If I’ve written, complained, and praised the German railways, Amtrak, Vancouver’s West Coast Express, Thalys, the Euro Star, and China Railway Highspeed, I might as well do it for the Swiss railways while I’m here. Between June and Christmas, I’ve visited 57 Swiss cities, 3 German cities, and 5 peaks over 1,500m in altitude. A large majority of the 36,000km of rail travel I achieved in this period was done through the Swiss Federal Railways, or SBB, with a couple thousand on Italian or German trains.
Since 2000, the SBB has invested obscene amounts of capital in blasting tunnels, upgrading tracks systems, and renewing rolling stock. Some of its proudest projects include the quadruple-tracking of Léman line, Bahnstrecke-2000, and the world’s longest railway tunnel under mountains – the Gotthard Basistunnel. In addition to renewing old carriages, they have also committed to buy new tilting trains that can corner at higher speeds. All this leads to a reduction in travel times and more options to go around blocked sections of track.
The timetable of all buses and trains in Switzerland are in sync as a whole; when an express train arrives, passengers are able to connect to local trains and buses within minutes and vice versa. To make things easy, the timetable repeats itself every hour meaning that trains and buses leave at the same minute on the hour every hour. On busier lines between major population centers the schedules can repeat themselves every half-hour even on long-distance routes.
I also found the price system to be quite fair. Instead of using surge pricing where ticket prices are dirt cheap on a rainy November afternoon and sky high on Good Friday, the same pricing scheme is applied for all journeys. If you purchase a ticket at least a week in advance, you could benefit from the 70%-off saver price, then it gets gradually more expensive until about two hours before departure where you have to pay full price. The same price regime is applied every day, no bad surprises.
On main lines, I figured that tickets cost CHF1 per 6-7km covered in route length; that is if you use a longer connection to go to the same destination it will cost you more that the direct route. First class is typically 75% more expensive than second class ending up at about CHF1.75 per 6-7km in route length. Being here for a year, I paid CHF2,010 for the first six months of unlimited rail travel in first class including my various discounts and rebates in 2019. This works out to CHF335 a month, which means I have to ride at least 1,300km a month to match full price, or 4,300km a month to match lowest discount fares with a lot of foresight. But even just counting rail-miles within Swiss borders I’ve achieved over 5,000km a month.
What I do really love about the GA unlimited travel ticket is its inclusion of city transport at all levels. Just arrived in Lausanne? Take the metro to the restaurant. Don’t want to walk to the museums in Bern? Hop on a tram to rest your legs. Just the monthly Geneva-canton ticket alone costs CHF170 a month, so I’m really only spending CHF165 extra to get the rest of Switzerland thrown in on my rail pass.
Whenever I step on the platform, I’m reminded of the glory days of train travel. When a train leaves, the conductor blows his whistle to signal an all-clear to the driver, split-flap boards clatter as they scramble to show information on the next train, and the second hand on the platform clock ticks to the minute as the train doors slam shut. On the train, waiters in their smart waistcoats and red bow tie walk through first class to offer table service. Table service, guaranteed socket space, and more room is about all you get in first class. There is a serious lack of lounges that were discontinued after it was deemed unprofitable and no free seat reservation service like on German trains. The SBB needs to up its game in premium wagons to catch up to its European peers.
While the French-speaking region still only has older rolling stock, the new or refitted trains in the German- and Italian-speaking regions have plenty of features. Reading lights and power sockets come standard in both classes, additional toilets are made wheelchair accessible, the family zone for children (slide available on some double-decker trains) is placed at the opposite end of the train as first class to provide a tranquil environment, and the information display boards are all animated displays.
When you look closely at the display you’ll find that even express trains in Switzerland call at an obscene number of stops. While a 3-hour ride on the TGV will bring you over 540km to Paris from Geneva, a Swiss train will only carry you about 260km to Zürich from Geneva in the same amount of time. It seems that the gains in speed were offset by a stop every half hour on an “express” train. More time to enjoy fake first class right?
