Push in the parliament to double the price of the motorway vignette; major train disruptions ahead; and more Swiss news in our roundup on Monday.
Centre Party MP wants to double the price of motorway vignettes
Since its inception 40 years, the vignette has been sold for the same price: 40 francs.
But now deputy Martin Candinas has submitted a motion in the parliament seeking a 100-percent price hike — that is, to raise its cost to 80 francs.
He insists, however, that this increase will not dig a deeper hole in the Swiss motorists’ pockets because at the same time the price of petrol would drop by 5 cents per litre.
Swiss drivers would benefit from this move in another way as well: Cadinas said that a more expensive vignette might discourage foreign drivers from transiting through Switzerland, which would help relieve congestion on certain roads that are particularly prone to traffic jams, such as the Gotthard tunnel, along with many others.
READ ALSO: The numbers that reveal how bad traffic on Swiss motorways has become
And speaking of bottlenecks at the Gotthard…
In a similar move, MPs from Switzerland’s main parties — each representing Ticino or Uri, the two cantons located at opposite entrances to the 17-km Gotthard tunnel —submitted a parliamentary motion targeting foreign drivers.
Concretely, they are seeking to tax foreigners who do not spend any time in Switzerland, but merely transit through the country.
In other words, the tax would apply to vehicles “entering Switzerland from a neighbouring country and crossing it to exit through another neighbouring country, without making any significant stops on the territory.”
A typical example would be German tourists crossing Switzerland from Basel to Chiasso on their way to Italy.
The tax would vary according to traffic density, time of day, and day of the week.
Thus, peak periods — such as before Easter or at the start of the holidays — would be more expensive for foreign drivers.
The ultimate goal behind the motions is “to better distribute traffic and reduce traffic jams.”
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Government is investing over 260 million francs to strengthen international Geneva
In its meeting on Friday, the Federal Council allocated 269 million francs to UN organisations located in Geneva.
Without naming the United States specifically, the Federal Council said that “funding contribution cuts or the suspension of payments by some member states in recent months have presented key international organisations with significant challenges.”
It went on to say that “a number of institutions based in Geneva are being forced to make budget cuts, reduce their headcount or even consider relocation abroad.”
The last part refers to Qatar’s capital, Doha, which wants to take over Geneva role as the host of United Nations organisations.
With this in mind, “the Federal Council’s measures aim to ease acute funding shortfalls… and to secure Geneva’s long-term position” as the UN’s home country.
READ ALSO: How many jobs in Geneva could be lost over US aid cuts?
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Ahead this week:
Major train disruptions
As the national railway company SBB will be carrying out major maintenance work on the Fribourg-Bern line — one of the most important routes in Switzerland as it connects German and French-speaking parts of the country —there will be significant disruption to train traffic.
This railway line will be closed from June 27th at 10:30 am to August 25th at 4 am.
However, a replacement service will be put in place, including buses every 10 minutes to substitute for long-distance traffic.
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