Long delays, pollution, accidents... Why would anyone want to drive a truck across Switzerland? And yet Switzerland's geographical position in the centre of western Europe condemns it to being a transit country, while at the same time its mountainous terrain reduces the amount of land available for road building.

Switzerland has invested a lot of money and effort into transferring freight from road to rail. In comparison with its Alpine neighbours, it has been extremely successful: in 2005 65% of freight crossing the Swiss Alps did so by rail, as against 23% in France and 23% in Austria.

The "rolling highway" is a continuation of the policy. It runs between Freiburg in southern Germany and Novara in northern Italy. Trucks using it never touch Swiss roads at all. Instead they cross the country by train.

Before the system could be introduced in 2001, the Lötschberg and Simplon tunnels had to be adapted, bridges had to be widened, and the flatcars on which the trucks are carried had to be lowered. The highway can be used by vehicles up to four meters high, 2.5 meters wide and 44 tonnes in weight. In some cases it is necessary to partially deflate the truck's tyres, so tightly is the clearance in the tunnels calculated.

The agreement on setting up the highway was signed in 1992 by the governments of the three countries involved, by each of their national railways and by the Swiss private rail company, BLS, which owns part of the route, including the Lötschberg tunnel.

Most of the traffic is scheduled for the night, in accordance with market demand. Drivers travel in sleeping cars on the same train. This makes the route doubly advantageous: not only is it a faster way to get between the two points, but time spent on the rolling highway counts as rest time. Drivers can drive straight off without needing to take a break as they would otherwise be obliged by law to do. Time is also saved over customs formalities, since the trucks are in effect travelling from one EU country directly to another.