In the summer of 2024, the St. Gallen cantonal government presented its mountain bike strategy. One of the key statements was that the infrastructure was inadequate and needed to be expanded. In September of the same year, a representative of the Ortsbürgergemeinde St. Gallen and a member of the city's executive opened the Waldeggtrail. Twelve years after construction began and after only the top 80 percent had been accessible for over ten years.

Now, a strategy on paper and a trail on city soil does not mean that all is well. But things seemed to be moving in the direction of mountain bikers in the canton of St. Gallen.

In December 2024, the parliament of the city of St. Gallen made a decision that put a political red light on the positive signals: The planned CHF 25,000 for the maintenance of the new trail will be removed from the budget for 2025, as will a temporary part-time position to coordinate the city's MTB master plan. According to the St. Galler Tagblatt, this will save the city a further 70,000 francs.

200,000 francs for construction, 0 francs for maintenance

"We were taken by surprise," admits Philipp Mayer, President of Biketrails Ostschweiz. "The members of parliament were probably not aware of what they were ruining," he concludes. What he means by this is that the city and the Ortsbürgergemeinde had each allocated 100,000 francs so that the Waldegg Trail could finally be completed 12 years after the start of construction. Marc Vetterli from the FunPark SG association explains: "The city and the local municipality financed the completion of the trail on the condition that it would also be maintained afterwards."

If this remains the case, the association members will maintain the trail as they have done so far without professional support: in their free time and with minimal resources. "If a problem is reported, we'll go and patch it up. But we don't have the capacity to rebuild an entire section that has broken down," says Vetterli. The association raises a good 10,000 francs a year through sponsorship. This money goes towards maintenance anyway. Without the city's contribution, less than a third of the planned sum is now available - to maintain a trail of 3 kilometers in length.

Vetterli emphasizes that the association and the city had already been working on the maintenance concept before the parliamentary decision and would continue to do so. "The city council knows what it has created with the Waldegg Trail and wants to maintain it." It seems that the last word has not yet been spoken.

The situation is similar with regard to the deleted position, whose tasks would have included the implementation of the MTB master plan. "Here too, work is already underway and the city is coordinating with neighboring municipalities," explains Mayer. It is undisputed that a person is needed to coordinate the activities that ultimately result from the implementation of the Cycle Path Act.

Petition calls for reversal

Biketrails Ostschweitiz, the Funpark SG association and the Veloclub SG have therefore submitted a population petition to the city parliament - a kind of postulate from the population calling on the legislature to reverse the cuts. In addition, the three organizations have launched an online petition demanding the same thing.

The question is how this decision came about, whether organizations that are not comfortable with the new bike-friendliness of the canton and the city may have lobbied. "There is no evidence of this," replies Philipp Mayer. The main reason is the dire financial situation of the city, whose government has submitted a budget with a deficit of CHF 27 million to parliament for 2025. This comes after the executive proposed cuts that caused an uproar, for example by abolishing the position of lifeguard at one of the city's outdoor swimming pools and cutting back on hygiene.

In light of such proposals, neglecting the maintenance of a brand-new trail and neglecting the implementation of the Cycle Path Act seems harmless.

The organized female mountain bikers are nevertheless rightly campaigning for their sport to be promoted in the coming years in line with its popularity and the national legal situation.