February 2008 - National Council’s Transport Committee “clearly in favour of ACE”

The National Council’s Committee for Transportation and Telecommunications (CTT) decided to consider the draft legislation for freight traffic and subsequently debated the Freight Traffic Transfer Act. It wants to give the Federal Council (Swiss government) the power to negotiate an Alpine Crossing Exchange.

Consideration of the draft legislation on freight traffic and preliminary decisions “The National Council’s Committee for Transportation and Telecommunications has decided to consider the draft legislation for freight traffic, debated the Freight Traffic Transfer Act and taken preliminary decisions concerning the corresponding financial framework. We want the law to adhere to the transfer goal and further reduce the number of lorries that cross the Swiss Alps to 650,000. To enable this, the Commission clearly supports an Alpine Crossing Exchange.

Transfer of freight traffic: postponed rather than resolved

The Alpine Initiative views the decisions in a less optimistic light. The National Council did, indeed, improve on the decisions of the Council of States on several points. However, it continues to postpone the transfer from road to rail, and the introduction of the ACE is not compulsory.