New Brambrueschbahn Chur: Rochade Added To Project Management Team

With the submission of the preliminary examination to the Federal Office of Transport (BAV), there is a shift in the strategic project management of the new Brambrüeschbahn. Member of the Board of Directors Peter Engler takes over the dossier from Reto Küng.

Reto Küng was responsible for the railway project as VR delegate at Chur Bergbahnen (BCD). The ready-to-execute project is now available. The validation process initiated by the political authorities of the city of Chur follows. For this purpose, the strategic project management on the part of the BCD is reorganized. Reto Küng: “As an entrepreneur, I made my strategic contribution with the utmost commitment. In the interest of the Brambrüeschbahn, a more intensive exchange between the BCD and the city of Chur is needed in the next phase. As a mountain railway expert and representative of the city of Chur on the board of directors, Peter Engler is the logical choice." The operational project management will continue to be carried out by Nina Vuillemin. She has played a decisive role in the preparation of the planning approval application over the past three years.

Report for the council

In the next four months, the Chur city council will prepare the report requested by the municipal council on the topics of cost estimates, corporate governance and 2 million own funds. The Board of Directors of the BCD has assured the City Council of its full support for this political path. On the part of the BCD, the board of directors Peter Engler and the operational project manager Nina Vuillemin are responsible as contact persons for this report. The concrete steps are determined and communicated by the city council. The BCD has already commissioned an external and neutral validation of the cost estimate.

Thanks to Reto Küng

Reto Küng, who has overall strategic responsibility, resigns at his own request both as a delegate of the Board of Directors and as a member of the BCD Board of Directors. He will continue to work in an advisory capacity for Chur's local mountain and is also available at any time to provide information for the report. Thomas Mettler, Vice President of the BCD: “We regret Reto Küng's decision and thank him for his extraordinary service. With his valuable support over the past eight years, not only has the integrated uffa strategy for Chur's local mountain been developed, but the referendum for the new railway project has also been won. In addition, Reto Küng distinguished himself as a formative source of inspiration for all entrepreneurial matters of the Brambrüeschbahn. He is also the inventor of the uffa subscription,

Mission of the people fulfilled

The entire Board of Directors of Chur Bergbahnen (BCD) is fully committed to the four-year project for a 10-seater gondola lift with a middle station on Fülian. It corresponds to the people's mandate from the 2019 vote to focus on the direct connection variant and does not contain any actual project changes. This project also takes into account the requirement of the city of Chur to do without the previous operating contribution from the city of Chur of CHF 400,000 a year. This requires an increase in the number of guests by 30 percent to 150,000. In the last seven years, the Chur Bergbahnen have been able to increase their frequency by 60 percent, thanks in part to the uffa subscription.

Construction project is ready for execution

According to the Federal Office of Transport (BAV), which issues both the construction and the operating permit and the concession, the project is ready for implementation at the current stage. The application for planning permission was submitted today to the responsible federal authorities for preliminary examination. Reto Küng: “We have a solid solution on the table that has been positively evaluated by all experts. That was a tour de force by the entire BCD team, for which I sincerely thank everyone involved. I hope that this heart project of the people of Chur can now be realized.” The federal procedure for planning approval is very complex. The BCD application includes 172 dossiers. The cost estimate for the project is CHF 35 million including a reserve of CHF 2.5 million. The financing of the additional infrastructure required in addition to the railway construction in the amount of 7, BCD is financing CHF 55 million outside of the investment loan. These include the panorama restaurant for 3.5 million, the first slide path in Switzerland for 0.8 million, as well as the skills park for bikers and the water and nature playground (0.5 million).

There is no cost-of-living adjustment

The approved investment loan was 30.5 million: 24.4 million according to the feasibility study plus 6.1 million (25 percent) for necessary plan changes over the long course of the project. Unfortunately, no indexation for inflation adjustment was integrated in the vote in 2019. After the corona pandemic and the outbreak of the Ukraine war, this indexing is now a matter of course. In the last few weeks, the board of directors of the BCD had tried in vain to convince the Chur politicians of a simple and quick procedure for the realization of the new building project. The fastest possible referendum should have decided on the subsequent indexation of the investment loan from May 2019. With the cost-of-living adjustment of currently 15.1 percent (construction cost index of Eastern Switzerland of the federal government) or 4.5 million, the present project would have cost 35 million can be realized in the winter of 2026/2027. The board of directors of the BCD accepts the municipal council's now democratic decision to demand a report on the project from the city council. He appeals to politicians to keep the resulting delays, which are beyond the responsibility of the BCD, as short as possible. The gondola lift on Brambrüesch has almost reached the end of its lifetime and will hardly receive a new operating permit after 2026.