Theory and practice

It is obvious that not roads but railways are adapted to the transport of heavy freight. This is something very well known by the Swiss…

…who not only decided in a referendum held in 1994 that they wanted the freight to be transported by railway, but also excellently made use of the change to earn money…

In Switzerland the trucks have a simple choice: either to go by rail (so called rail freeway) or to pay about 85 Euros for every 100 kilometers of normal highway with light traffic intensity. According to the rule: if you want to drive on the roads for cars – pay more – proportionally to the damages you cause.

Thanks to these fees, the Swiss budget receives yearly about 3.5 billion francs, that is more than 8 billion zlotys, which are used for modernization of the railway infrastructure and development of combine transport.

What is the message of this story? It is quite painful. The Swiss, German, Austrian, Dutch, French and even Czech people become rich and invest in combined transport while we long for patching up another pothole…