Switzerland Versus the United States, an Interesting Difference in Perspectives regarding Democracy and Investment in Transportation Infrastructure

© 2010 Peter Free

 

15 October 2010

 

Switzerland broke through the last rock of its 57 kilometer-long Gotthard Base Tunnel today ─ rail traffic to begin in 2017

 

The 14-year, $10.6 billion Swiss Gotthard Base Tunnel is part of Switzerland’s AlpTransit project, which began in 1992.

 

Comparatively high-speed rail traffic will begin in 2016 or 2017.

 

Contrasts with the United States ─ (i) long-term planning, (ii) democracy, and (iii) taxation

 

The Gotthard tunnel achievement contrasts with the United States’ failure to maintain, much less improve, its crumbling transportation infrastructure.

 

In addition to simply completing the longest railway bore in the world, the Swiss are planning to have trains move through it at 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph).

 

Completion of the Gotthard tunnel bore also distinguishes the Swiss people’s clout, as delivered by Switzerland’s democracy, from the American public’s impotence, as problematically exerted in the United States’ democratically-disguised plutocracy.

 

The Swiss were willing to tax (i) themselves, (ii) heavy traffic moving through the Alps, and (iii) gasoline in order to pay for the tunnel’s construction.  The Associated Press reported in Forbes that Swiss voters are paying more than $1300 each for the tunnel.

 

Switzerland’s long-term planning stands out

 

Today, Americans seem to plan poorly for the future.  Favoring, instead, to twist and dodge in the short-term.  That trait is harming our economy and destroying our future economic competitiveness.

 

The Swiss seem to be different.  AlpTransit began in a 1992 (18 years ago), when 64 percent of Swiss voters accepted it in a nationwide referendum.

 

Afterward, a 1994 environmental popular initiative overcame the Swiss government’s resistance to the environmental protection against excessive freight traffic in the Alps that the majority of the population favored.   This popular initiative added Article 84 to the constitution of the Swiss Confederation.

 

Article 84 required preservation of the nation’s alpine environment via (a) prohibition of increased road capacity in the Alps and (b) removal of border-to-border road freight onto railways.

 

Unlike the United States Congress, which often refuses to appropriate the money to implement some of its own statutes, the Swiss government efficiently implemented the spirit of the changes that the population had demanded.  Tunnel construction began in 1996.

 

But reluctant neighboring countries may hamper the Swiss effort

 

Forbes reported that local opposition in Italy and Germany are threatening to undermine completion of the Swiss railway at its non-Swiss terminal ends.

 

Lessons for the United States?

 

The timing of the Gotthard bore’s breakthrough contrasts starkly with New Jersey Governor Christie’s cancellation of the Hudson River tunnel a few days ago.

 

On the one hand, the Swiss today completed the bore for a futuristic high-speed rail tunnel longer than any other in the world ─ and on the other, Americans cancelled a short tunnel that is necessary today and would also have provided many Americans with work in a failing economy.

 

The difference in long-term thinking and planning is enormous.  And un-American.