Visit in Basel and Uri First visit of Members of the EU Parliament to the HGV control centre in Ripshausen/CH

At the invitation of the Alpine Initiative, several Members of the EU Parliament, staff of the EU Transport Commissioner and Vice-President of the EU Commission Siim Kallas, as well as representatives of the secretariat of the EU Parliament’s Transport Committee visited the HGV centre in Ripshausen near Erstfeld (canton of Uri, Switzerland) for the first time.

During a 2-day trip across Switzerland, the Alpine Initiative informed its guests from the European Parliament and the EU Commission of the Swiss transport policy that aims to transfer traffic from road to rail. To round off the visit, Uri’s police commander Reto Habermacher and his staff demonstrated how they control the trucks on the Gotthard route. The practical explanations met with a lot of interest.

Besides the visit to the HGV centre, the tour also included a visit to the building site of the new Gotthard rail base tunnel in Erstfeld and several talks on the transfer policy. The information trip started in Basel, where Mayor Guy Morin welcomed the participants and talked about the role of Basel in freight transport. More than half of the trucks that cross Switzerland’s northern border pass through Basel. Markus Liechti, deputy director of the Management of Affairs unit of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport and Werner Marti, chairman of the board of directors of Alp Transit Gotthard explained their position regarding the Swiss transfer policy.

Thanks to the support of the population and the acceptance of the Alpine Initiative in 1994, Switzerland has pioneered the freight transfer policy in Europe. In order to achieve the desired transfer of freight from road to rail, it is of vital importance that the EU implements a similar policy. A targeted transfer policy not only depends on a good infrastructure, but also requires suitable software – the Alpine Crossing Exchange. At the end of the trip, the Alpine Initiative asked the participants to commit themselves to a more environmentally friendly transport policy on a European level and to support the introduction of the Alpine Crossing Exchange.