Green liberals advocate a Federal Bureau of Mobility

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The world is becoming increasingly complex. Politicians notice that too. For example, in the coordinated planning of rail and road traffic.

Although the cantons and municipalities are explicitly asked to plan projects with different modes of transport, this is not done consistently from the point of view of the two GLP National Councilors Katja Christ (50) and Barbara Schaffner (54) at the federal level. The Federal Council should change that.

A federal agency for all traffic issues

The two green-liberals each submitted a proposal this week. In these advances, the two come to the conclusion that both the current planning and supervision and the financing of the road and rail infrastructure are no longer up to date.

For this reason, the Federal Road Service (Astra) and the Federal Service for Traffic (BAV) will be merged into one Federal Bureau for Mobility. And on the other hand, they propose to also pool the financial pots: the Railway Infrastructure Fund (BIF) and the National Road and Agglomeration Transport Fund (NAF) will be merged into a National Mobility Fund.

Today, the federal government finances the operation, maintenance and expansion of the railway infrastructure through the BIF. The national roads and major urban transport projects are in turn paid for from the NAF. According to the two parliamentarians, it is becoming increasingly difficult to place mobility infrastructure projects in one of these two pots. After all, public transport and individual road traffic often go hand in hand, explains Simonetta Sommaruga (62), who has since resigned as Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.

That is why the SP Bundesrat had campaigned for transport hubs: it argued for the construction of a large parking lot on the outskirts of the city, so that people can park their cars there and take the tram to the city centre. An example of this is the French city of Bordeaux, where there is ample parking at the tram station for those coming from the Médoc.

“Politics must become forward-looking”

And Katja Christ also says: “We are stuck with old ideas about traffic. We must stop seeing the different modes of transport and their infrastructure and needs as independent players.”

Politics must become far-sighted for them, foresighted and arranged in such a way that innovations become possible and can be fitted directly into the system.

Setting the course for the day after tomorrow

After all, according to Christ, who knows whether future trams will still need rails? Or is the Hyperloop not coming soon? What is meant is a high-speed transport system in which capsules travel at nearly the speed of sound in a largely evacuated tube.

“Today we are trying to set the course for the day after tomorrow,” says Katja Christ. Because such an adjustment would require a constitutional amendment and it would take years before it would be implemented. (Okay)

Source:Blick