Switzerland has the world’s densest rail network

This uniqueness also results in unusual competitions, such as the Swiss Train Challenge, which aims to travel through 26 cantons in under 24 hours. This can be accomplished with a simple day pass, available from your municipality for just 44 Swiss francs. In 2015, a journalist from the RTS television network completed the feat in 19 hours and 46 minutes. His team relied on the calculations of Philippe Morf, a traffic planner from the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). In 2016, a group of four young people from Ticino took up the challenge, completing it in 17 hours and 19 minutes. The team was able to rely on flawless connections, in a country where 91.9 percent of trains are on time, according to the SBB.

Trains separate home and work

Excellent rail connections can also encourage people to stay put. Instead of moving to Berne for work, a federal employee might choose to stay in Lausanne and commute. The carbon footprint remains positive, of course, since trains account for only 0.2 percent of the CO2 emissions of all land based transportation. However, Kaufmann fears this trend could impact the good relations between the different regions in Switzerland. “In the past, a job in Berne, for example, required you to relocate and learn German or even Swiss German. Commuting by train reduces these obligations, which are also opportunities for cultural exchange.”

The statistics give the impression that trains will one day be able to handle the majority of journeys. In reality, however, car usage continues to grow. No massive modal shift from individual motorised transport to public transport is evident. At the same time, many trains are crowded during rush hour. “They’re used by longdistance commuters, in particular. So it would be hard to accommodate all the motorists as well,” comments Kaufmann. According to government forecasts, demand for passenger transport is expected to increase by a further 11 percent by 2050. Meanwhile, Covid 19 has changed habits. “It’s difficult to predict the long-term structural effects of the changes brought about by the pandemic, especially in terms of remote working. We would need to experience a normal year again, but instead we have the war in Ukraine, inflation and the energy crisis,” remarks Dessemontet, the Vaudois geographer and mayor.

The longest journey from west to east: La Plaine to Scuol

What is the best way to grasp the true scope of the Swiss rail network? We chose to make the longest possible journey from west to east. This 461-kilometre trip links La Plaine (GE) to the Scuol-Tarasp station in Grisons, where the line ends. Our journey began in the early hours of the morning at the small station that marks the last stop before France. From Geneva to Brig, the train bound for Venice raced past. In Brig, the red cars of the Glacier Express were filled with tourists from all over the world. The journey to Chur via the Oberalp Pass, at an altitude of over 2,000 metres, seemed to flash by. We shared a table with a couple from Atlanta and an IT specialist from India. The former spoke of “unreliable” American trains, while the latter bemoaned “overcrowded” trains in his homeland. We changed trains in Chur bound for Landquart. From there, the train headed south-east and then east, gliding through the long Veraina tunnel. We passed the Lower Engadine, where castles perch on towering peaks and villages have lilting names like Sagliains, Lavin, Guarda and Ardez. In Scuol-Tarasp, the arrival announcement was made in Romansh. After our 10-hour journey, it felt like we had arrived in another country.

The world’s densest network

With an average of 159 trains operating per day on each line, including freight traffic, the Swiss rail network is the densest in the world. According to the Swiss Public Transport Association, it almost doubled in size between 2000 and 2019, with the number of kilometres travelled on the rails reaching a peak of 21.7 billion in 2019. By October 2022, there were 406,000 GA Travelcards (unlimited travel on the entire network) in use, and 2.8 million Half Fare Travelcards.

(SH)