Several years ago Switzerland made international news for its leaders’ use of public transport, something aided by the free first class train passes given to Swiss members of parliament.
© SBB CFF FFS
Last week, Swiss parliamentarians voted to keep their first class train passes, with 154 votes in favour and 28 against.
Despite being a vote akin to asking turkeys to vote for Christmas, its rejection is unlikely to have much impact on public finances.
Presented by Lukas Reimann (UDC/SVP), partly as a symbolic gesture, the plan to downgrade the passes to 2nd class ones would have saved around CHF 600,000 annually.
Given that around CHF 2 billion of taxpayer money flows to Swiss Rail every year, the pass downgrade would have amounted to taking the same money from a different pocket.
So if you want to rub shoulders with those who run the country but cannot afford a first class train seat, keep your eyes open while waiting on the platform.
Former Swiss president Didier Burkhalter was spotted waiting for his train in 2014 by journalist Serge Jubin – see image above.
More on this:
Parlament.ch article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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