Alpen-Initiative
The association Alpine-Initiative
Former Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger
Swiss Minister for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (1995 – 2010)
“The Alpine Initiative is the permanent thorn in the side of Swiss transport policy. It tirelessly spurs us all on, so that nobody forgets the mandate for transferring traffic from road to rail and so that the green laurels of 1994 never wilt. This thorn burns in our flesh and sometimes even inflames it – when the Alpine Initiative does not want to acknowledge the first small fruits of our policy and contemptuously casts them before our opponents. The fruit was hung high, very high indeed. But in 2004, rail freight transit traffic grew faster than road freight transit traffic, proving the fruit has at least begun to ripen. And, so that we can pick it as soon as possible, the association will continue relentlessly to make its presence felt. This is absolutely necessary, because without its gnawing pain we will probably never be able to savour the sweet fruit of the transfer of traffic from road to rail.”
