this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2025
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Fifty years ago, Switzerland was poised to become as car-dependent as anywhere in North America. Now it has the best transit system in the world. What’s the secret to this alpine nation’s success (www.theglobeandmail.com)
submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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This was a revelation. For just over $6,000 a year, the Swiss can travel anywhere, reliably, in comfort, and get where they’re going on time. (In neighbouring Austria, where the cost of living isn’t so high, the equivalent national rail pass costs just €1,100 – or $1,600.) In Canada and the United States, the average cost of car ownership – including payments, parking tickets, insurance, parking, and gas – is more than $12,000 a year. That’s a high price to pay for a system that delivers congestion, traffic deaths and injuries, air pollution – and, more often than not, gets us to work or school late. For half the price North Americans pay, the Swiss get reliable, anywhere-to-anywhere mobility.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago

The secret is "not having politicians that bend over backwards for car companies for over a century while your country is still in development" and "having people in influential potitions or states that understand taxes aren't inherently bad" with just a Powerpuff girls size dash of "the wealthy like to keep poor people in their place and poor public transit and education keep things that way"

That's why no amount of "it's actually cheaper to do it the other way than you already pay and here's 10,000 studies and real world examples all over the world that prove it" will convince the people who can change anything.

They know.

They simply like things they way they are.

Hell, they kick the poor down a couple pegs where possible.

[–] Majorllama 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The secret is having a over a third of your country living within a few kilometers of your largest city and more than half the country live within a few kilometers of the capitol and largest city.

It is nearly the exact same size as Virginia and shares almost exactly the same population. They just have the majority of their citizens living in or around two cities that aren't that far from each other (hour and half drive or less than an hour by train between the two cities).

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

So what you're saying is that Virginia could have public transport on the level of Switzerland. I imagine it would even be cheaper since Virginia is much less mountainous.

Edit: even economically they are not radically different
Virginia: GDP $759.2B, per capita $86,747
Switzerland: GDP $942.2B, per capita $106,097

[–] Majorllama 5 points 1 day ago

Yeah but you would have to convince Virginians to live closer to one place instead of being scattered to the wind across their state lol.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In Germany, it's currently 696€ a year to use all local and regional public transport (metro, bus, regional train, etc.) nationally, 4899€ a year to also use all long distance public transport (IC, ICE).

Unless you travel around the country a lot, the first plus a long distance discount card is usually enough to get around.

Still, there has been too little investment into public transport for decades, and the 696€ Ticket is partially funded by the federal government, so let's see whether that lasts past the next election. All in all, could be better, but could also be a lot worse.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Same same, I don’t know why they talked about the 6k pass (AG 1st class is 6500, 2nd is 4000) as it isn’t widely used. Most of those are offered to employees at management level by their companies, or by rich people who doesn’t care about money and doesn’t travel by car (so maybe 5 people?)

The rest of the population use the 2nd class AG only if they travel a lot on IC.

And most of us just have a cantonal pass + half fare card for long distances. For my canton it’s 500chf annually (public price, I have it for 370) and for the quality of Swiss public transport I think this is very reasonable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For my canton it’s 500chf annually

Ah, I see why that's way better. Here in Aargau it's 2700, feels like you might as well get the GA at that point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Holy shit! And 3300.- with Zurich, that’s crazy. Yeah you can totally go for the GA at that price point, and you can move during weekends.

I guess living in a city canton makes it cheaper as the network is smaller with more customers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Uh, the GA transport pass is more like $3900, if you pay per year, not 6k. And a lot of people get discounts from their jobs or other things.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

6k (6500 chf I believe) is the first class GA.

Besides discounts, most people don’t use a GA (that covers 100% of public transport types in 100% of the country) but a way cheaper local pass, like city to city.

GA is awesome tho, but you really need to travel a lot across the country every weeks to really need that.