Berne Administrative court rejects complaint against free public transport initiative
The popular initiative for free public transport submitted in the city of Bern remains invalid. This was stated by the Bernese Administrative Court in a decision published on Friday.
02.08.2024, 10:37
SDA
Like the lower court, the Administrative Court is of the opinion that the initiative violates the Federal Constitution. The petition for a referendum was submitted by the Labor Party (PdA) and the Communist Youth. They demand that public, non-tourist transport in the city of Bern should be free of charge for all users.
The Administrative Court also came to the conclusion that federal law requires public transport users to bear a "reasonable share" of the costs. In this way, the federal government is pursuing demand management through price. Public transport should not be too cheap so that the system is not overrun. However, it should also not be too expensive so that people use it.
The initiative violates the requirement of "appropriate participation", emphasized the Administrative Court. Such participation could not be zero.
The initiators, on the other hand, argued that public transport was financed by taxpayers' money and that the share was therefore not zero.
The Administrative Court did not accept this argument, as in this case it was not the actual users who paid the costs, but all taxpayers, regardless of whether they use public transport or not.
In addition, the Federal Supreme Court had only recently ruled that a similar initiative from the canton of Fribourg did not comply with the constitution, the Bernese Administrative Court continued.
The initiators had submitted the petition for a referendum in May 2021. The city government declared it invalid at the beginning of 2022. The administrative court ruling will only become legally binding if it is not appealed within 30 days.
