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Postauto in the German speaking part, Car postal in French.

There was a report on Swiss French TV news earlier this week about discounted railcard/travelcard scams (can't find the link, sorry) - the example they gave was "special offer" almost free day passes for the buses in Vevey. It seems to be a big thing in a lot of European countries at the moment.

Yes, I would agree with this. I have often been on post buses coming down from the mountains to a station in the valley, and thinking that I had no chance of making my train connection because the bus seemed to be getting later and later as more and more people got on, and quite often paying...

An example of how non-customer friendly the French system can be: Last Friday I made a journey from Basel to Luxembourg, which involved a TER (Basel to Mulhouse), then a TGV (Mulhouse to Metz), and finally another TER (Metz to Luxembourg). The entire trip was booked in a single transaction via...

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely try the goodwill option if I miss the TGV. It hasn't happened so far, but the connection in Mulhouse is tight-ish (10 minutes), so it may well happen sooner or later. Getting an earlier train from Basel would mean waiting almost two hours at Mulhouse...

Of the countries where I travel a lot, I also find Switzerland very good, but maybe I'm biased because I live there and am used to the system. A single ticketing system across all companies and means of transport (even some cable cars, though not all) is definitely customer-friendly. The...

I thought this might be of interest... mods, feel free to move it to Infrastructure if you think it belongs more there. The early 20th century bridge that carries the Luzern-Zug-Zürich line over the river Reuss is being restored over a period of several years. The bridge is of historic interest...

Agreed... as a non-skier, I have never understood all the fuss about St. Moritz. It doesn't have anything like the charm or buzz of Zermatt, and seems to be lacking a proper focal point. It's just rich in a very ostentatious way. Even Saas-Fee, which is a lot quieter than Zermatt, has more going...

Yes, and it's common to hear announcements such as "Nous arrivons à Lucerne sur la voie 4, vous avez une correspondance pour Zurich sur la voie 5, même quai" (we are arriving at Lucerne on track 4, your next connection for Zurich leaves from track 5, same platform". The Swiss German equivalent...

Announcements in Switzerland also used to say "Anschluss" for connection, but at some point quite recently they switched to "Verbindung". You also sometimes hear "Geleise" instead of "Gleis" for track/platform numbers in Switzerland.

Do the TEOR routes in Rouen meet the brief ?

The last few times I have done Luxembourg to Brussels it has been one single deck and four double deck coaches. And yes, very common in Switzerland, especially on the Bern-Olten-Zürich route. Also on IR75 Zürich-Luzern, where they add a couple of single deck coaches to the nine double deckers...

Bomb threat and fire were the first things that came to my mind.

I was on the upper deck of a TGV from Luxembourg to Mulhouse this afternoon. The train stopped at Thionville and, after the usual "stand clear of the closing doors" message, there was an automated "Evacuate the train, leave the train as quickly as possible, do not take your luggage with you"...

A bit off topic maybe, but I was on a walking holiday in the north of England last month, and on two occasions had to cross a double-track railway on "pedestrians only" level crossings - this was near Greenhead in Northumberland. At both crossings there was a red and green light system, but no...

I worked in Switzerland for 27 years (still live there but am retired now), and never used my car except in "one-off" circumstances, e.g. when I left it at the garage for a service while I was in the office. My commute by train (Luzern to Rotkreuz) was about 40 minutes door to door (20 minutes...

Also the S3 between Luzern and Brunnen, which is quite scenic.

You definitely get used to it. I live right beside the main line out of Luzern station in Switzerland, about 50 metres away from the tracks with no buildings in between. It must be about 20 trains an hour in each direction, from five in the morning to past midnight. I don't notice the noise at...

The Vapeur Val de Travers, near Fleurier between Neuchâtel and the French border advertises heritage depot visits on Saturdays, and guided visits on request. I haven't been there myself, but used to see their trains running past my flat from time to time when I lived in the area.

I also remember using the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry and connecting to a St. Lazare train that ran via Neufchâtel-en-Bray and Serqueux in the summer of 1980. Would that have been a diversion rather than the normal route then? Coming back in the other direction we went via Rouen. I lived in that bit...