Gotthard: data analysis to avoid queues

Context

In brief

• Bacchini analyzes the traffic of the Gotthard every day.
• From 11 July, traffic jams on 82 out of 83 days.
• On July 18, the queue reached 20 kilometers.
• The Gottardo Live app uses official data.

Key Facts

• Who is frequency → Fabrizio Bacchini, a 57-year-old manager from Zug; four-five monthly crossings
• Data analyzed → about 19 thousand reports since the beginning of July
• Peak → 20 kilometers of queue and 200 minutes of waiting on July 18
• Critical → from 11 am to 6 pm
• App and threshold → Gotthard Live, free of charge; 10-20 minutes of traffic jam acceptable

Monitoring built on data

In the text of 2 October 2026, Fabrizio Bacchini's story tells how an everyday mobility problem became a digital project. The 57-year-old manager from Zug crosses the Gotthard tunnel four to five times a month for work. To decide when to leave, he checks traffic data every day and looks for the moment when the queue starts to shrink.

Since the beginning of July, it has sifted through about 19 thousand official reports. Its system records waiting times, expressed in minutes, and the length of queues, indicated in kilometers, for both directions of travel every five minutes. The basis is the communications of the Federal Roads Office, FEDRO. Official warnings on accidents, road closures and traffic flow regulations are also included in the monitoring.

The result returns the frequency of the problem. Since 11 July, traffic jams have been recorded in front of the tunnel on 82 out of 83 days. The peak came on Saturday 18 July, with 20 kilometres of queues southbound and waiting times of up to 200 minutes. In September, outside of holiday periods, traffic jams formed every weekday.

The slot between 11 and 18 is practically always congested. Bacchini, on the other hand, indicates early morning and late afternoon as the times that usually offer the best conditions. However, the choice also depends on the day of the week: looking at the map, it follows the moment when the queue begins to shorten.

Passion led to the birth of Gottardo Live, a free app that uses official data and signals when the traffic jam forms, lengthens or begins to dissolve. Bacchini says he programmed it to retrieve information every five minutes, then checking it with webcams and the real situation. At the beginning, he dedicated up to five hours a day to the project. Today the system is more stable, but continues to check the data daily.

Operational details

What changes for those who have to go through the tunnel

For those who live or work in Switzerland and have to travel the southern axis, the material collected by Bacchini offers a practical reading: traffic should not be considered only as an event related to holidays. The observed series, on the other hand, shows a recurring presence, with a central band of the day almost always difficult and with differences related to the weekly calendar.

From photography to decision

The useful distinction is between the historical data and the real-time situation. Comparisons between individual days serve to recognize patterns: when the traffic jam tends to form, when it reaches its longest phase and when it begins to dissolve. The app notification follows precisely these phases. For those who have to organize a crossing, the most informative moment is not necessarily the one when the queue is already at its maximum, but the one when the map shows a change. This is the logic that Bacchini applies when he observes the beginning of the reduction of the column.

The time slot indicated by his analysis can be read as a grid, not as a promise. Between 11 and 18 congestion is described as practically constant; early morning and late afternoon are the windows that are usually better. The day of the week remains an autonomous variable. The fact that in September traffic jams occurred every weekday prevents the problem from being reduced to only large exoduses.

The comparison with the previous situation is also concrete. Bacchini explains that an app already existed, but it was full of advertising and forced people to search within it for traffic information. Gottardo Live was created to directly use official data and report the evolution of the queue. This makes the reading described in the story more immediate, without turning the app into a rule that is the same for every motorist.

The limit of ten or twenty minutes is Bacchini's personal one: beyond that threshold, he prefers to take the pace. It is not a threshold attributed to the road network nor a general recommendation. It is an example of how a measured figure can become an individual choice.

For those who want to combine the reading of traffic with a comparison with mezzi pubblici, however, this is another evaluation plan. The same goes for the costo della vita in Svizzera: history does not offer figures on this aspect, so it is not possible to derive an economic cost from the kilometers of queue.

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Key points

How to use analytics before you go

The story allows you to derive an operational sequence based only on the available information. There is no need to transform the app into a fixed calendar: the method consists of verifying the update, reading the queue phase and comparing the data with the observed patterns.

Four essential steps

1. Open Gotthard Live and start with the official data. The app is free of charge and uses FEDRO reports. The reference must be the current situation, because the system collects data every five minutes.

2. Check both directions of travel. The information considered by Bacchini includes waiting times in minutes and queue length in kilometers. Before deciding, it is therefore necessary to distinguish the south direction from the opposite one, without automatically transferring data to the other direction.

3. Read the movement of the queue. The signal does not only concern the presence of the traffic jam: it indicates whether it is forming, if it is lengthening or if it is beginning to dissolve. Push notifications must be interpreted with the same care with which Bacchini has adjusted their frequency, avoiding an arrival too early or too close.

4. Compare the update with the day and time. His analysis identifies recurrences, but leaves room for checking the moment. Early morning and late afternoon are the references indicated as generally best; the time slot between 11 and 18 is the one described as congested. If the wait exceeds the personal threshold, Bacchini's criterion is to take the pace.

This procedure serves to distinguish official data, their evolution and individual decision. For those who cross the tunnel for work, it concerns first of all the time of the journey; the other economic aspects remain separate from the traffic analysis.

The project shows how much work there is behind a seemingly simple notice: scheduling data recovery, comparing it with webcams, checking the real situation and adjusting notifications. Those who use the app can limit themselves to the final result, while the daily check remains the step that makes the update readable. To combine travel planning with a tool on your income, consult calcolatore stipendio.

Source: tio.ch