at the St Gotthard. However, this time the build-up of vehicles was mainly at the southern entrance. On Easter Monday the tailback of traffic heading north reached a maximum length of 10 km (6 miles) which led to waiting-times of up to 2 ½ hours. The weather influenced holiday traffic Because of the weather conditions, fewer sunseekers than usual headed south. That was because over the Easter weekend the sunshine and warm temperatures were chiefly to be found north of the Alps. Historical data from Viasuisse shows that the returning traffic is normally spread over several days and that the weekend after Easter is badly affected by it.