Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
Paywall free

SKIING

Have your say: Should Switzerland’s Covid certificate be required for skiing?

Switzerland has decided the Covid certificate will not be required for winter sports. Was this the right decision? Should Switzerland’s Covid certificate be required for skiing?

Published: 20 October 2021 11:22 CEST
Updated: 21 October 2021 10:26 CEST
A person skis down a slope at high speed
Skiing in Switzerland will not require a Covid certificate. Was this the right call? Image: Pixabay

The Swiss government agreed with ski resorts on Tuesday afternoon that the Covid certificate will not be required to hit the ski slopes this winter.

The agreement came after a long debate about which protective measures should be introduced in the coming season, Swiss news outlet Blick reported on Tuesday.  

The main question was whether the Covid certificate would be required in chairlifts or on the slopes in general. 

IN DEPTH: What are the rules on Swiss ski slopes this year?

Switzerland’s Covid certificate demonstrates that the holder has either been vaccinated, has recovered from the virus recently or has tested negative. 

The government said on Tuesday that it was confident the upcoming season would be safe despite not requiring the Covid certificate. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

TRAVEL NEWS

Why a Swiss-EU deal could be bad news for train users in Switzerland

Switzerland’s rail system is connected with that of neighbouring countries, but that may prove to be a problem in the future depending on the outcome of talks between Switzerland and the EU.

Published: 25 April 2024 18:01 CEST
Why a Swiss-EU deal could be bad news for train users in Switzerland

Bern and Brussels are negotiating various bilateral treaties during the current round of bilateral talks. 

One of the topics under discussion is the inter-connected rail network — which sounds like an overall positive development for seamless cross-border travel.

However, Vincent Ducrot, head of national rail company SBB fears that such a deal would be detrimental to Swiss commuters, because it would mean international trains would have priority over Switzerland’s system.

What is it about?

Currently, priority is given to national traffic on Swiss territory.

But a new deal with the EU would mean that European law — and international train traffic — would take precedence.

The problem is that all the train paths in Switzerland are currently occupied, Ducrot said in an interview with Swiss media on Wednesday.

He cited the example of the Geneva-Paris route, on which several European companies would like to bid. But that would mean that SBB would lose out by having to remove an existing train to accommodate a new foreign one.

And there is more: the question of punctuality

The SBB has long had a problem with trains from Germany, as half of them arrive in Switzerland late, disrupting the carefully coordinated Swiss railway timetable.  

“Another huge concern we have is that the level of punctuality of the international system is totally different from ours,” Ducrot said. “Delays therefore risk being imported into Switzerland.”

To ease the chaos, the SBB has to keep special trains on standby to replace delayed ICE trains on the Basel-Zurich route, and passengers travelling from Germany to Zurich often have to transfer onto Swiss trains in Basel.

“Today, if a German train arrives late in Basel, we stop it and send a [Swiss] reserve train instead,” Ducret said.

“But if we can no longer do this in the future, it would mean that the train in question is accumulating delays, but above all that it is putting the SBB system behind schedule.”

SHOW COMMENTS