Starting on May 11th, Swiss trains are resuming their full regular service, which has been significantly disrupted during the Covid-19 lockdown. 

“This makes it all the more important to comply with the protection measures when travelling”, the SBB said on its website. 

In preparation for the resumption of services, the cleaning staff have been mobilised in the past days to disinfect often-used surfaces in trains and train stations, such as buttons, handles, handrails, armrests, benches, and ATM machines.

READ MORE: Swiss Federal Railways: Services resume gradually after lockdown

To protect themselves from contamination, the SBB is urging passengers to follow these recommendations:

Social distance: If possible, avoid morning and evening commuting times and use less busy connections instead. Be considerate of each other and keep your distance at stops, counters, and ticket machines, when getting on and off the train, and while on board. 

“SBB will be supporting passengers by providing as much space as possible on trains or by ensuring that passengers are well-distributed across compartments and coaches”, the company said.

“If it is not possible to maintain a distance of two metres from others, we strongly recommend wearing a protective face mask”, the SBB added.

Hygiene measures: Customers can wash their hands in on-board restrooms, where available, and in train station restrooms. From May 11th onwards, passengers can use the serviced hygiene centres in the stations of Basel SBB, Bellinzona, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Locarno, Lucerne and Zürich HB free of charge until further notice.

Disinfectant dispensers will be placed at the entrances to larger stations and at the entrances and exits of travel centres. “To ensure compliance with the FOPH's hygiene regulations, queuing zones will be set up at shops in major stations and the use of lifts will be limited to one person at a time”.

Buy tickets digitally: Although ticket counters are re-opened, “we would like to ask our customers to buy tickets online, via apps, or from ticket machines”, the SBB noted.

If purchasing at counters, the SBB is encouraging customers to pay with contactless credit or debit cards.