Editor:
Switzerland probably has more gondolas and funiculars than the rest of the world combined. Yet on Saturday, Switzerland put another state-of-the-art funicular into service, the Schwyz-Stoos line. It claims to be the steepest in the world, rising 110 metres over a horizontal distance of 100 metres. It cost C$67.5 million. Yes, they do expect tourists, but they also wanted to connect the 150 permanent residents in Stoos more conveniently to the valley below. That is $450,200 per resident.
Let’s say the fixed link from the Sunshine Coast to the North Shore is $4 billion. There are about 25,000 residents on the lower Sunshine Coast. Yes, we also would expect more tourists to pay the tolls, but for us residents it would come out to $160,000 a person, almost one-third less than what the Swiss were prepared to spend.
This does not mean that after the looming Site C disaster I am in favour of another billion-dollar boondoggle. But it is interesting to note what is happening in the rest of the world.
Klaus Blume, Gibsons
