US STUDY TRIP ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND MOBILITY TO SWITZERLAND
US STUDY TRIP ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND MOBILITY TO SWITZERLAND
Together with the Swiss Embassy in Washington DC, the Consulates General and Honorary Consuls in the United States, and the swissnex US network, swissnex Boston (Remo Steinmetz) and Presence Switzerland (Lisa Schilling) organized a Study Trip on Public Transportation and Mobility to Switzerland end of August.
The participants came from the mayor’s office, transportation agencies, or think tanks from Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Denver and Seattle.
Picture: The study group on public transportation and mobility in front of the Alptransit base tunnel in Erstfeld, Switzerland (Michael Ennis, Center for Transportation Policy Washington - Kwanza Hall, Atlanta City Council - Carter Rohan, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency - Michael Diamond, World Resources Chicago - Remo Steinmetz, swissnex Boston, Consulate of Switzerland - Dr. Sibylle Ambühl, Presence Switzerland - Joseph Iacobucci, Transport Chicago - Bernard Zimmer, Colorado Rail Association - Rohit Aggarwala, City of New York - David Yale, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation - Hans Reber, Transportdienste, Presence Switzerland
The one week program of the study trip provided insights in the following fields of Public Transportation and Mobility in Switzerland:
- Infrastructure (tunnel, bridges, maintenance) and rolling material (trains, handling cargo)
- Mobility as an integration of different means of transportation (train, bus, tram, ship, and car sharing), with a focus on timetable, tariffs, role of the different jurisdictions (federal state, cantons, municipalities) and private companies
- Long term financial aspects of mobility - New concepts of mobility and transportation in rural and urban areas
- Science, technology and education in transportation planning and mobility
- Policy making: Direct democracy and federalism, sustainability, economic development, international relations, etc.
One participant of the study trip summarized his experience after the week as follows: “As a result each team member has gained a personal appreciation for transportation and mobility in Switzerland. It has opened doors to contacts that may foster new collaboration between Swiss and American business counterparts. As opportunities for Swiss / American collaboration develop I will be in full support as I am certain that each of the other team members will also.”
A special thanks belongs to Sibylle Ambühl of Presence Switzerland, who not only accompanied the group, but gave the participants very helpful insights, interesting comments and valuable background information on the one week program.
