23 May 2016. With a large-scale public event at either portal of the new Gotthard base tunnel, Switzerland will be celebrating the inauguration of the world’s longest railway tunnel on 4 and 5 June 2016. At this event, the two Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Zurich and EPFL) and various companies will have an opportunity to familiarise the general public with technology relevant to transport. The University of St.Gallen’s SBB Lab will cooperate with the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) in inviting the general public to think about a few questions concerning the mobility of the future in a ludic manner.

Ground-breaking innovations

At present, there are various developments which prefigure ground-breaking technological innovations that will change the way in which we will transport people and goods in the future. These include self-driving vehicles (cars just like buses and lorries), aircraft (such as drones), but also increasingly efficient energy storage systems.

Furthermore, the internet of things will enable all these vehicles to be geographically positioned with accuracy at all times; we will therefore be able to share them in an even simpler way in the future. A self-driving individual car on request will become reality.

The SBB Lab stand in Rynächt

What do these developments mean for us all? Will the volume of traffic increase? Will there still be any public transport in the future? Will we still own individual cars? What should the trains of the future look like? In what kind of transport infrastructure should investments still be made in the future? Visitors to the Gotthard inauguration are invited to think about these and similar questions and to submit their opinions about them. This unique atmospheric snapshot will then also be published soon after the event. The SBB Lab is eagerly awaiting the answers provided by a wider public and is looking forward to welcoming many visitors at its stand in Rynächt by the northern portal of the Gotthard tunnel.