Noacustoms frontier piggyback
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THE GROWING volume of commercial traffic between the German side of Lake Constance and the upper Rhine region east of Lorrach currently has to cross the frontier twice within 20 miles to use the direct route through Switzerland.
An alternative road, the second-class B314, skirts the Swiss "peninsula" but has many bends and steep gradients so that drivers of maximum weight vehicles generally prefer the "international" route.
As an alternative to the costly reconstruction of the perimeter route, the German government is now considering a proposal by the Federal railways which would provide a relief route passing through Switzerland but not subject to customs delays.
The scheme involves a short-distance rail piggyback shuttle at half-hourly intervals via the "no-customs" rail transit route.