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I think there might be a historical reason here as during the world wars Switzerland was largely cut off from coal and diesel imports, so they decided to become as self sufficient as possible, electrified the railways and built hydro plants. Which is admittedly easier if your country is small...

It would get rid of the annoyance where you must have it on a swisspass smartcard with an auto-renewing subscription (unless they've changed that again). I think you might be able to get loaded on the app now too. There always used to be a separate discussion whether the GA (all line rover for...

Me too - for people looking under 25 it's quite usual to be asked for ID, and then having to produce a provisional driving licence even if they have no intention to learn to drive. So we might as well admit that we have ID cards unofficially, you just can't go abroad on them.

It takes an hour once there's any kind of traffic. Even longer when they have temporary traffic lights on the way. But you can't beat it on cost as long as the £2 cap is in place.

Indeed, there's one just outside Zurich further down the Limmat valley. There was an open day years ago where you could ride in an open top wagon over the hump as a visitor attraction!

Some trains on the continent have an extra magnetic brake that is for emergency use only and might require the train or the track to be repaired after use. I think the English term is Eddy current braking system. They are independent of friction and the axles, so they ignore any leaf mulch. I...

Can I point out the obvious: Labour was not in power when the hole was dug. The people in Bristol who want an underground or perhaps even a cable car are looking even sillier than before, though. I'd personally love to see trams like the Swiss manage, there's even a nice turning loop on...

You can get a disabled railcard if your condition means you have been, or would be, refused a driving licence for medical reasons if you apply. A doctor or similar will need to certify this. (There's some terms and conditions involved, so check with a professional.)

I did once see someone pulled over at Gare du Nord for a manual bag check, and it looked like he had around 20 Swiss army knives in his bag, still in the original packaging. That'll take a bit of explaining I guess.

Imagine if the railways could plan that far in advance :D

A Grimsel tunnel for the high voltage cable is going to happen anyway. The question is whether the electricity company can get some of its costs covered by the railway infrastructure fund, in exchange for making it slightly larger and also putting a track in. It doesn't make sense financially...

21 to 12 is no problem, but check the station map first. Once up the escalator, walk in the direction the train came from, it's slightly faster if you get out of the back of the train and use that escalator. The turn right into the corridor with escalators up to 3-18. 12 is obviously around...

Bern has a footbridge too I think? Zurich technically has one, not connected to the platforms but for people to cross from one side of the track complex to the other - and it's a great place to watch trains.

Today, they're treating us as adults again. First this: And then the detail: And then some more about alternative routes and ticket acceptance on buses. I'd have personally put the ticket acceptance second and the detail last, but apart from that, it's the perfect way to communicate a severe...

However they seem to put a lot more emphasis on the TGV/intercity network to the neglect of regional ones, especially outside Paris. In Switzerland meanwhile, everything is just SBB (or SOB or RhB but that's not a IC/local distinction) and everything seems to get more or less equal attention...

To be fair, they did that. The message is gone now, but the first paragraph gave the non-technical information (trains delayed up to half an hour and may be cancelled between Swindon and Didcot, expect to last until early afternoon) and a basic reason (signalling system). Then if you wanted to...

Saw this today in a GWR network status message: I'm impressed they're giving some technical detail like this, and it certainly makes me more sympathetic to what's going on. Is this new that they go into this level of detail? If so, long may it remain.

I think it's rebuilt now, but until post 2000 Embrach in Switzerland had a sorry excuse for a platform, you had to cross one of the two tracks to get to the trains in the other direction and you basically got some boards in the 4 foot and 6 foot, which weren't even covering the whole length of...

The Zurich main station to Stafelhofen part has a special form of permissive working. There's an aspect that lets the next train enter the platform on sight once the front of the previous train has passed the starter signal.

Yes, technically the Glacier Express is a regular train with a supplement, and highly recommended booking in advance. As to platform changes: Zurich has this system for the S-Bahn where trains on the lower level are shown as 51/52, which is an island platform. Only a minute or two before...