Evidence of meeting #13 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was transit.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
No, no, that's not it. Ha, ha!
Liberal
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
The people in the government don't understand my French because they speak English, but that's another story.
What I am saying is that all players, be they from the company, the canton or the city, have a specific direction in mind. The relationship with the public that is defined by participatory democracy often entails a ratification process of the direction specified by the players. Is that what you were saying?
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
Yes, maybe. I am going to continue. We created this project together. We then had two referendums. We held a vote in the City of Bern, because the city was supposed to pay. Then we held a vote in the canton of Bern, because we also needed the canton's funding and, most importantly, we wanted money for the infrastructure. But we could only receive money for infrastructure if the cantons also provide funding. We held two votes—it was a bit more complicated, but I am going to cut the story short. The public was really in favour of the streetcar. The streetcar is something concrete. When we received the money, after the votes, the new streetcar line was built. Ever since the streetcar line was opened last year, things have been working very well.
Liberal
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
Would it be fair to say that it is crucial to get the public involved when implementing a national or integrated public transit strategy? The situation in Canada is obviously a bit different from the situation in Switzerland. Even so, based on your experience, do you think that this way of doing things could be implemented? Your districts are our municipalities, and your cantons are our provinces. Do you think that your way of doing things could work for Canada?
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
It is hard for me to say whether that could work in Canada. But I think it is crucial to get the public involved in the decision-making process. At the same time, that could be done differently, not necessarily through a vote.
For example, for the Tram Bern West project, we formed a group of people from all parties, district representatives, who met a number of times. We really tried to hear them out on their concerns, what is important to them and their ideas for the lines. For example, very old trees had to be cut down, which stirred a lot of emotion. We had a real discussion and I think that's important. So it doesn't have to be through a vote, but the public has to be involved.
Let me give you as an example the Stuttgart 21 project, the new railway station in Germany. Stuttgart is a big city, not far from Switzerland, where a new station was built.
It is an underground station.
That's a major project already underway and now there are big demonstrations because the public does not want it. They started discussions, but they also started to build.
So I think that it is very important and more useful to talk with the public before starting a project, sooner rather than later. It is also important that those projects really have a solid basis.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Thank you very much for being with us.
Are these transport companies that operate the system privately owned?
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
Well, there are very few that are privately owned. Here in Switzerland most companies are owned by the state. They are owned by either the federation--for example, our biggest railway company--or the cantons. Of course we also have some mixtures, so some of them are owned by the Swiss federation and the cantons together. We have almost no private public companies.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
You say here on the mix of costs associated with the various modes of public transportation, for example, that 19% of total regional transport is subsidized. City transport is at 16% and infrastructure is at 62%. How is the rest of it financed? Is it through payers?
November 21st, 2011 / 4:05 p.m.
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
On the slide on page 9, you will see that if you take all the subsidies, they are distributed within these four, so 62% goes to infrastructure. For example, with infrastructure, another part is financed by ticket revenues. We have to pay track prices. A little bit of the price customers goes to pay is for using the tracks--
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
I'm sorry to interrupt. Just so I understand, the total there adds up to 100%. Okay. I understand.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
The Wall Street Journal did a study to determine the freedom of various economies around the world. It determined that Switzerland had the freest economy in Europe and the fifth-freest economy in the entire world.
Obviously the success of the Swiss economy is based largely on the fact that is has such a preponderance of economic freedom and free enterprise. What do you see as the role of free enterprise in the provision of mass transit?
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
I am not sure whether I really understand the question. Does your question concern private companies or do you mean in general?
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
It's on private sector involvement in the provision of mass transit.
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
First, maybe I will say a few words about mass transit. If we're talking about public transport, it is very important if people are commuting. For example, in Berne-Zurich we have a lot of commuters, and we have a modal split share of 80%. So 80% of people travelling between Zurich and Berne use public transport and only 20% use private cars.
Here in Switzerland, public transport is very important and is very much used. We could say that public transport here really contributes a lot to our economic wealth, because it's quick, we don't have traffic jams, and people can use it. Public transport has a very important task.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Thank you for that.
Are all the public transit workers unionized?
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
Do they have unions?
Conservative
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
You mean...?
How do you say that in French?
Deputy Director, Union des transports publics de Suisse
You would like to know
whether they are active members of unions?
