Special toll routes are often tunnels or mountain pass roads that are associated with higher construction and maintenance costs. Building tunnels and pass roads requires consideration of many factors that significantly increase overall costs. Geography plays a crucial role, as Switzerland is a mountainous country and tunnels as well as pass roads often need to be constructed through challenging terrain.
Therefore, construction involves greater technical challenges, which in turn lead to higher costs due to the use of specialized machinery and technologies. At the same time, maintenance is also more expensive, as the condition of pass roads is heavily affected by weather conditions. These include snowfall, rockfalls, or other natural events that regularly damage infrastructure and lead to additional maintenance expenses.
To use special toll routes, an additional fee must be paid, as these routes are exempt from the vignette requirement and the distance-based toll, but are still subject to a toll. This means that regardless of whether you have already purchased a vignette or paid a heavy vehicle fee (in Switzerland, the heavy vehicle fee replaces the distance-based toll), you must pay an extra charge for certain tunnels and mountain passes.
Therefore, every vehicle owner must pay the special toll once the special toll route is used. Please note that most special toll routes can be accessed via roads requiring a vignette or routes subject to the heavy vehicle fee.
In Switzerland, there are two different tunnels as well as a variety of Alpine pass roads that are subject to special tolls. The tunnels requiring a special toll include the Great St. Bernard Road Tunnel and the Munt La Schera Tunnel. To use these tunnels, you need a pass or a ticket. This ticket covers either a one-way trip or a round trip. Additionally, the prices of the passes vary depending on the vehicle class.
There are also numerous mountain pass roads subject to a special toll. The following link takes you to an overview of the various Alpine pass roads and their corresponding prices: Alpine Passes/Alpine Pass Roads.
You can purchase passes for the various special toll routes online and pay by credit card. You can also buy them on-site at the respective toll stations. However, please note the opening hours of the various toll booths.
We wish you a pleasant trip to Switzerland and are happy to assist you with any questions about Switzerland and the corresponding toll regulations. Feel free to contact us via email: info@digitale-vignette-schweiz.de
By the way: In Switzerland, in addition to the vignette requirement (for vehicles up to 3.5 t GVW), there is no distance-based toll system. Instead, there is the Heavy Vehicle Fee for vehicles over 3.5 t GVW. Also note that vehicle transport by rail plays an important role in Switzerland. Feel free to check with us about what vehicle loading services are all about.
