Passenger Traffic

Passengers disembarking from a double-decker train.
Every day around 1.4 million people use the railway in Switzerland.
© FOT

Switzerland has an attractive railway system. Passenger trains operate either every quarter of an hour, every half an hour or every hour. The major train stations have good changing connections. The average Swiss uses the railway around 70 times each year, travelling about 2,400 kilometres – a record in Europe.

Long-distance travel is financially self-supporting. For regional transport the FOT, together with the cantons, commissions public transport routes and services, for example for regional rail travel, and finances the scheduled deficit costs. This applies not only to rail travel, but also to regional transport by bus, cable railway and travel by boat. Like other transport carriers, all commercial traffic by rail requires a licence from the FOT.

https://www.bav.admin.ch/content/bav/en/home/modes-of-transport/railways/passenger-traffic.html