Privatising Mountain Profits, Socialising the Bus Fare

When sales jump by 60 percent in a single year, a private commercial enterprise typically reinvests its windfall into market expansion or customer retention. The operators behind the Magic Pass, a regional season ticket encompassing roughly one hundred ski resorts across Switzerland, chose a slightly different path: they asked cantonal governments to foot the bill for their latest green marketing campaign.

The consortium envisioned a pilot project offering pass holders five days of free public transport from their doorstep straight to the ski lifts. The aim was ambitious enough on paper, targeting a shift to train and bus for 100,000 ski days, representing two percent of total visits to participating resorts. Unsurprisingly, the cantons of Vaud and Valais succumbed to the lure of subsidised sustainability, pledging a combined 430,000 Swiss francs in public funds to sponsor the initiative.

Yet, the response was markedly different in German-speaking Switzerland. Both Bern and Obwalden flatly rejected requests to subsidise the scheme. Their refusal was not merely an exercise in fiscal conservatism, but a rare moment of regulatory clarity. Officials in Bern’s Office for Economy pointed out that certain local destinations already participate in competing multi-resort packages. Single-minded state support for the Magic Pass would inevitably distort commercial competition at the expense of rival regional offers.

A similar rationale emerged from Obwalden’s Department of Economic Affairs. Citing the basic constitutional duty of equal treatment, the authority noted that major regional destinations like Engelberg, alongside several cable car companies in the Sarneraatal, are not partners in the Magic Pass network. Siphoning taxpayer funds into a single commercial consortium’s promotional drive would inherently penalise those standing outside it.

This insistence on market neutrality rattled the project's management. Sébastien Travelletti, director of the Magic Pass, voiced disappointment, arguing that improving mountain accessibility via public transit should not rest solely on cable car operators, but ought to be co-financed by cantons and municipalities.

Despite the missing public handouts from Bern and Obwalden, the project will proceed regardless. The resulting financial shortfall will now have to be absorbed by the pass's partner cable car companies within those two non-participating cantons at the end of the winter season. It is a telling lesson in corporate subsidies: when the state refuses to pay, the market suddenly discovers it can afford the project itself.

Written by Christiane Hofreiter christiane.hofreiter@alpineweekly.com