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SWITZERLAND REJECTS ROADRAIL BILL A N event of great importance in
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the control of road and rail transport has just taken place in Switzerland. The Swiss Government had drawn up a road-rail co-ordination Bill on remarkably similar lines to those of the fantastic French measure, but under the Swiss Confederation, when a proposal affects the whole life of the country, the Bill must be submitted to a public referendum before it can become law, The proposed Bill dealt with "the sharing out of passenger and goods transport between rail and road, and the granting of transport concessions, according to traffic requirements." The meaning of " traffic requirements," as interpreted by the persons who drew up the Bill, becomes apparent on reading certain of its clauses. For instance, all transport for distances exceeding 30 kiloms. (just over 184 miles) was to be conducted by rail. For shorter distances, traffic was to be handed over to the road-transport enterprises.
The Swiss people have just given their verdict on the measure in a most emphatic manner. Over 1,000,000 votes were cast in the referendum, 782,000 being against the Bill and 231,000 for it.
This gives a majority of 551,000 against the measure and constitutes a rider, as the Journal de Geneve points out, to the effect that it is the duty of the Federal Railways to put their financial house in order by economies in administration, rather than by trying to strangle the life of the country.