Gotthard Pass Stays Open by Day for Now, Closed at Night
The pass road is closed between 18:00 and 8:00. For journeys across the Alps, separate rules also apply at the road tunnel and on the Furka car shuttle.
According to the latest statement from the Federal Roads Office, the Gotthard Pass remains passable during the day for the time being. At night, however, the pass road is closed between 18:00 and 8:00. The Federal Roads Office (ASTRA) and the Uri office for national road operations introduced the rule for safety reasons and announced it on 29 October 2026. The night-time restriction remains in force until the pass is fully closed for the season.
The daytime opening is currently scheduled until Thursday, 5 November. If there is snow or temperatures below freezing, the pass may close earlier. The statement does not yet contain a definitive date for the complete winter closure. The authority expects a marked deterioration in the weather from Friday, 6 November.
The pass road is no longer available as a night-time alternative
The announcement concerns the A2P over the pass, not a permanent night-time closure of the Gotthard Road Tunnel. For travel planning these are two different routes. Anyone wanting to bypass a queue in front of the tunnel via the pass road can use that option only within the open time window and only if it has been released accordingly.
The tunnel also has its own closure times. On its road information page, the canton of Uri points out that the tube is closed to normal traffic between 23:00 and 1:00 from Wednesday to Thursday. Special transports take place during this time. During the night closure now in force, the pass road is not available as a parallel bypass.
For a journey late in the evening, the information «Gotthard open» is therefore not enough. Travellers must check whether they mean the pass or the tunnel and which rule applies at the planned transit time. The overview provided by the canton contains current road conditions; Uri also refers to TCS traffic reports and to the pass overview on the «Alpen-Pässe» portal.
Furka and Susten are already closed
The autumn season is also partly over on the neighbouring passes. The Uri building department put the Furka Pass from Realp and the Susten Pass from Sustenbrüggli into winter closure on Wednesday, 28 October at 10:00. According to the ASTRA statement of 29 October, Oberalp and Klausen remained open.
This information is not a guarantee for a later travel day. The Uri building department explicitly warns that snow or short-notice closures are possible at any time, especially in spring and autumn. It therefore recommends checking the road conditions on the day of the journey. An older navigation route or a saved pass report cannot reflect a short-notice closure.
The Furka car shuttle leads into Valais
Between Realp in the canton of Uri and Oberwald in Valais, the car shuttle through the Furka Tunnel remains the year-round link for vehicles. Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn puts the pure train journey at just under 20 minutes. This route crosses the Furka; it is not a car shuttle through the Gotthard to Ticino.
On its service page, the railway separates timetables by season: since 31 October 2026, the timetable designated up to 13 June 2027 applies. The support page states a half-hourly service at weekends and an hourly service on weekdays. For the specific first or last departure, the timetable in force at the time is decisive.
A ticket does not reserve a place on a specific departure. The railway explains this with the limited space on the access roads: holders of reserved tickets could not be guided past the other waiting vehicles. Anyone wanting to catch a connecting service must therefore also allow for the waiting time shown.
The railway uses a particular reference value here: the waiting time shown is added to the time of the next train departure, not simply to the vehicle's time of arrival. A displayed figure therefore replaces neither the timetable nor the time needed to drive to the loading station.
For larger vehicles, the dimensions must also be checked. The railway permits up to 2.50 metres in width and 3.50 metres in height or corner height; for large-capacity vehicles it states a maximum total weight of 20 tonnes. For a late Gotthard journey, however, the time limit on the pass road is initially decisive: from 18:00 this route is closed until the next morning.
Sources
- ASTRA: Gotthard Pass open during the day for now, statement of 29 October 2026
- Canton of Uri: Current road information and tunnel closure times
- Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn: Furka car shuttle and seasonal timetables
- Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn: Frequency of the car shuttle
- Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn: No reservation for a departure time
- Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn: Meaning of the waiting times shown
- Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn: Maximum dimensions and weights
- Wikimedia Commons: Gotthard Pass by Zairon
- Wikimedia Commons: Furka car shuttle in Realp by JoachimKohler-HB
- Licence for both archive images: CC BY-SA 4.0
