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The trajectory is flatter with the new tunnel and freight trains can be longer and carry more weight. This is one of the elements in trying to shift more freight from the street to the trains (which is one of the two points of the Alpen-Initiative, a popular initiative from 1994 to protect the Alpine Environment).

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Except that, according to the article, it doesn't really shift traffic, but creates more of it.

Well, that is not jet clear. Either are not bad situations and don't make the investment bad.

I'm not sure whether the environment thinks the same about that. (As long as only train traffic increases, it should be fine, as that uses electricity from water power in Switzerland. Not so for car traffic, which should ideally decrease unless it becomes electric.)

Yes, that's true. But it came into being as part of the actions taken to satisfy the initiative.

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