Are Swiss trains genuinely reliable?

[Moritzplatz]

I think you’ll find a lot of Germans would react with incredulity to that statement nowadays (although to a certain extent that is an indication of expectations raised by decades of excellent punctuality!)

SBB had to apologise in August this year after the departing Swiss train team on the ICE Bern-Basel-Hamburg wished passengers at Basel a sarcastic 'Good luck!' for the rest of their journey with Deutsche Bahn.

This announcement was apparently greeted with much laughter from the train passengers.

 

[cactustwirly]

I think you’ll find a lot of Germans would react with incredulity to that statement nowadays (although to a certain extent that is an indication of expectations raised by decades of excellent punctuality!)

If you go to Stuttgart, everything is late! Even the S Bahn. Long distance trains frequently 20+ minutes late.

 

[Taunton]

In the past, I have seen the Swiss send off the Swiss add on coaches to international services as a separate train, to avoid picking up delays from late arrivals from other countries.

Exactly the same used to happen at Bristol TM more than a generation ago, with services from the north being regularly substantially late, so a scratch set of loco and coaches would be arranged.

 

[The exile]

Yes, Marc, puts his finger on it. I recall discussing this with the CEO of the BLS in 2011 and some of his team. Their view was that the budgets for maintenance of track and train had always been preserved through ups and downs of the economy and, as a result, both were highly reliable. Which is certainly borne out by experience of travelling there the past 20 years...

As you would expect in a country that has to cope with the vicissitudes of Alpine winters, spending on resilience isn’t viewed as unnecessary waste as seems to be the fashion over here.

 

[Bletchleyite]

As you would expect in a country that has to cope with the vicissitudes of Alpine winters, spending on resilience isn’t viewed as unnecessary waste as seems to be the fashion over here.

My experience of Geneva Airport, which seems to struggle coping with snow and ice, is that they don't necessarily spend it there either!

 

[Austriantrain]

Having more slack in the times, less intensive service so infrastructure isn't as congested

Certainly no less intensive service. Rather more intensive service than in most of Europe (Not Network SE though).

Their real secret is building- but not overbuilding - the infrastructure to tailor the service planned and (mostly) not trying to run services on insufficient infrastructure. They *do* spend a lot of Money on it obviously.

And, as others have pointed out, keeping everything in good order - being Swiss and thus very orderly and never slack certainly helps too.

 

[The exile]

Their real secret is building- but not overbuilding - the infrastructure to tailor the service planned and (mostly) not trying to run services on insufficient infrastructure. They *do* spend a lot of Money on it obviously.

Having a different definition of “overbuilding” will help. Over here it seems to mean building anything that is not going to be used to within a gnat’s whisker of its maximum capacity on a day to day basis.

 

[Trainbike46]

The Germans have the same idea as the Swiss taktfahrplan, lots of infrastructure and platforms etc.

Their railways make the UK look very reliable!

Germany is very behind on almost all infrastructure maintenance.

Coupled with things like the Friesenbrücke, which collapsed due to a ship strike in 2015, only reopening for trains in December 2025, means Germany's trains are very often very late.

Switzerland couples a very good timetable with very good maintenance (of both infrastructure and trains), leading to a very good and reliable service.

 

[The exile]

Germany is very behind on almost all infrastructure maintenance.

West Germany!

 

[eldomtom2]

I think you’ll find a lot of Germans would react with incredulity to that statement nowadays (although to a certain extent that is an indication of expectations raised by decades of excellent punctuality!)

I think you misunderstood what cactustwirly was saying - they were saying that German railways are less reliable than the UK's, not that they're more reliable.

 

[Austriantrain]

Having a different definition of “overbuilding” will help. Over here it seems to mean building anything that is not going to be used to within a gnat’s whisker of its maximum capacity on a day to day basis.

In general, Swiss infrastucture also needs trains to be very reliable - if they weren‘t, the timetable would rapidly collapse. There is - in many places - not much Reserve capacity.

 

[35B]

The flip side is that, when things go wrong, staff are less practiced in responding.

I visited last year, and had issues on both Brunigbahn and Golden Pass Express. The Brunigbahn was to do with a train failure on the single line outside Lucern, and nothing was moving. Our train eventually arrived about 1/2 hour down, was turned around very quickly, and followed the path easily.

The GoldenPass Express was on the way home, and we were tipped out at Boltigen and asked to take replacement buses to Zweisimmen. The delay was kept to a minimum and good regulation on the MOB saw us regain most of the time to Montreux.

Common to both was that the staff were way out of their comfort zones, and struggled to cope with keeping people informed. At Boltigen, they also weren't much cop at loading the buses - some Tokyo style pushers would have helped, as people nearly got left behind.

 

[nilvaj395]

Above all, long-term planning requires long-term financing. No company will develop resources simply because funds are available for the next four or five years. That not even be enough for ramping up the training for specialists. These funds must be guaranteed for at least 15 or 20 years. Otherwise, the situation will be similar to that in Germany, where available funds could not be claimed. There were no resources available for planning or implementation. Money alone is not enough.

This is a very important part. A UK example of this would be how Chiltern were able to carry out it's Evergreen project because they got a long term agreement for their franchise and could therefore look much further ahead.

You cannot really get any proper infrastructure development done if the investment is likely to go all over the place in every 4 or so year terms

 

[Jamesrob637]

Isn't something like 98% of Swiss Rail within 5 minutes of schedule, but only 60 or 70% within one minute thereof? Therefore, Swiss trains have a lot of very minor (2-4min) delays.

 

[bahnause]

Isn't something like 98% of Swiss Rail within 5 minutes of schedule, but only 60 or 70% within one minute thereof? Therefore, Swiss trains have a lot of very minor (2-4min) delays.

In 2024, 93.2% of trains arrived within 2 minutes and 59 seconds of their scheduled time. Connection punctuality was 98.7%.

Some argue that foregoing 1–2 percentage points in favour of other advantages would still generate greater customer benefit by shortening a few journeys.

 

[Tester]

In 2024, 93.2% of trains arrived within 2 minutes and 59 seconds of their scheduled time. Connection punctuality was 98.7%.

Some argue that foregoing 1–2 percentage points in favour of other advantages would still generate greater customer benefit by shortening a few journeys.

And if we could get ourselves remotely close to that, we could have the luxury of making such decisions!

 

[Struner]

Germany is very behind on almost all infrastructure maintenance.

Coupled with things like the Friesenbrücke, which collapsed due to a ship strike in 2015, only reopening for trains in December 2025, means Germany's trains are very often very late.

Switzerland couples a very good timetable with very good maintenance (of both infrastructure and trains), leading to a very good and reliable service.

Plans for the new Friesenbrücke were announced in the autumn of 2017. At the time they said it would operational in december 2024.
it’s a completely different design, a swing bridge, single track, it will be the largest bridge of its kind in Europe.
Back then nobody had a clue of corona. Current estimates are summer 2026. it’s in test mode now, the cycle path can be used at unpredictable times
a simulation video can be found here:

 

[RT4038]

I don't think it's as simple as reliability being directly correlated with money spent with no other factors involved, though.

Absolutely right. It is not all about money, it is also about culture.

Not only that, but also a mentality in which you're constantly looking for perfection. "Good enough" usually isn't anywhere near good enough for the Swiss, they expect things to work flawlessly, and they're also not afraid to enforce rules on others. It's also little things, like you won't find a Swiss rail replacement bus driver getting lost, unlike what happens all the time in the UK.

But ultimately, it's about money.

It is also about culture. Trains in the UK will never be as punctual and efficient as in Switzerland, because they are being run by British people, with British people travelling on them. British people simply will not accept the societal strictures that are present in Switzerland - you only have to look at other threads in this forum to see our views to realise that we are quite happy to give 'not quite good enough' even though we expect better than 'good enough' from our fellow citizens. I bet the Swiss have ID cards .....

Where they do benefit massively over the UK is having plenty of platforms to accommodate multiple service groups simultaneously thus providing good connections. Oh and even the local bus services connect well and advertised on the train information screens.

The UK also built plenty of platforms - only we tended to split them amongst different stations in the same place (Birmingham New Street, Snow Hill and Moor Street; Derby Midland and Friargate etc) so connections were not possible. But that is an issue of being first, and having a business culture of 'laissez-faire' rather than Government control of everything. But it is no good crying over spilt milk, or thinking that society is going to atone for their past sins and deliver up buckets of money to put railway things right.

Having a different definition of “overbuilding” will help. Over here it seems to mean building anything that is not going to be used to within a gnat’s whisker of its maximum capacity on a day to day basis.

But that is our culture, our psyche. One lot wanting to pare down the HS2 terminal to the minimum number of platforms on a good, slack day - another lot wanting to abandon the lot and rebuild existing lines with 20 years of disruption and unpunctuality in the process....... Few wanting to bite the bullet and go for the whole spending hog !

But ultimately, it's about money.

Of course, if you haven't spent the nations treasury on participating in two world wars, except profiting from armaments sales, lent the proganists money, taken in buckets of dubiously acquired wealth and have had (and still do) a very profitable transit freight traffic on the railways, then you've got plenty for such infrastructure projects, spare capacity, top class maintenance etc.

 

[NCT]

A friend at SBB says to be Switzerland spends more money on infrastructure than we spend on Network Rail.

I also wonder whether punctuality is to an extent a happy byproduct of the way they implement their takt. At each node, if all services have to arrive before the hour and depart after the hour, then all services from all speed profiles must have their dedicated platforms, even if everything runs through. If a station is served by 4 arms and each arm has a fast and slow service every 30 minutes, then that station will have 8 platforms. If slow services arrive first and leave later they'll have 5 minutes of dwell and that platform will have a 25-minute platform reoccupation. That's pure decadence by British standards. We would have 2 to 4 platforms and have services queue up one after the other on minimum dwells and minimum reoccupations. And if a segment has a 30-minute system journey time, are there instances where the sum of all Section Running Times (SRTs) is several minutes less (i.e. trains don't have to hit line speed if they depart xx:02 and arrive at xx:28 at the next node)?

 

[eldomtom2]

A friend at SBB says to be Switzerland spends more money on infrastructure than we spend on Network Rail.

Does anyone have any actual statistics on this topic? How does it compare when it comes to spend per mile of track or spend per 100 passenger-miles?

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Absolutely right. It is not all about money, it is also about culture.


It is also about culture. Trains in the UK will never be as punctual and efficient as in Switzerland, because they are being run by British people, with British people travelling on them. British people simply will not accept the societal strictures that are present in Switzerland - you only have to look at other threads in this forum to see our views to realise that we are quite happy to give 'not quite good enough' even though we expect better than 'good enough' from our fellow citizens. I bet the Swiss have ID cards .....


The UK also built plenty of platforms - only we tended to split them amongst different stations in the same place (Birmingham New Street, Snow Hill and Moor Street; Derby Midland and Friargate etc) so connections were not possible. But that is an issue of being first, and having a business culture of 'laissez-faire' rather than Government control of everything. But it is no good crying over spilt milk, or thinking that society is going to atone for their past sins and deliver up buckets of money to put railway things right.

But that is our culture, our psyche. One lot wanting to pare down the HS2 terminal to the minimum number of platforms on a good, slack day - another lot wanting to abandon the lot and rebuild existing lines with 20 years of disruption and unpunctuality in the process....... Few wanting to bite the bullet and go for the whole spending hog !

Of course, if you haven't spent the nations treasury on participating in two world wars, except profiting from armaments sales, lent the proganists money, taken in buckets of dubiously acquired wealth and have had (and still do) a very profitable transit freight traffic on the railways, then you've got plenty for such infrastructure projects, spare capacity, top class maintenance etc.

The standard gauge network in Switzerland was built by a myriad of private companies and had the same problems as GB with competing lines, separate stations, inadequate infrastructure, multiple bankruptcies etc. It was only until the Swiss voted in a referendum in 1898 for nationalisation (enacted from 1901) that things began to be sorted out. Geneva had a mess of separate stations - Cornavin was owned by the French PLM until 1912 - and it is only this century that an E-W cross city line has been built. A conscious decision to electrify all lines was taken after WW1 because of the coal shortages experienced then - today SBB is 100% electric which certainly helps with reliability.

 

[philg999]

Of course, if you haven't spent the nations treasury on participating in two world wars, except profiting from armaments sales, lent the proganists money, taken in buckets of dubiously acquired wealth and have had (and still do) a very profitable transit freight traffic on the railways, then you've got plenty for such infrastructure projects, spare capacity, top class maintenance etc.

The Netherlands and Austria have great rail infrastructure and impressed reliability as well, and they were very much not sitting out of the war lending money to the protagonists! They were occupied, heavily bombed, and their rail networks were in ruins by the end of WW2. The Netherlands also lost its empire after the war and had to deal with that. Ultimately it comes down to how well the country is governed, or not, and most importantly how much those in charge value public transport.

 

[Bemined]

In 2024, 93.2% of trains arrived within 2 minutes and 59 seconds of their scheduled time. Connection punctuality was 98.7%.

According to their website, connection punctuality is measured over all connections within 30 minutes of arrival, not taking the direction of the trains into account (e.g. trains heading back to where you came from count as well). That does make this figure less useful, what matters most if whether short connections are possible. In the Netherlands for example we have a couple of 2/3 minute connections in our long distance intercity network, and probably one of the biggest complaints is seeing the connecting train depart from the opposite side of the platform when your train arrives just slightly late.

 

[The exile]

According to their website, connection punctuality is measured over all connections within 30 minutes of arrival, not taking the direction of the trains into account (e.g. trains heading back to where you came from count as well). That does make this figure less useful, what matters most if whether short connections are possible. In the Netherlands for example we have a couple of 2/3 minute connections in our long distance intercity network, and probably one of the biggest complaints is seeing the connecting train depart from the opposite side of the platform when your train arrives just slightly late.

And even if there’s a 15-minute Takt, if your journey’s short, that delay can be significant as a proportion of you expected journey time (a fourteen minute delay to a seven hour journey probably goes almost unnoticed - but if your journey is only supposed to be a quarter of an hour, doubling it is bound to increase the frustration level)

 

[DanielB]

And even if there’s a 15-minute Takt, if your journey’s short, that delay can be significant as a proportion of you expected journey time (a fourteen minute delay to a seven hour journey probably goes almost unnoticed - but if your journey is only supposed to be a quarter of an hour, doubling it is bound to increase the frustration level)

The frustrating part is also that in the Netherlands missing the connection frequently means that you end up in the direct train that left 15 minutes later from your departure station.

 

[Austriantrain]

The Netherlands and Austria have great rail infrastructure and impressed reliability as well, and they were very much not sitting out of the war lending money to the protagonists! They were occupied, heavily bombed, and their rail networks were in ruins by the end of WW2. The Netherlands also lost its empire after the war and had to deal with that. Ultimately it comes down to how well the country is governed, or not, and most importantly how much those in charge value public transport.

I would argue that it is still a mentality issue. To build excellent rail infrastructure, you need to plan very long-term *and* stick to your plans. Much much more than for a motorway, where you could build another 15 km and two new exits and they will already be useful, even though a further extension is being held up. 15 km of HS2 is useful for absolutely nothing.

And some countries are better at „long-termism“ than others, with Switzerland very much on top (probably together with Japan). The US for instance would be absolutely at the bottom.

In Austria, which you mentioned, we only got somewhat good at it 25 years ago. I still don’t think long-term thinking is guaranteed here for the future.

 

[RT4038]

The Netherlands and Austria have great rail infrastructure and impressed reliability as well, and they were very much not sitting out of the war lending money to the protagonists! They were occupied, heavily bombed, and their rail networks were in ruins by the end of WW2. The Netherlands also lost its empire after the war and had to deal with that. Ultimately it comes down to how well the country is governed, or not, and most importantly how much those in charge value public transport.

Every country has its own unique set of historic and economic factors. None of those are the full reasons behind railway punctuality - there are cultural factors too, plus the decisions of priority at any given time, for good or for bad. Switzerland has a particular combination.

I would argue that it is still a mentality issue. To build excellent rail infrastructure, you need to plan very long-term *and* stick to your plans. Much much more than for a motorway, where you could build another 15 km and two new exits and they will already be useful, even though a further extension is being held up. 15 km of HS2 is useful for absolutely nothing.

And some countries are better at „long-termism“ than others, with Switzerland very much on top (probably together with Japan). The US for instance would be absolutely at the bottom.

In Austria, which you mentioned, we only got somewhat good at it 25 years ago. I still don’t thing long-term thinking is guaranteed here for the future.

Quite. Britain lies between (Mainland) Europe and the USA. Its culture, views and attitudes tend to be a mixture of both, and to make matters worse we swing (sometimes violently) between. We aren't anywhere near perfectionists (although we expect our fellow citizens to be). Punctuality, reliability and consistency are an aspiration, not a reality. I'm British - I've lived and worked in other countries - all have their strengths and weaknesses - and my experience has helped me to recognise ours and rejoice in it, even though it can be quite exasperating sometimes!

 

[johncrossley]

The gist of this thread is that infrastructure failures can be minimised by good maintenance. That somewhat contradicts the response I got on another thread which basically said there is little can be done and disruption is inevitable.

 

[Krokodil]

The gist of this thread is that infrastructure failures can be minimised by good maintenance. That somewhat contradicts the response I got on another thread which basically said there is little can be done and disruption is inevitable.

Given how many points failures we've experienced locally since "modernising maintenance" that have been down to a simple lack of lubrication, it was pretty clear to everyone except the top brass at Network Rail or the DfT that replacing preventative maintenance with fixing faults as they occur would massively increase disruption.

 

[Route115?]

Generally Swiss trains are reliable. However, when I travelled on the Rhastiche Bahn last month there were delays of up to ten to fifteen minutes - much better than I experienced with DB but not what I expect in Switzerland. You are always on a knife edge with a single track railway with passing points. If a train is late it either delays a train at the next passing pont or you have to shift the passing point. Swiss railways generally have a recovery margin of around 7% (four minutes in an hour) and sometimes more for mountain railways. This combined with slick operating generally keeps things going. One delays exceed the recovery time you get problems. Swiss trains often add additional coaches at busy travel times slowing speeds. Many routes have request stops. The timetable allows for stops at all stations if a train does stop every days - as it did on the day I travelled it removes a further chance for recovery. The Swiss do try and hold trains for connections, and 98.7% were made last year (how does that compare with Britain?) but they are missed on occassions.