Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

TRAIN TRAVEL

Switzerland sees boom in rail travel

Train travel in Switzerland is more popular than ever, according to new figures.

Published: 8 August 2023 16:59 CEST
A Swiss train at the Montebello Kurve heading to Pontresina, Switzerland.
A Swiss train at the Montebello Kurve heading to Pontresina, Switzerland. Photo by Andreas Stutz on Unsplash

It’s no shock that the Swiss love getting around on trains. 

With one of the world’s densest and most extensive rail networks, Switzerland boasts around 5,300 kilometres of tracks and 804 stations.

A report from Eurostat, Europe’s Statistical Office, has previously shown that the Swiss are Europe’s most frequent train travellers per capita. 

Meanwhile, trains generally run on time – and some even cater to families with playgrounds for children. 

READ ALSO: Slides and climbing frames – how Swiss trains entertain children

And new figures show that train travel is continuing to boom in the Alpine nation following the pandemic, with passenger numbers well above previous years. 

The number of so-called passenger kilometres on Swiss train journeys reached a new peak of around 5.6 billion in the second quarter of this year – the highest number recorded since quarterly reporting began in 2014. 

That’s according to figures compiled by the information service for public transport, Litra, and the Association of Public Transport (VöV).

The previous record from the third quarter of 2019 was 5.49 billion passenger kilometres. The traffic performance of the second quarter of 2023 is 8 percent higher than in the first quarter of the current year, which was already the strongest first quarter ever recorded.

Compared to the same quarter last year, the growth is as high as 14.8 percent, and compared to the second quarter of 2019 – the last year before the outbreak of the Covid pandemic – the increase is 5.9 percent.

READ ALSO: Trains in Switzerland are excellent – so why are cars still king?

So what’s contributing to the Swiss thirst for train travel?

According to experts, growth in passenger rail transport is currently being driven by regional traffic, with weekend trips in particular boosting train travel. 

Perhaps it’s down to renewed enthusiasm to explore Switzerland’s amazing nature and cultural spots, particularly since the pandemic. 

READ ALSO: ‘Secret’ places to visit in Switzerland you didn’t know existed (unless you live there)

Freight transport by rail loses attractiveness

In freight transport, the traffic performance in the second quarter of this year was 3.08 billion net tonne-kilometres, just above the first quarter. Compared to the same quarter last year, this is a decline of 3.2 percent.

Litra and VöV said they believed this is partly due to high production costs on the European corridor in transalpine transit-traffic as well as the current economic developments in Europe.

Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, transport performance in transalpine freight transport fell more sharply than in freight transport as a whole, by 4.4 percent.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

TRAVEL NEWS

Why is Switzerland going to collect a database of flight passengers?

Twenty years after the US began sharing a database of those flying in and out of the country in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Switzerland is set to follow suit - but not without some outside pressure. 

Published: 16 May 2024 15:51 CEST
Why is Switzerland going to collect a database of flight passengers?

Passenger Name Record (PNR) systems are databases that operate by flagging and tracking individuals who may pose a security risk. 

The data includes the name, destination, means of payment, and type of baggage for each passenger arriving or leaving a country via its airports. 

Until now, Switzerland has not participated in a PNR system in a way that allows data to be freely accessible to partners such as the EU and the US. 

Indeed, for years, it has been possible to circumvent the EU’s PNR systems by flying into Switzerland and crossing a land border with the EU. 

Now, however, Switzerland is being forced to comply. 

The United States has threatened Switzerland’s place in their Visa Waiver Program unless they share data. 

Similarly, the EU has applied significant diplomatic pressure to join their efforts – and considerable progress has already occurred, with agreements signed. 

Other countries have also signalled that Swiss carriers may withdraw their landing rights or impose heavy fines if Switzerland does not begin participating in a compliant PNR system. 

Changes in effect 2026

On Wednesday, Justice Minister Beat Jans announced at a press conference that a PNR program that worked in collaboration with other countries would come into effect in 2026. 

The reason given for the length of time it would take to go into effect was that a legal basis for the move does not yet exist in Swiss law—a dispatch on proposed legislation has only just been sent to the Federal Council.

Once passed by the Federal Council and then by the Council of States, the federal police will be responsible for tracking passengers via a new group – the Passenger Information Unit (PIU). 

The PIU will examine passenger manifests a day before and immediately before flights taking off or landing and compare them to shared lists of individuals involved in terrorism, organised crime, or who have committed violent crimes. 

If there is a match, information will be forwarded to authorities at the relevant airport.  

Privacy concerns 

Understandably, for the privacy-conscious Swiss, concerns have been raised. 

Both the right-wing SVP, the Greens and the SPD have voiced doubts about the security and privacy of passenger data. 

In response, the government has announced that all passenger data except for that relates to those linked to terrorist groups will be deleted after six months. 

To further ease concerns, Switzerland’s PNR system will be constantly monitored by the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act.

SHOW COMMENTS