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MM Blog: A Subterranean Freight System

A look at how Switzerland might solve their traffic problem by taking freight underground with autonomous cargo carriers.

One Switzerland-based company might have come up with a $3.4 billion solution to the world’s growing traffic problem: take freight transport underground. The Cargo Sous Terrain, or Cargo Underground, system would connect production sites in Zurich with logistics sites in Bern by a three-lane underground tube.

IEEE Spectrum reported that the 50-meter-deep tube would have four transfer stations along its 40-mile route. Each station would be equipped with elevators to raise and lower the autonomous transport vehicles. The vehicles would top out at about 20 miles per hour and be inductively powered by solar panels.

SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What potential issues do you see with this underground freight highway? What other solutions do you see to streamline cargo transportation?

Email us or leave your comments below.