In 2016, the Alpine Initiative handed over its archive (with annual reports and accounts, correspondence, files on actions and campaigns, topic dossiers and printed matter) to the Swiss Social Archives. The holdings can be consulted in the reading room of the Swiss Social Archive without any restrictions on use.
Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv
Ein Antrag der Südtiroler Grünen auf Umsetzung einer Alpentransitbörse wurde vom Dreierlandtag Tirol-Südtirol-Trentino einstimmig angenommen. Die Landesregierungen werden aufgefordert, Verhandlungen für die Einführung einer Alpentransitbörse zu verstärken und einen konkreten Zeitplan vorzulegen.
At the invitation of the Alpine Initiative, a group of French people interested in transport policy met in the canton of Uri to discuss Switzerland’s policy of transferring traffic from road to rail. It is important to strengthen co-operation between Alpine countries and regions in order to alleviate transit problems in Alpine valleys from Mont Blanc to the Brenner Pass. The Alpine Crossing Exchange was proposed as a suitable means of efficiently transferring freight to rail.
This year, the Alpine Initiative’s traditional warning bonfire was lit in Tenero TI. A total of 30 bonfires were lit across the Alps, taking a stance against the second bore of the Gotthard tunnel and the destruction of the sensitive Alpine ecosystem.
In an open letter, the Alpine Initiative asked Doris Leuthard, the Swiss Minister of Transport, to finally implement Article 84 of the Federal Constitution. This clearly defines a maximum of 650,000 transalpine truck crossings per year, and neither Parliament nor the Swiss government is empowered to change the Constitution.
Verkehrsexperten und -expertinnen aus Europa diskutierten in Innsbruck über Verkehrsstrategien für den Alpenraum. Zum Beispiel über die rechtliche Machbarkeit der Alpentransitbörse. Die Tiroler Verkehrsministern Ingrid Felipe betonte: „Im Alpenraum bleibt das Ziel die Alpentransitbörse.“
The politician Jon Pult, from the canton of Graubünden, was elected as the new President of the Alpine Initiative, succeeding Fabio Pedrina. In a resolution, the Alpine Initiative called for politicians and industry to have a fundamental rethink about mobility.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Article for the Protection of the Alps, the Alpine Initiative thumped the table. With a demonstration in front of the Swiss Parliament, it once again demanded that freight transport be transferred from road to rail and the number of trucks crossing the Alps be reduced to 650,000 per year.
A study commissioned by the European region Tyrol – South Tyrol – Trentino confirms that there are no legal obstacles to the introduction of an Alpine Crossing Exchange (ACE). The only thing lacking in the Alpine states is political will. No other alternatives would ensure the transfer of freight traffic from road to rail as effectively as an ACE. The study was written by Astrid Epiney, Director of the Institute for European Law at the University of Fribourg.
The Alpine Initiative was disappointed by the Swiss government’s freight transfer report. Although clear legal goals have been set and the government had explicitly been asked by Parliament to increase the pace of the transfer of freight from road to rail, virtually no change has been observed on transalpine transit routes since the last report in 2011.
The ambassadors of EU countries in Switzerland were invited to the Gotthard region by the Alpine Initiative and the Lithuanian Embassy for a briefing on the Swiss freight transfer policy and transalpine freight transport. They visited the Ripshausen heavy goods centre and the construction site for the Gotthard base tunnel in the canton of Uri, and showed great interest in the idea of an Alpine Crossing Exchange.