Public Transport Ticket App Takes Off; Referendum Rampage; Parched Peaks In The Alps; Near Miss With Drone At Basel Airport

News For 3 January 2017

One of Basel's rights of passage for its residents this time of year is the queue for the annual BVB and BLT passes which go on sale at its ticket offices.  By purchasing the annual pass riders can save the equivalent of two monthly tickets, which is considerable at the new rate for 2017 of 80 Swiss Francs per month.  In an effort to get with the times, the two public transport transport system operators released a smartphone mobile App "U-Abo" in the second half of 2016.  Already, over  20,000 digital subscriptions have been sold which does not include the rush associated with the new year's annual pass sales.  However convenient, the system has experienced a few teething pains: There have been cases of the App failing to properly sync or communicate with its users.  The issues have been the top priority for the publisher, as spokeswoman Claudia Demel pointed out that 1 in 10 new ticket sales are now done using the mobile App.

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In the 125 years that the Swiss have been voting on Federal Referendums, 9 of the 209 total were in 2016 - all rejected.  Despite the fact that only 22 of the 209 referendums have passed in all that time, it appears the popularity of the plebiscite has increased on average.  In Switzerland, changes to the Federal constitution, petitions for popular initiatives, or challenges to new laws are decided by simple majority using a referendum.  The last time a referendum passed was May 2014, when a popular initiative called for convicted pedophiles to be banned from working with children.  February 2014, of course, was also when the Immigration Quotas referendum passed by a tiny 0.3% margin which the Swiss Parliament is still working to implement.  There are currently 13 popular initiatives that gathered the necessary signatures to be put to referendum sometime in the future.  

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Last week we reported that 2016 was the warmest year on record in Switzerland according to MeteoSuisse, the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology.  Apparently, another record was set in the last month of the year in being the driest in 150 years.  With an average of only 2 millimeters of precipitation, it marks the lowest levels since record keeping began in 1864, and well below the average of 90 millimeters for the month.  Between the high temperatures and low snowfall, what looked like a solid start to the ski season with early November snows, has now fizzled out.  Although most ski area and resort operators pre sold their winter seasons they are hopeful the snows finally arrive to keep next year's sales brisk.

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In a report released last Wednesday by the Swiss Security Investigation Agency (SUST), a serious incident involving a commercial jet and an areal drone occurred last July.  As the commercial flight, operated by EasyJet approached the EuroAirport the unmanned drone crossed its flight path and came within 10 meters of colliding with the other aircraft.  Remarkably, this is not even the first incident, with another plane and drone nearly colliding last March.   SUST has pointed out that the increase in such incidents, 28 in 2016 - almost half of which designated "serious", makes a collision almost inevitable.  So far, commercial planes have no means to detect the drones in their flight paths except visually, and most drones do not carry radios to emit a signal of their presence.  Lawmakers and commercial manufacturers have yet to act on recommendations by SUST to rapidly implement measures to prevent a possible catastrophe.