Confederation launches NRLA Internet portal
Bern, 24.05.2016 - The Swiss Confederation has launched an information portal on the New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA). Original documents, images, films and audio files on the history and social significance of the NRLA are now available on www.alptransit-portal.ch. The NRLA portal simplifies access to documents that had previously been scattered across different archives. It was created on the recommendation of the parliamentary NRLA Supervisory Delegation, and realised by the Swiss Federal Archives.
In autumn 2014, the parliamentary NRLA Supervisory Delegation (NSD) recommended that the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) should create an online portal holding documents from the NRLA’s history. The Swiss Federal Archives were commissioned in May 2015 to make information on the NRLA accessible to researchers and the interested public in a simple and structured way. In Bern today, in time for the opening of the Gotthard and Ceneri base tunnels, the portal was presented to the public by representatives of all three bodies involved.
Hundreds of original documents, photographs, videos and audio files about the NRLA can now be found at www.alptransit-portal.ch. The FOT and other federal bodies have released about 150 documents for the launch of the portal – documents that had previously been protected under the Archiving Act. The Swiss Federal Archives now display all the documents and sources in their historical context. The original documents, which are easy to find, enable users to follow the history of the NRLA and interpret it independently. The NSD is convinced that the portal will effectively document many aspects of the history of the NRLA for current and future generations, considerably simplifying access to basic information for historiography.
The Swiss Federal Archives will continue to develop the NRLA portal over the next few years. The costs are covered by the overall NEAT budget. CHF 400,000 were spent on the launch of the first version, to cover the costs of developing the web portal, digitalisation of documents, and archiving.
The NRLA Supervisory Delegation (NSD)
The NRLA Supervisory Delegation (NSD) carries out overall parliamentary supervision of the construction of the New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA). It consists of twelve members from the Federal Assembly.
The NSD’s mission is:
• to exercise parliamentary administrative control and overall financial supervision of the NRLA project;
• to monitor continuously whether and how the legal foundations, services, costs, deadlines and budgetary requirements are met by all those involved;
• to examine the organisation of the project and its supervision, and how the supervisory bodies carry out their supervisory and control functions.
To assist the NSD in its tasks, it has access to comprehensive information and disclosure rights, like Parliament’s Control and Finance Delegations (in accordance with Art. 51, 154 and 155 Parliament Act).
Address for enquiries
National Councillor Thomas Müller, Chair of NSD, 079 632 04 05
Swiss Federal Archives, Press Office, 058 46 507 24, Manuela.Hoefler@bar.admin.ch
Federal Office of Transport, Press Office, 058 462 36 43, presse@bav.admin.ch
Links
Publisher
Federal Office of Transport
https://www.bav.admin.ch/bav/en/home.html
Swiss Federal Archives
http://www.bar.admin.ch
