Canton Vaud tells Bern: pump money into public transport
The slow boat to Lausanne: the canton would like to see low-energy but high-speed options developed
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Cleaner air, healthier citizens, faster transport – Canton Vaud’s infrastructure department head François Marthaler says we can have it all, by speeding up investments in public transport, and he is calling on Bern to do so.
Marthaler’s demand in a statement from the cantonal council Friday 11 May comes on the heels of the first federal microcensus for transport and mobility, issued last week. The federal figures, combined with other cantonal numbers, show that train use is on the rise and cars are gradually slipping from favour.
Switzerland until recently ran a census every 10 years, but the use of digital databases has made it practical to compile annual microcensuses that focus on a limited number of subjects which were previously part of the longer-term census.
Regular use of public transport up
More than 60,000 people took part in the mobility microcensus. It shows that cars used as a share of overall transport have fallen from 77 percent in 2000 to 75 percent in 2005 and 72 percent in 2010. The number of cars per inhabitant has also been sliding, from 530 per 1,000 during the 2001-2005 period to 512 per 1,000 last year.
Worth noting: population growth was 1.9 percent, or 13,500 people more, from 2010 to 2011.
Vaud residents are becoming more regular public transport users, with 46 percent of them having some form of special rate “abonnement” card, compared to 37 percent in 2005.
The canton argues that the CHF6 billion earmarked by the federal government as an optional budget item to speed up the expansion of regional train service is the minimum for what needs to be invested.
Improving car traffic will make public transport function better
The council makes the argument that the project to improve the ring road around Lausanne is crucial to help the shift to public transport: if traffic is drained from Lausanne more rapidly onto the autoroute, public transport in the city will function more effectively.
Another crucial part of the transport picture is bicycles and pedestrians and here, the council notes, Vaud lags behind the rest of Switzerland. The potential to develop bicycle and pedestrian paths is huge, says the council, which would like to see these developed more in the greater Lausanne area.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UK budget, to be unveiled Wednesday 21 March, could well hold some surprises, but one of its most unusual features is already under discussion: a partial privatization plan that would allow wealth funds from sovereign states to lease British motorways and highways. The Guardian reports that “In his most eye-catching proposal, [Prime Minister David] Cameron will announce that the Treasury and Department for Transport are to carry out a feasibility study looking at using private-sector funds to improve and maintain trunk roads and motorways.”
China is one of the targeted countries, but any funds investing in the roads programme would need to meet a set of targets to improve roads and reduce congestion, areas where the government says Britain is falling behind.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, reports the Wall St Journla, says that “the bulk of the measures in the budget will be aimed at helping low and middle income earners, in a move that is likely to appease junior coalition partners the Liberal Democrats and offset speculation about a controversial cut to the top income tax rate.”
Links to other sites: Guardian, Independent, Wall St Journal
Windmill in canton Valais
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland is rethinking its tax system at the most basic level to create a more ecologically-minded tax system. The Federal Council, or cabinet, is asking several departments to join forces in a complete review of the tax system by the summer of 2012.
Their mandate is to find a way to increase taxes on the “most undesirable activities such as energy consumption and environmental pollution and to lighten the tax burden for desirable activities such as work (income) and investment.”
The council emphasizes that households and businesses must not, as a result of the reform, pay more in taxes, but simply “other” taxes. One option might be to lower taxes to offset the green tax burden; another could be to redistribute the revenues to compensate.
The tax reform is part of a broader revised energy strategy to 2050 that Switzerland is putting in place. Two main goals are secure energy supplies and reduced consumption.
Three departments have been given shared responsibility for proposing the new tax regime: Federal Finance Department; the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications Department; Federal Department of Home Affairs.
The logic behind the reform, says Bern, is that the real cost of today’s energy is not taken into account by consumers and producers because these expenses are not covered in any way in the price of energy supplies: CO2 emissions, pollution, possible energy supply accidents.
A green tax approach takes competition into consideration, not just energy and environmental politics, says the Federal Council.
“Fiscal reform must not have any impact on the budget nor on the share taxes have. The revenues generated by a tax on energy should essentially involve a reduction in income and other taxes. Overall, only the structure of the income taxes would change and households and businesses must not see any increase in these taxes. The ideal would be to reduce these taxes, which have the most negative impact on decisions covering work, savings, investments and where a company should produce. [The tax reform] should improve prosperity and growth, so it is important to look at a proportional redistribution of energy tax revenues to the population and companies, and not just at cutting or doing away with income taxes.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Some 2 million public sector workers are slated to walk out Wednesday 30 November in the UK, affecting schools, hospitals, government offices and public transport, among other services. The strike is over changes to government pension plans, with workers being asked to work longer hours to earn their pensions. The government announced Tuesday it wants to bring forward to 2026 a plan to move the pension age to 67.
Early reports indicate that 75 percent of schools in Britain are affected by the strike.
Prime Minister David Cameron lashed out early Wednesday at the union, holding them responsible for taking labour action while negotiations are going on. The BBC cites General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers Russell Hobby, that “blame for any rise in union militancy – particularly among moderate unions – belongs fairly and squarely at the government’s door: A failure to negotiate in any meaningful sense until the last minute”.
The 24-hour strike is widely expected to involve up to two million workers, with the BBC labeling it “what is set to be the biggest walkout for a generation”.
Links to other sites: Daily Mail, Guardian, the Scotsman, Telegraph
Nuclear waste disposal in France and Swiss plant shutdowns prompt new concerns
Train with waste traveling from France to Germany today could spark new protests
GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND TO SCRAP NUCLEAR ENERGY, ©2011 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Decommissioning Switzerland’s nuclear power plants will cost 10 percent more as a result of inflation, an increase of about CHF2 billion, than the last estimates in 2006 showed, the Federal Energy Office said Thursday 24 November.
The companies that own the power stations and the waste storage facility are responsible for covering the cost of decommissioning as well as waste storage. They make annual contributions to two funds, with the contributions set for five year periods.
For 2012-2016, their costs will be increased by CHF127.67 million a year for waste management and CHF60.7m for decommissioning.
The increase is part of energy costs that must be approved by the government before companies can pass them on to consumers.
The cost study carried out by swissnuclear, mandated by the federal commission responsible for decommissioning and cost management, will now be evaluated by the Swiss Federal Nuclear Inspectorate, which will bring in independent outside experts.
Switzerland’s decommissioning will take until 2034
The Swiss government called a halt to nuclear power plant construction in May 2011, two months after the president announced a temporary moratorium. The measure amounts to the end of the country’s nuclear power programme.
The May decision covers four power stations with reactors and two research facilities with reactors, as well as waste disposal centres. The government is allowing the plants to operate until their licenses run out, which means the plants will all shut down by 2034.
Decomposing sardines from Brittany were destroyed by Swiss customs
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss customs officials in Geneva stepped up their checks of food items entering the country in May, and say they have uncovered serious problems in the transport of a number of food items.
Between June and September they seized a large number of shipments of supposedly fresh foods that were not kept at correct temperatures during transport, they say.
The non-exhaustive list:
1. 531 kg of meat and fish in sauces, headed for a shop, were stored at +18 °C rather than +5 °C to -8 °C. The goods were destroyed.
Read more…
Emys, a robot developed as part of the Lirec (Living with robots and interactive companions) project funded by the EC (photo, ©2011 LIREC)
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – The European Commission 20 July agreed to commit €7 billion to research and development, in what it says is its “biggest ever European Commission funding package”, designed to create some 174,000 jobs in the short term and another 450,000 in the long term and to stimulate nearly €80 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) growth within the next 15 years.
Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn says the package will be used for stimulating European innovation through research funding.
The funding will take the form of grants to 16,000 recipients in European universities and research organizations and to industry specialists, with “a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises”.
“A common problem is bridging the gap between research and the market, and this funding can help demonstrate the commercial potential of a new technology, for example, or that a new idea can work on a sufficiently large scale to be industrially viable,” the EC notes on Cordis, its news site.
“Challenges like climate change, energy and food security, health and an aging population can be better managed if public sector intervention is used effectively to stimulate the private sector and remove bottlenecks stopping the best and brightest ideas from reaching the market, due to problems such as a lack of finance or fragmentation in research.”
How the money will be spent
The EC details how the funds will be distributed. Key points include:
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Are you a gas-burning road hog who loves festivals and concerts? You might have to change your ways this summer, with environment and sustainable development the buzz words for Swiss festivals.
Montreux Jazz Festival, keeping an eye on electricity consumption (photo: Odile Meylan)
Montreux Jazz Festival, which runs to 16 July, is the first of the big summer festivals and it provides details about its environmental efforts on its web site. The MJF notes that it’s been given the Green ‘n Clean award from Yourope, which awards festivals that actively work to protect their impact on the environment.
Montreux turns on the lights, turns down the consumption
Two measures the MJF cites are its work with Alpiq to provide very low consumption lighting for Le Jardin and its work with e-covoiturage to reduce the number of cars coming to the festival.
Walk! World’s largest sports event encourages us to use our legs
The giant multicultural, multi-event Gymnaestrada, which has brought 20,000 gymnasts from around the world to Lausanne this week, said loud and clear at the outset that its sustainable charter was being given top priority. Walk to the events, as a starting point, it tells visitors.
Green festivals: a balancing act (photo, Gymnaestrada, 11 July group events)
The event increased the population of Lausanne by 20 percent overnight, creating rubbish and other problems, the organizers notes.
It details its green efforts on a web page, which at the end puts the onus on you and meet to make the charter work: “Help us to make this idea of sustainable development a reality! On a daily basis, travel sensibly, eat healthily, sort your rubbish and switch the lights off after you. From now on, you can support the WG-2011 by calculating your carbon footprint and committing to reduce it!”
Gymnaestrada runs until 16 July.
Paleo pushes festival-goers to reflect on transport
The Paleo Festival in Nyon opens 19 July and it will pull in more than 230,000 people by the time it ends 24 July. Paleo sent out a newsletter Tuesday 12 July about its efforts to push concert-goers in the right direction: greener travel.
The CFF rail company offers 20 percent off to anyone who goes by train, and online car-sharing options work for both Switzerland and France. RouteRank, newly improved, is a great way to find the best options for getting from your place to Paleo, and to find out your environmental impact in the process.
St Prex Classics, small is beautiful but also gentler on the environment
A late summer festival, the newly renamed St Prex Classics, takes another approach to the environment by keeping things manageable: 10 concerts over two weekends in intimate surroundings in the lakeside old town (Vieux Bourg) of St Prex (two are in Morges, this year only). The concert, now in its fifth year, runs from 16-28 August.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Plans are afoot in Zurich to intall “bike lifts” to help weary cyclists tackle steep hills. Already introduced in Norway, the lifts operate similarly to conveyer-belts, the cyclists resting their foot on a moving band which then slides them up the hill.
In spite of Zurich’s relative lack of hills, there are a few key sites where bike riders could apparently do with some help. The newspaper 20 Minuten suggests the stretch between Zurich and Höngg might be one possibility. The system has been backed by Green Party transport campaigner Guido Trevisan.
Links to other sites: 20 Minuten (German), The Mirror
video, Trampe bike rail in Trondheim, Norway
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – More packages are being sent in Switzerland, the letter business remains strong and more people are switching their banking to Post Finance, says Swiss Post. The result is higher profits for 2010, up from CHF728 million in 2009 to CHF910 in 2010, a 25 percent increase. Revenues (operating income) were CHF8.36 million.
The national postal system argues that it needs strong profits “to further increase its equity, help finance the pension fund, fund its investments and distribute an appropriate share of profit to the Confederation.”
Its board of directors is proposing to the Swiss government that “CHF 100 million of the profit for 2010 be used to finance the pension fund, CHF 200 million be distributed to the Confederation and to further increase equity.”
Efficiency was the key to better earnings in the letter business, where the addressed letters business continues its slow downward slide, decreasing by 1.5 percent in 2010. Promotional mailings have, however, helped make up the loss.
Retail finance accounts for 61 percent of Swiss Post’s business, bringing in CHF571m in 2010, up sharply from CHF441m in 2009. Swiss Post has benefitted to some extent from a drain of customers away from UBS since it was bailed out by the government in 2008.
Swiss Post employs more than 45,000 people and works in four main markets: communications, logistics, retail finance and public passenger transport.
Bernese Alps, the view from the Bern to Lausanne train
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The World Economic Forum, which organizes the annual mega-politics and business meeting in Davos, has given Switzerland another top prize in the rankings that have become a side business for the Geneva-based group. Switzerland ranks number one in the WEF’s world competitiveness report from September 2010, and now it gets the top honour for travel and tourism competitiveness, beating out Germany and France.
The travel top ranking considers the most attractive environment for developing the fast-growing tourism and travel sector. Infrastruture, travel and good use of natural resources are among the factors reviewed.
Your guide to a holiday-season weekend in Zurich, an easy train ride from Lake Geneva
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Zurich, December, view over the Limmat, universities above the Niederdorf
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The charm of Zurich is at its brightest in the lead-up to Christmas. Daytime offers plenty of activities for children and adults alike, but the real fun starts in the evening. The entire city appears to spill out of offices and shops to socialize in the snowy streets, tucking into cozy cafes and restaurants when the weather turns too brisk. It’s an easy two hours and 50 minute by train from Geneva, 30 minutes less from Lausanne, making it the perfect mini-vacation for people in the Lake Geneva area who want to leave home without the cost and fatigue of going abroad.
Swarovski crystals cover Zurich main station giant tree
The week before Christmas sees Zurich shoppers filling the stores and boutiques, as they do in any big city. Shops are open Sunday 19 December throughout the city and they are open later than usual in the evenings up to Christmas. The Bahnhof, or main train station, has what is arguably the best Christmas market in Switzerland, with a great selection of gifts, but there are also scores of small Christmas stands sprinkled around the city and small markets that are good fun.
Be sure to go back to the Bahnhof in the evening, when the locals invade it, sipping hot gluwein, the spicy scent of which fills the air. The giant Swarovski Christmas tree is an astonishing site, with over 5,000 crystal decorations. Given that these start at CHF130 in the Swarovski shop on the Bahnhofstrasse, the cost of the tree as well as its beauty are enough to make you pause. The tree itself is a 35-year-old Zurich pine from the forest above the city.
Your best starting point is at the main train station’s tourism office, where you can get excellent maps, brochures and the Zurich City Card (see below). The Bahnhof station can be confusing at the best of times, and renovations don’t make it easier to get your bearings. Do what the locals do and look up: the huge, colourful Guardian Angel (Schutzengel) by artist Niki de St Phalle serves as a good meeting point and reference.
Zurich Bahnhof, travellers' nana, "Guardian Angel"
The popular Nana figure weighs 1.2 tons and is 11 metres high. It was offered to the station in 1997 by Securitas to celebrate the 150th birthday of Swiss railways. The tourism office’s “i” is a few metres away.
Three very special treats during the holidays: extraordinary Picasso retrospective, ice skating, the Singing Tree
French workers are on strike again Tuesday 12 October, for the third time in the past 30 days, over government plans to raise the age for pensions from 65 to 67, and the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. But today’s strikes have a different tone, with major unions scheduled to vote at the end of the day over starting rolling strikes, which would mean advance notice for one-day strikes that could be renewed, by vote, at the end of each day.
Half of French flights have been cancelled Tuesday, and rail service and public transport are badly disrupted. A three-week-old strike in Marseilles is blocking oil tankers, pushing up the price of diesel throughout Europe, according to the BBC.
Moritz Leuenberger, Switzerland's Socialist minister for the environment, energy, transport, resigns
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Moritz Leuenberger, Socialist Party member who has been one of Switzerland’s seven federal councillors for the past 15 years, announced Friday morning that he will step down at the end of 2010. Leuenberger, 63, from Zurich, has headed one department, the Detec (environment, transport and energy) during his tenure and his left-leaning views have had a significant impact on the country’s approach to climate change.
He insisted in a press conference that journalists should not seek to find tactical reasons, that after 15 years as part of the government, he feels the time has come to leave. Leuenberger was scheduled to be the next president, taking up the post that rotates among the federal councillors in January 2011. Micheline Calmy-Rey, also a Socialist, from Geneva, will now become president in 2011, for the second time.
Traffic jam on the A9 above Vevey
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Use of transport by individuals has doubled in Switzerland from 1970 to 2008, but growing use of transport for merchandise shows an even more dramatic change, tripling in 30 years. The figures are part of a new statistical study of shifts in transport use in Switzerland, released Monday 21 June by the Swiss federal government. More complete statistics on transport will be compiled partly as a result of the impact on the economy of the Iceland volcanic eruption earlier this year.
The study shows that of the 5.4 million motor vehicles registered in Switzerland in 2009, 4 million are private cars.
And while greater use of transport provides several benefits to the economy, it comes at a price:
one-third of energy consumption in Switzerland and 37 percent of CO2 comes from transport
nearly 21,000 road accidents in 2008 caused injuries to people
the total cost of road traffic in 2005 (most recent year figures are available) was CHF70.5 billion, and rail traffic total costs that year were CHF11.4 billion.
A general strike Wednesday 5 May has pulled Greece to a standstill as Greeks resist austerity measures announced by the government. Planes, trains and ferries went on strike for 24 hours at midnight, following the lead of the public sector, which began a 48-hour strike Tuesday, crippling the economy.
US President Barack Obama has flown to New Orleans, Louisiana, to reassure residents of the area following the accident where an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded and sank, releasing thousands of barrels of oil. The slicks from the accident, 40 miles from the Louisiana shore, have been moving inland, threatening the fishing industry and potentially creating the worst such disaster in US history. Obama pointed out that the responsibility lies entirely with BP, which will foot the bill. The bulk of the slick is now just nine miles (a little over 5km) off the coastline.
Meanwhile, supertankers that ship crude to the US may face tighter regulations in the wake of the disaster, reports Bloomberg.
Background, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: New Orleans Times-Picayune, Times, UK,
Swiss food and drink cost you a little more in September 2009.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s inflation rate fell slightly in September, down 0.9 percent, to an annual rate of 2.9 percent. The Consumer Price Index remained stable but the overall CPI is the result of a balance between imports,which have gone down in price and Swiss-made goods and services, which have risen slightly. It also hides differences that include falling prices for housing, energy and transport but rising prices for teaching, communications, food and drink, healthcare.
Subway trains in London, England are likely to come to a halt for two days, with drivers on strike from 19:00 Tuesday 9 June until late Thursday. Their union is calling for higher pay. PR-Inside
British Airways last week told staff that it is seeking 2,000 voluntary redundancies among the 14,000 flight crew members, raising fears of a strike by airline staff this summer, according to the Times. The company announced a £401 pre-tax loss 22 May, the worst in the company’s history, due to a mix of falling business travel, a high pound and high fuel costs. Guardian
Hans Erni, age 100, in front of earlier self-portrait
Lucerne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Articulate, still handsome, far more interested in debating the state of the world than in basking in the recognition that has at last come to him: this is Hans Erni at the ripe age of 100. Visitors tend to walk up to him, awestruck by his age, and walk away from him having forgotten his age because he gives them too many other things to think about.
A career spanning 80 years, the globe – with peace an enduring theme
Erni is one of Switzerland’s finest 20th (and 21st) century artists, but he has only relatively recently been acknowledged as fully as he deserves. His career, spanning nearly 80 years, was celebrated in February with a major retrospective in Martigny at the Gianadda Foundation. The Kunstmuseum in Lucerne 24 May opened the first public museum showing of his work since 1979 with a collection that traces the development of the artist.
Erni was honoured in Geneva Saturday 6 June: his most recent project, a 60-metre peace fresco at the entrance to the United Nations building, the Palais des Nations, was unveiled at an outdoor ceremony open to the public. The year 2009 is a series of such events, throughout Switzerland – and Erni finds the energy to travel and participate in several of them.
Politics took their toll
It is not that Erni is an unknown artist: quite the opposite. He has a large popular following, his work is housed in the Hans Erni museum in Lucerne (an extension of the country’s most popular museum, the Transportation Museum) since 1979, and for decades he has been the guest of governments around the world.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.8 percent in the first three months of 2009 compared to the last quarter of 2008. The drop was 2.4 percent compared to the same period in 2008. Foreign trade was the main culprit, says the federal government: exports of goods fells by 6.6 percent and of services by 2.3 percent.
Electric bike manufacturers exhibit products, Neuchatel
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland is setting a successful example for its “soft mobility” meeting zones, with more than 500 in cities and towns across the country, according to Matthieu Chenal, spokesperson for SwissEnergie, which is co-hosting with the city of Neuchatel the second National Mobility Fair, 15-16 May. Chenal, in a lengthy interview with Le Temps, talks about objections to and ultimate success of the zones.
The fair brings together experts in the field of environmentally-friendly transport and exhibitors who display a range of eco-mobility products. A highlight will be the Saturday exhibition of low-fuel use vehicles. The fair also brings together companies and communes in an effort to encourage businesses to be involved in finding eco-friendly solutions for the company’s but also its employees’ transport needs.
Update, 20:25 Tom Daschle withdraws, saying the health job is too big for someone who is a distraction. US President Obama said Tuesday he regrets but accepts Daschle’s withdrawal as the nominee to lead the health department. Tom Daschle has come under fire over his income tax record. Other US appointments, NPR The US Senate 2 February voted for Eric Holder as attorney general, making him the first African-American to hold the key post, and giving him responsibility to decide which prisoners will leave Guantanamo Bay, when and to go where.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Funding has been approved for 16 urgent urban agglomeration transport projects, just in time to meet a 31 December deadline for federal monies to be freed for them. The list includes several key Lake Geneva region projects.
After four days of protests over the death of a boy shot by police, a general strike has further “crippled” Greece, with airlines “severely affected” and public transport virtually at a stop. The strike, planned before the boy’s death and the protests, was called for increased pay and to object to planned government spending cuts. International Herald Tribune
