Too many half fare cards and GA travel cards?: “Many cable cars don’t think they are bought by Alliance Swisspass”

Then double egalitarian. For him, public transport with trains, trams, buses and postbuses is of course extremely important – but only as a means of transport from A to B. “However, in our view, the current tariff arrangements are no longer current for recreational trips such as cable cars,” says Ebneter.

Alliance SwissPass membership means that tariffs and regulations must be applied the same by all shipping carriers. “With these specifications, if we raise the price by one franc, the result is only about 47 centimeters per guest,” Ebneter calculates. With such features, it is not possible to make prices dynamic as in winter sports areas, hotels or flights. That’s unsatisfactory, “even if we’re not considering any dynamism at the moment,” Ebneter said.

Not only that: the Half Charge travel card has been heavily supplemented with discounts for seniors, juniors or loyalty. “This provides less money per customer in the half-rate pot and thus less compensation as the number of half-rate customers increases,” Ebneter says.

High costs, little support

With the cable car ride, the guest not only pays for transportation, but also contributes to infrastructure costs. Unlike transport companies in the valley or in the city, a ropeway company has to cover these costs itself. These include, for example, the development of the mountain with water and electricity connections, public restrooms or barrier-free facilities at the summit as stipulated by the federal government.

The majority of infrastructure costs for trains, trams, buses or coaches are borne by the federal government, cantons and municipalities. This is not the case for ropeways: they usually pay 100 percent of the costs themselves. “No ropeway in the Appenzell area receives support from the cantons or municipalities,” says Ebneter. At the same time, Alliance Swisspass has repeatedly introduced discounts for customer groups in regulations in recent years, and these discounts are little or no compensation.

As with railroad companies, there are ropeway companies that want to put infrastructure costs on the federal government. “This is not an option for us because we want to remain completely independent,” Ebneter says. Hohe Kasten does not want to “maintain and manage complex systems with cross subsidies or discounts”. It assumes that with a future unit price of 40 francs, the railways will be able to cover all costs themselves.

Any more to follow soon?

Alliance Swisspass members can notify Swisspass that they will be leaving at the end of the year by the end of June. Only the Hoher Kasten cable car departs this year, as Alliance Swisspass has confirmed at Blick’s request. At the same time, several companies such as Télé Villars-Gryon-Diablerets SA joined the Half-Mouse travel card.

But Ebneter knows: “The issue has been a hot topic for the 100 ropeways on Alliance Swisspass for several years and many people don’t think Alliance Swisspass has caught up with them.” Ebneter says that because ropeways are so diverse and only make up a very small part of the Alliance Swisspass, ropeway concerns cannot be fully included or “of little importance to big players like SBB.”

No other cable car has so far decided to take such a radical step. But what’s going on in Hoher Kasten is being watched closely. Christian Laesser (59), head of the tourism research center and professor at the University of St. Gallen, can understand Hoher Kasten’s decision: “Exit is probably always a problem for other mountain railways.” However, he does not expect a general exit from the cable cars: “For many cable cars, conditions are very different from those for Hoher Kasten.” For example, very high priced railroads and a high percentage of foreign visitors without GA and half fare cards have a clear advantage. For example Jungfraujoch or Zermatt.

Ultimately, railroads would have to analyze the advantages and limitations of Alliance Swisspass membership and decide how best to implement price optimization. “Many Swiss tourism companies realize that there is still room for improvement when it comes to pricing,” Laesser says. For this reason, pricing and therefore discount systems are now being tested.