Graubünden backs the idea of a railway between S-chanf and Livigno

The canton of Graubünden wants to work with partners in Lombardy on a rail link between S-chanf, in the Engadine, and Livigno, in the upper Valtellina. A concrete project is expected to be presented in December.

The idea was set out in July by the firm Redas Engineering at an information meeting in Livigno. It envisages a route of more than fourteen kilometres, covered in around ten minutes. Today the same journey takes about forty-nine minutes by car and more than two hours by public transport.

Potential demand is estimated at between 68,000 and 193,000 passengers a year. The catchment includes cross-border workers, tourists and visitors, three groups with different needs and seasonal patterns: the wide range of the estimate reflects precisely the uncertainty over which of them will weigh most.

A vision, not yet a project

The institutional framework already exists. Alongside the Province of Sondrio, which is acting as lead partner, the canton of Graubünden and the cantonal office for energy and transport also belong to the Interreg cross-border cooperation programme.

"For us it is very interesting and important to discuss ideas for improving public transport in the long term in this area between the Engadine and Lombardy," State Councillor Carmelia Maissen, head of the department for infrastructure, energy and mobility, told Keystone-ATS on the sidelines of the monthly media meeting.

Maissen was careful to define the terms, however. For now this is a vision and not a concrete project: there is a masterplan, not detailed planning. "We do not yet know what will come of this idea," she said, adding that all major projects begin with a vision and that the canton supports it.

The idea has been circulating for around twenty years and could move a step forward in the coming months. In an interview with RSI, Livigno's deputy mayor Thommy Cantoni said the detailed design would be delivered by December 2026.

A link of this kind would fit into a wider dossier, that of the Alpine crossings between Switzerland and Italy, where cross-border mobility is growing faster than the infrastructure meant to absorb it.