Swiss parliament to scrutinise Verkehr ’45 expansion plan

Switzerland’s parliament will closely scrutinise the federal government’s Verkehr ’45 rail and road expansion plan after a sharp assessment by the Swiss Federal Audit Office, SRF reports.

The audit office said some of the plan’s calculations, including investment costs, were outdated in places and that the projects’ economic viability had been overstated. It concluded that the Federal Council’s proposal had significant shortcomings.

FDP Council of States member Joseph Dittli said he was surprised by the severity of the assessment. Parliament would examine the proposal closely when it considers it next year, he said, including whether the Federal Council had acted on the audit office’s recommendations and taken its warnings seriously.

Dittli said the figures, the cost-benefit analysis and the financing arrangements all needed to be questioned.

Green Party National Council member Florence Brenzikofer said parliamentary committees would now have to examine the criticism of the rail and road expansion plan in detail. She said the report confirmed the Greens’ position that an overall service plan, including timetables, should be developed before decisions were made on the additional infrastructure required.

Brenzikofer also criticised the timing of the report’s publication. She said it had been available since June and was dated the end of July, meaning it should have been published before the consultation on the 2027 proposal began. With nearly four weeks of consultation still remaining, she said it was now too late to apply the brakes. Before the consultation, the audit office had called for the Federal Council’s expansion plans to be suspended.

Swiss People’s Party National Council member Benjamin Giezendanner continued to call for the Verkehr ’45 plan to be fundamentally revised. He said he had demanded from the outset that the project be suspended.

Giezendanner referred to the rail network condition report, which said 10 billion francs would be needed to maintain existing infrastructure. That report would not be released until a year after the current proposal, he said, arguing that a pause and an overall assessment were needed to allow time for sound decisions.

Centre Party National Council member Martin Candinas was less critical and said he still supported the overall Verkehr ’45 project. However, costs had to be monitored and parliament should not add further construction projects to the package, he said. Otherwise, there could be no funds left for new decisions over the next 10 or 20 years. It was also important to preserve funding for maintaining existing infrastructure.

The Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications defended the expansion plan to the audit office. It said, among other things, that the plan involved strategic decisions that were not based solely on economic viability calculations.

After the consultation, the Federal Council will present the completed package. Parliament will discuss it next year. The plan includes projects such as expanding Lucerne railway station and adding six motorway lanes between Aarau East and Birrfeld.