Railways in Switzerland – Historical overwiew

On 7 August 1847, the first railway line on Swiss soil in its entirety was opened for passenger transport between Zurich and Baden. It became known as the "Spanish-Brötli Bahn". However, the first trains had already run in Switzerland three years earlier, operated by the French Compagnie du chemin de fer de Strasbourg à Bâle, travelling from Strasbourg to Basel. In the early years, the construction and operation of railway lines was based on private initiatives, which were able to start operations in the cantons concerned after obtaining licences. The federal government only issued guidelines on the most important technical issues.

As a result, competition between the private railways continued to increase and the national network could not be standardised, the federal parliament transferred the right to grant licences to the Confederation with the second Railway Act in 1872, which thus regained control over construction, operation and tariff regulations. As a result of these resolutions, the Federal Railway Department was founded in 1873, the forerunner of today's Federal Office of Transport (FOT). In the following years, dissatisfaction with the operators of the private railway companies became increasingly loud, so that at the beginning of the 20th century the federal government initiated the gradual takeover of the private railways. On 1 January 1902, SBB was founded as a Swiss state railway. The Swiss railway network now covers over 5,300 kilometres with more than 1,600 stations and stops, some of which are once again operated by private companies.

The difference between railway, tram and rack railway

In Switzerland, railways, trams and rack railways are the main means of transport. The Federal Statistical Office defines these modes of transport as follows (analogous translation):

Railways are rail-bound vehicles on which public passenger or freight transport is operated, with the exception of rack railways, trams and funicular railways.

Trams, on the other hand, are rail-bound public passenger transport vehicles that are used exclusively for urban and/or local transport.

Rack railways are also rail-bound vehicles on which public passenger or freight transport is operated, but they have at least a track-related cogwheel share of 50 per cent.

Railway stations in Switzerland

This map contains information on around 1,200 railway stations in Switzerland. This map focuses on passenger volumes, i.e. the number of passengers boarding and alighting at each station (passengers changing trains count twice). The passenger volume figures are available for 2018 and 2022. These are split into three categories:

1. average daily traffic (Monday to Sunday).
2. average weekday traffic (Monday to Friday).
3. average non-working day traffic (Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays).

The following figure (2) shows the five largest railway stations in Switzerland according to their daily passenger volume (Mon - Sun). With just under 350,000 passengers boarding and alighting, Zurich main station is the largest railway station in Switzerland.

Looking at Switzerland as a whole, an average of around 3.5 million passenger movements took place every day in 2022. Figure 3 shows that the five railway stations with the most passengers accounted for around 20 per cent of the total passenger movements.