Derailment Snarls Train Traffic At SBB; To Sprachen Or Not To Sprachen, Das Ist Die Frage; Population Growth Plan Backfires; Speed Trap Bonanza

News For 5 November 2017

Last Wednesday evening a German ICE train derailed inside the Basel SBB train station leaving train traffic inoperable.  It was only by Saturday lunch-time that normal train schedules had resumed after SBB rail crews were able to remove the disabled rail car and repair the damage to tracks and switches.  Estimates of the costs of the repairs which took four and a half are reaching 11 million francs according to authorities.  Investigators are still searching for answers to why ICE 75 from Hamburg with 500 passengers on board had three of its cars jump the tracks.

**********

The Basel-Stadt department for education is working on a new parents’ letter format. Their goal is to write them in a form of German that is as simple as possible, to make it easier for non-native speakers to understand. Hirzbrunnen elementary school has already started working on a simple version of the regular letter. The school has hired an external office for its preparation. This, of course, has re-sparked the debate over how German is taught to non-native speakers. On one side, are the advocates of efforts to accommodate a growing population of non-native speakers, on the other, are those that feel German proficiency needs to rise and German language instruction should be enforced and mandatory.

**********

A story about the Swiss village of Albinen, picked up by global newspapers, seems to have had unintended consequences.  A few weeks ago, the town, in an effort to boost its dwindling population, hatched a plan to offer a maximum of 70,000 Swiss francs to families willing to relocate there.  By the time the story made the rounds in the mainstream global press, however, many details were glossed over, or not mentioned at all - specifically, the town was looking for new residents under 45 years old, with Swiss permanent residency permits or citizenship, willing to commit to staying 10 years...and that's just for starters.  Now the town elders are grimacing as they sort through the tidal wave of applications for eligible applicants, and are striking back at the media with accusations of "fake news".

**********

Around 3200 cars were speed checked on the German highway close to the Basel border last week. Out of the 3200, 700 were exceeding the speed limit, or approximately 22% of the vehicles. The part of the A5 highway in question has a speed limit of 60km/h, and licenses are suspended from 41 km/h over the speed limit. 157 of the speeders had their licenses suspended in addition to receiving a speeding fine. The fastest measured speed was 114 km/h.