Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
As the photo above suggests, the theme of Thursday’s briefing is a Swiss classic: trains. Today, we bring news of rebellious ticket machines, government outings, and the imminent re-opening of the world’s longest rail tunnel.
In the news: failed coup, slight tremor, Eurovision.
- The Swiss foreign ministry today condemned yesterday’s attempted coup in Bolivia, in which the military stormed the presidential palace in La Paz (see photo above). The European Union, the United Nations, and various Latin American countries have also criticised the failed power grab.
- An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 on the Richter scale was felt across Switzerland last night. The epicentre was just across the northern border in Germany, in a region where quakes are not uncommon. Many people were woken up, but no damage was reported.
- The race to host the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is heating up. Basel, Geneva, Zurich and Bern/Biel are all keen, with the latter two announcing candidacies today. A decision will be taken in August. ESC is coming to Switzerland after rapper Nemo won the 2024 event in Sweden last month.
Swiss trains part one: revolution or burn out?
The fears of AI pessimists seemed to materialise yesterday evening in Switzerland, when ticket machines in train stations “went on strike” for two hours, according to the Keystone-SDA news agency. The Federal Railways’ online ticketing app also refused to work. Revolution! Had the machines finally developed a mind of their own and decided to stand up for their rights? Were they demanding a pay increase to keep pace with inflation? To be turned off at night and not work cruel 24-hour shifts anymore?
Rather, it turns out that the German verb “streiken” has a few (related) meanings. Not only does it refer to work stoppages as part of a labour dispute, it also colloquially means “to break down”. Instead of downing tools in protest, the Railways’ technology had simply malfunctioned for a few hours – or, in another possible translationExternal link of “streiken”, “conked out”. In fairness to the machines: in a country where employees rarely strike but often get burnt out, this is also a very human reaction.
Swiss trains part two: ministers go off the rails in Valais.
One group completely unaffected by such ticketing mishaps is the Swiss government. As one of the seven federal ministers, you get various perks – one of them being an annual first-class nationwide rail pass for yourself and your spouse. The free pass, which costs CHF6,520, is not without detractors. In April, parliamentarians spentExternal link much taxpayer-funded time debating whether the taxpayer-funded passes were still necessary – in the end, they agreed they were, despite scepticism about whether ministers even used them.
Do they use them? Today, at least, they did, by travelling en masse to canton Valais, for their annual government jolly – a sort of school trip for adults, in which ministers take off their ties, let down their hair and enjoy each other’s company for two full days (while hoping that nothing big happens in Bern in the meantime). And why Valais? It’s the home of current president Viola Amherd, RTS public television reminds usExternal link – and it’s also a Swiss wine mecca, which makes it a decent spot for a relaxed atmosphere (see photo). Thanks to their rail cards, at least the ministers won’t have to drive home.
Swiss trains part three: Gotthard back in action.
It must be tough at times to work at the Swiss Federal Railways, especially in the logistics department. Not only do they have to maintain a reputation for punctuality, increasingly they have to do it in the face of big obstacles. This week the issue was how to mitigate the temporary closure of the San Bernardino pass, due to the road being washed away by flooding. As we wrote in yesterday’s briefing, this could mean severe summer traffic jams on other north-south routes. It could also mean an uptick in freight volume hoping to pass through the Gotthard Base Tunnel.
The problem there, of course, is that the Gotthard tunnel is also only half-working right now. One track remains closed after a train derailed last summer. Can the Swiss transport network take the strain? Today, at least, there was some good news for all this mobility: after long repair works, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is on track to be re-opened fully in September, the Railways announced. The bad news is that the bill for fixing the damage – and for lost revenue – comes to some CHF150 million; lets see if that translates into yet another hike in ticket prices next year.
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