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Switzerland gears up for the future

Posted: 29 October 2010 | Peter Füglistaler, Director of the Federal Office of Transport, Switzerland | No comments yet

The Swiss are people who travel by bus, train and tram. The urban public transport network is already excellent, with vehicles in good condition and timetables that are dense and well coordinated with regional and long-distance traffic. But even more effort will soon be demanded: people are becoming more mobile, and the future of urban and agglomeration transport lies in trams and bi-articulated buses – as long as they can be funded.

The Swiss are people who travel by bus, train and tram. The urban public transport network is already excellent, with vehicles in good condition and timetables that are dense and well coordinated with regional and long-distance traffic. But even more effort will soon be demanded: people are becoming more mobile, and the future of urban and agglomeration transport lies in trams and bi-articulated buses – as long as they can be funded.

The Swiss are people who travel by bus, train and tram. The urban public transport network is already excellent, with vehicles in good condition and timetables that are dense and well coordinated with regional and long-distance traffic. But even more effort will soon be demanded: people are becoming more mobile, and the future of urban and agglomeration transport lies in trams and bi-articulated buses – as long as they can be funded.

The Swiss public transport system is one of the country’s triumphs in international competition. Fast, clean, safe, punctual public transport can be enjoyed by everyone in Switzerland. Alongside the modern vehicle fleet and well-maintained infrastructure, how the system works is an additional factor. Public transport timetables are coordinated, so that connection times can be kept as short as possible. One ticket covers the whole journey – thanks to tariff agreements, the passenger need only buy one ticket even when using different modes of transport. And it is not just buses, trams and suburban railways that count as public transport: long-distance trains and intercity buses, and even cableways and ships, are integrated into the timetable and tariff system.

The Swiss public has shown its appreciation of this highly complex network: demand is rising with every year. So it is important to take time now to consider future demands. The indications are clear: mobility will continue to grow, and will need to be absorbed by the public transport system in an environmentally friendly way.

For the coming decades, this will mean that local public transport must offer much more capacity, even in the well-developed Swiss system. Customers should not be crammed together like tinned sardines; nobody should be left standing at a stop because the vehicle is already full.

Foretastes of what is to come can already be seen on the roads of many Swiss cities. There are two distinct trends: the first is to have longer vehicles. While an ordinary bus generally measures around 12 metres in length, many cities already run articulated buses which, at 18 metres long, provide significantly more seats and standing room. But the next generation is already on its way: the first mega-buses are now entering service in Zurich, Geneva, St. Gallen and Lucerne. They are bi-articulated buses with an impressive length of 24 metres and a corresponding amount of space. However, these vehicles are currently only run on a few routes, as they require adaptations of infrastructure, e.g. at roundabouts and traffic islands.

The second trend is the renaissance of the tram. After its heyday as the first and most up-to-date means of mass urban transit 100 years ago, the tram was threatened with extinction in the 1960s: tramcars stood in the way of a car-friendly city. Only when the cities were on the verge of drowning in car traffic was there a shift in the way of thinking. In recent years, numerous new routes have come into service in Switzerland’s larger cities.

Thanks to new rolling stock – low-floor vehicles in particular – trams have also become increasingly popular with passengers. Several new infrastructural projects are currently being built, are in planning, or have already been realised. Examples are the M2 in Lausanne, the Glattalbahn in Zurich, and the Zurich West tram. Several other routes in Bern are being switched from bus to tram, and there are further projects underway in Basel, Biel, Geneva, Lugano and St. Gallen.

The Swiss Confederation supports this development. Through its new Agglomeration Fund, the Confederation has co-financed numerous tram projects in Switzerland. The Confederation is able to support rail projects in conurbations by covering up to 50% of the costs.

Financing public transport in its entirety is a major challenge of the future: any extension of the rail and road service takes money, and new infrastructures are needed, while the maintenance costs of a system being pushed to maximum capacity are also constantly rising. This is where the public purse sometimes reaches its limits. Putting all the responsibility onto State funding, through subsidies and compensation, is not a workable model. The goal must be to create a system of public transport that is sustainable in all ways: sustainable by the environment and in mobility, but also sustainable in terms of financing.

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