Vignette for Swiss motorways?

fivetide

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

Greedy Swiss, £27 for the use of all the motorways for 1 year! Shocking! If they were in the EU, we'd soon sort them out. Like the M6 toll, one use of the 27 miles for £5.50, let's hope they adopt our fair EU system eh?

I hope we adopt their system.

similar in Austria as Iceweasel said - although i think you only need one for motorways.

Basically, we should bring these in for all non-UK registered cars. That way, it would stop people keeping foreign registered cars here to avoid road tax etc.

Ezmondino

Got to say, I always get one, even if I'm going for just the week. There are some routes that are single carriage way that are classed as motorway and there is no (easy) way round them Sometimes it's not obvious you are just about to hit a motorway section.

I also find it alot quicker to get around using the motorways. TBH it all depends on where you're going. If you're just going across the border and not going far then don't bother, but if you need to get across the country buy one as the small roads can take ages to get through.

GolfBravo

fivetide wrote: »

Basically, we should bring these in for all non-UK registered cars. That way, it would stop people keeping foreign registered cars here to avoid road tax etc.

Germany want to introduce this as well (trust me, they have many times more foreign cars on their roads) but unfortunately this would be illegal under EU law.

Iceweasel

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

Greedy Swiss, £27 for the use of all the motorways for 1 year! Shocking! If they were in the EU, we'd soon sort them out. Like the M6 toll, one use of the 27 miles for £5.50, let's hope they adopt our fair EU system eh?

I don't understand your post at all - are you in favour of the M6 Toll or not?

The M6 Toll is a privately owned toll road that has proved to be a disaster - after 10 years of use it's carrying less than half of the traffic it was designed for.

It is a loss-making mistake - if they put the tolls up to cover their costs they will get less money collected.

All it has done is put more traffic on the alternative routes.

It has nothing at all to do with a general motorway charging method.

I wouldn't mind having a vignette system in the UK at all - much fairer than what we have now.

I would happily buy a yearly one - much like the old Road Tax system which Winston Churchill abolished back in 1937, so he could divert the money from road users for other purposes.

With a vignette system we could easily charge a weekly or monthly rate for visitors.

In the UK the roads are 'free to all users' being funded from the general taxation of everybody who pays tax in any form in the UK.

A better comparison for Switzerland is with Slovenia, who were forced to offer short term vignettes for tourists or their EU funding would have been curtailed.

A one year motorway vignette for a car in Slovenia costs €110 - but a one week vignette costs only €15

Going from Austria to Croatia I need to cross Slovenia - it takes me 40 minutes on the motorway.

But I can easily avoid that - by taking an alternative road which takes only 10 minutes longer.

Tolls need to be realistic.

Austria is better example of how to do it and play fair to everyone.

An Austrian one year vignette costs €82.70 and a 10 day one costs €8.50

I buy them happily as I think the Austrian roads are good value for money.

The Austrians also have separate additional tolls for some tunnels and mountain passes.

redux

GolfBravo wrote: »

They used to be for 14 months only (40CHF), now there are two alternatives: 2 months for 40CHF, or 14 months (1st Dec to Jan 31st) for 100CHF. The fine for lack of vignette is now 200CHF.

I believe that that proposal by the government may have been defeated in a referendum

Iceweasel

fivetide wrote: »

I hope we adopt their system.

similar in Austria as Iceweasel said - although i think you only need one for motorways.

Basically, we should bring these in for all non-UK registered cars. That way, it would stop people keeping foreign registered cars here to avoid road tax etc.

We don't have road tax - tourists and other foreign visitors pay VAT on anything they buy and pay fuel tax on their petrol and diesel purchases just like we do. The roads are funded from general taxation which visitors contribute to.

A vignette for foreign visitors only, would be very unfair, and wreck our tourist industry.

Everyone should be treated equally and fairly.

IIRC under international rules all vehicles should have valid registration in their home countries.

Having said that I know folks in france who have their UK registered car with no VED disc on it and have ran like that for over 4 years.

maninwhitecoat

GolfBravo wrote: »

They used to be for 14 months only (40CHF), now there are two alternatives: 2 months for 40CHF, or 14 months (1st Dec to Jan 31st) for 100CHF. The fine for lack of vignette is now 200CHF.

Where did you get this information? The 14 month Vignette (1st Dec to Jan 31st) for 2014 is still 40 CHF according to Swiss Confederation

"Use of Swiss motorways (first and second-class motorways) has been subject to tax since 1985. The tax is levied in the form of the motorway tax sticker, which costs CHF 40. The motorway tax sticker is valid from 1 December of the year prior to that printed on the sticker through to 31 January of the year following that printed on the sticker."

Anyway, to answer the OP, it is very easy and straightforward to just buy on the border when you get there. There are no price advantages buy purchasing one beforehand.

Iceweasel

GolfBravo wrote: »

Germany want to introduce this as well (trust me, they have many times more foreign cars on their roads) but unfortunately this would be illegal under EU law.

Yes - it would be illegal to have a system only for foreign vehicles and Germany doesn't want to introduce a system that will include German vehicles too.

The road user lobby in Germany is very strong - that's why they will never have a blanket speed limit.

Every Bundesland has some motorways with limits, and no Bundesland has a limit on every single km of Autobahn.

They all have some stretches where only the recommended limit of 130kph applies (approx 81mph)

redux

maninwhitecoat wrote: »

Where did you get this information? The 14 month Vignette (1st Dec to Jan 31st) for 2014 is still 40 CHF according to ...

It was a proposed increase, to start in 2016, but as I already said I think it was defeated

http://driveeuropenews.com/2013/11/24/d-day-der-schweiz/

GolfBravo

redux wrote: »

I believe that that proposal by the government may have been defeated in a referendum

maninwhitecoat wrote: »

Where did you get this information? The 14 month Vignette (1st Dec to Jan 31st) for 2014 is still 40 CHF according to Swiss Confederation

I stand corrected. 40CHF it is then.

BTW, my neighbour bought one on Ebay just before Xmas 2012, needed one to go skiing. He paid £60. :eek: