All Aboard Canada

Chocolate, cheese and clocks are old news.

The Swiss are still masters at their traditional items.  But the best thing they do now is move people.  The transportation system in Switzerland is a model for the world and WILL be coming to a bus/train stop near you.  It has to eventually.  Why not now?  High speed rail isn't getting any cheaper.

Train Station - Winterthur, Switzerland

The chicken/egg question about which comes first, the service or the demand, has been obliterated in this country of about 7 million tidy people.  Admittedly, the perfect combination of density of population and high gas prices (about $2 Canadian per litre) prompted the move to the rail life.  That it works perfectly here doesn't mean it can't work, or isn't the right thing for Canada.

The Swiss transportation system works for two reasons:

  - it's unfailingly reliable

  - public transit is option one for most people, not a compromise to owning a car.

TIMING
  You can truly set your watch to the train schedules.  If the train is scheduled to leave at 7:12, it will do so.  Connections are easily made and you can dance around the country by train easier than you can drive in many cases.

DEMOCRATIC

Geneva Train Station - Switzerland

  Even the smallest villages get service in this country that often governs by referendum.  Trains stop in even the smallest towns regularly.  Hourly buses (more often during peak times) pick up the slack for any of the others and with good planning you can be dropped off a few steps from any door in Switzerland.

HOW TO REPLACE AUTO JOBS?
28,143 Swiss are employed by the SBB, the national train/bus service.   This sophisticated network not only helps tourists, it has created it's own economy.  It takes a large network of people to maintain the kind of service levels offered here and the SBB is a source of pride and jobs to many in Switzerland.

SELF POLICING.
 On many commuter trains tickets are not even checked.  You will get a quizzical look from the Swiss when asked if there is abuse of this.  It's almost unthinkable to get on a train without a paid ticket.  Most people would purchase monthly, yearly passes.  That's not to say it doesn't ever happen, but too rarely to bother with. On inter city routes, tickets will always be checked.

Switzerland is not the only country way ahead of Canada on public transit.  It's time we got onboard.