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TRAIN TRAVEL

Zurich to Baden: Switzerland mark 175 years since first train service

Switzerland -- famous for its punctual railways -- celebrated the 175th anniversary of passenger train services in the country on Tuesday with a re-creation of the first journey featuring a steam locomotive.

Published: 10 August 2022 10:26 CEST
Zurich to Baden: Switzerland mark 175 years since first train service
The departures board at Zurich's main rail station. Photo by Ellen Jenni on Unsplash

The first train service on August 9, 1847 linked Zurich with Baden, 23 kilometres to the northwest — a trip which took 33 minutes.

Transport minister Simonetta Sommaruga and around 150 guests boarded the special train to Zurich to mark the anniversary, which involved historic carriages and a steam locomotive.

“The train is part of our basic service. It brings people together and strengthens cohesion in our country,” Sommaruga said, according to the ATS national news agency.

The line between Zurich and Baden was built in 16 months. One of the original bridges is still in use.

The journey now takes 15 minutes and trains run every quarter of an hour.    

Swiss Federal Railways chief Vincent Ducrot said there were “many new chapters” to be written in the “success story of the Swiss railways”.

READ ALSO: Five European cities you can get to from Zurich by train

“Building on our current strengths, we want to make rail and public transport even more flexible and efficient,” ATS reported.

The Swiss rail network features several impressive engineering feats, including tunnels under the Alps.

Few countries have a rail network as dense as Switzerland.

Ducrot said the main challenge now was to run more trains on the existing network.

READ ALSO: How Switzerland aims to improve its regional rail links

“Today, digitalisation and technology occupy us more than building new infrastructure,” he told national broadcaster RTS.

Ducrot also stressed the importance of improving international rail links “if we don’t want to remain an island in the middle of Europe”.

For more on train travel in Switzerland click here

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TRAIN TRAVEL

Switzerland negotiates with neighbours to improve train punctuality

Switzerland has a natural knack for international negotiations. Now it is using these diplomatic skills to reduce train delays.

Published: 29 January 2024 11:58 CET
Switzerland negotiates with neighbours to improve train punctuality

Swiss national railway company, SBB, is proud of its punctuality record: overall, by its own estimate, 92.5 percent of trains circulating in Switzerland are on time — among the best rates in Europe.

SBB explains that “a train is considered on time if it reaches its destination with less than three minutes’ delay.”  

One of the reasons why SBB falls short of a 100-percent punctuality rate, especially in certain regions, is that some trains arrive from abroad late, disrupting connections on the Swiss side of the border.

That is why SBB is negotiating with Germany, Italy, and Austria to minimise frequents delays, which impact rail traffic in Switzerland as well. 

These are the details:

Germany

German’s national railway, the Deutsche Bahn (DB), is considered the worst offender, with its frequently tardy trains messing up SBB’s carefully coordinated  timetable.

Since so much traffic from Germany is consistently late, Swiss rail authorities regularly stop trains arriving more than 10 minutes late at the border, redirecting passengers onto Swiss trains so as not to clog up the network with incoming delays. 

In order to alleviate these bottlenecks, SBB no longer wants to include some German trains in the Swiss timetable, particularly the ones arriving from Munich to Zurich via St. Gallen.

READ ALSO: Why Swiss transport authorities want to ban German trains

Italy

Regarding negotiations with its southern neighbour, SBB wants Switzerland-bound trains from Milano Centrale to depart earlier, so as to have more time to compensate for possible delays on the Simplon axis.

According to SBB, punctuality on this line “declined during last summer, which is why we are working on improvements together with our Italian partners.”

Austria

As for Austrian Railways (ÖBB), the SBB said it is “not satisfied” with the lack of punctuality of long-distance trains from that country, but it has not revealed the content of the negotiations with its Austrian counterpart.

What about France?

The punctuality of French TGV trains is (surprisingly) satisfactory to the Swiss. 

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