More than 58,000 Swiss sign petition for night trains

58,000 people sign petition for night trains Keystone-SDA

The Green Party and the environmental organisation Umverkehr have submitted a petition in Bern with 58,640 signatures for night trains. It demands that the government expand the services in this area, as provided for in the CO2 Act.

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The signatures were collected in less than three months, according to a press release on Wednesday. “This is a strong signal that the government should not abandon the expansion of night trains,” said Aline Trede, parliamentary group leader of the Greens.

+ Swiss night trains: past, present and future

The aim is to promote sustainable mobility and offer alternatives to air travel. The environmental organisation demands that the federal government’s cost-cutting measures should not have any impact on night trains.

The night train projects from Switzerland to Barcelona and Rome are endangered by the government’s cost-cutting measures. On Monday, the House of Representatives agreed with the decision of the cantons and decided to subsidise the night trains with CHF10 million ($11.2 million) a year instead of the originally planned CHF30 million.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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