Driving to Andermatt: the Gotthard, the Furka car train and five closed passes
How do you reach Andermatt in winter, and does the drive need a Swiss vignette?
Through the Gotthard road tunnel on the A2, which is green-signed motorway and therefore charged, or by the Furka car train from Realp. Every pass road around the massif closes for the season: the Furka, the Susten, the Klausen, the Oberalp and the Gotthard pass itself. The vignette for the motorway part is an annual one, because Switzerland has no other length in its catalogue.
The Gotthard road tunnel works through the winter
The Gotthard road tunnel runs from Göschenen in Uri to Airolo in Ticino, carrying the A2 under the massif. The historic Gotthard pass road over the top has a winter closure of its own; the tunnel beneath it keeps working.
The A2 is a first class national road, and that classification is what makes the tunnel charged road: a vignette is owed to drive through it.
There is no counter at the portal, and no shorter product to fall back on if you arrive at Göschenen without one. Put the annual Swiss vignette on the car before you join the A2, from BAZG's shop or a staffed border post at the official amount, or from us at that amount plus a service fee we itemise before you pay.
The Furka car train from Realp
The Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn carries cars through the Furka tunnel between Realp in Uri and Oberwald in the Valais, all year round. The railway's own figure for the crossing is barely 20 minutes, which it puts at about 45 minutes quicker than driving the Furka pass road on the days that road is open at all.
The fare is a railway fare, paid at the terminal. No official page ties it to the motorway charge, and none says outright that it is free of the charge either.
Use it for any winter route carrying on into the Valais, and take the departure times off the operator's timetable before you set off.
Five passes, and they shut together
Uri has five alpine passes: the Furka, the Susten, the Klausen, the Gotthard pass road and the Oberalp. Each closes for the winter, and when the canton announced the Oberalp shutting on 19 November 2025 at nine in the morning, it noted that all five were then impassable until spring.
The touring club's multi-year averages put the Furka and the Susten out of use from November to June and the Oberalp from December to April, though the real dates move by weeks with the snow.
The Oberalppass is the road link east, over main road 19 towards Disentis and Mustér and on to Chur, and it is one of the five that go.
Plan a winter arrival on the tunnel and the valley roads, and treat every pass on the map as shut until the canton says otherwise.