from Hacker News

The integrated timetable of Switzerland

by jokteur on 6/20/22, 8:54 AM with 158 comments

by mfsch on 6/20/22, 10:28 AM
What isn’t explained in the article is how this was made possible. While carefully adjusting departure times is certainly part of it, there were also a range of construction projects that shaved minutes off the travel times between major hubs to bring them just below multiples of 30 minutes (and 15 minutes in some cases). This makes it much easier to coordinate arrivals and departures and minimize transfer times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_2000
by belter on 6/20/22, 10:31 AM
No doubt Swiss train network is excellent.
If we are to trust to published statistics form other countries for 2018, and using for the Swiss system, the 2021 data mentioned in the article: "about 92% of passenger trains were on-time" this would make it for punctuality, somewhat middle of the league. Behind Poland, Greece and Bulgaria for example.
This is assuming being on time is: "a delay of five minutes or less". For Swiss network the article uses the definition: "a delay of three minutes or less".
"Share of regional and local passenger rail services classified as punctual in Europe in 2018, by country": https://www.statista.com/statistics/1255048/punctuality-regi...
by config_yml on 6/20/22, 10:48 AM
Man it costs a lot of money to maintain this, but Switzerland will continue to invest heavily into rail service, backed by the public: https://www.bav.admin.ch/bav/en/home/modes-of-transport/rail...
One project I find pretty cool is the 4 track expansion via tunnel under and through an existing village: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi2rmEl8ULA
by immmmmm on 6/20/22, 9:56 AM
Swiss here. Amazing system, using it everyday. Brutally expensive tickets tho.
by atemerev on 6/20/22, 11:13 AM
Not only this, the transportation network is intermodal-synchronized. Meaning that e.g. most buses will come to train stations at times that are convenient to take a train to somewhere, without much waiting. This is achieved by constant numerical simulations and optimizations of real transport patterns.
by BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 on 6/20/22, 4:52 PM
An interesting contrast to Alberta where you pretty much have to have a car to get to the mountains for hiking, climbing, skiing, biking, scenic dining...
Public transit in the mountain national parks is limited to daily hostel shuttles and a bus between Banff and Jasper. However I have been able to finagle a ride on a tour bus to Takkakaw Falls and come back a week later.
As for provincial parks and trailheads, forget it.
Back in the '80s, a two lane highway was sufficient. The lack of transit has necessitated an extremely expensive twinning of the Trans Canada highway from Alberta to British Columbia.
The Swiss fares and timetables enable people to get their recreation without having a car and paying gas, registration, maintenance, parking...
That's one good way to limit global warming - brought to you in large part by the car centered North American suburb.
by eterevsky on 6/20/22, 3:24 PM
It would be interesting to see what will happen if the times of the trains are moved to random other times within the hour. In might well be that short transfer times is just statistical consequence of having many scheduled trains.
There are probably some trains that are intentionally synchronized, but I don't think there's too many of them, because synchronizing all trains is simply impossible. For instance if you have a timetable where it's convenient to transfer from train A to train B, then in the same timetable it will be inconvenient to transfer from B to A since you will have to wait almost 30 minutes (or an hour for hourly trains).
Also a nitpick: "Gemeinde (administrative limit of a city)". Gemeinde means "municipality". All small villages belong to some municipalities.
by jgrahamc on 6/20/22, 10:32 AM
If you're wondering about the title here I assume that the writer is a French speaker and is using the word "correspondance" meaning "transfer or connection".
by neosat on 6/20/22, 1:06 PM
Having experienced this during an exchange program, without any car there, I never once felt constrained that I couldn't travel where I wanted. A great example that I wish every country aspired to emulate
by londons_explore on 6/20/22, 12:22 PM
Switzerland is a very rich country per capita. It can afford to spend a lot on public transit to get a very good service.
That's important to remember when wondering if these ideas could be applied to your country.
by _zoltan_ on 6/20/22, 6:53 PM
I had to be in Genf for an appointment at our temporary embassy (normally living in Zurich) and before the day I bought a "day GA" - a pass that allowed me to travel almost all of Switzerland for a fixed price. The train takes around 3 hours or so one way, so once there, I just hopped on a bus (covered by the GA), did what I went there to do, then did the trip back as well.
I had an electric socket under my seat so I could work on the train.
Cost? 69 CHF for the day. (Or 59? ish.). Cheap enough.
by kuon on 6/20/22, 10:52 AM
In the area where I live (near Aigle on the east of Leman) the main problem is that there are only two tracks (one each direction) going to Geneva. Which makes it hard to have frequent stops. I live at 100m from the tracks, but I have to do 8km to take the train at Aigle.
I lived in Tokyo for some time, and you have stops everywhere, mainly possible because there is so many tracks running.
But in Switzerland, many places suffers from this.
by toss1 on 6/20/22, 3:17 PM
The people running the Boston Transit system REALLY need to read this
Very impressed with the Swiss system. I could consistently take my seat, and watch a station clock as the departure time approached, and the train would inevitably start to roll on the very second. It seemed like the conductors really took pride in the exactness.
It was also worrisome one evening when I was traveling alone with all my ski racing gear (multiple bags and ski bags). The schedule showed elapsed time between stop-departure as one minute at the small town station where I had to disembark. The doors seemed to open randomly at one end of the car or the other, but never both, and no conductor to be found to ask. I got all ready, sprinted with the gear to the open door, got everything off, and the train indeed left in 60 seconds. Fortunately, I was so nervous that I managed to get everything off with about 30sec to spare...
by alx__ on 6/20/22, 5:00 PM
What's wild is that the width of Switzerland is nearly the distance between SF and LA. We're still figuring out how to build one train line. On mostly flat ground. Maybe when I'm retired we'll have a better transit system
by MichaelRazum on 6/20/22, 12:41 PM
Can confirm. Trains are good. BUT in some situations very expensive, where you have to pay like 20$ for 20 minutes. And it is not transperent, why some roads are more expensive then others.
by flohofwoe on 6/20/22, 12:01 PM
Theoretically, such an integrated timetable likely also exists in Germany. And I definitely don't want to complain, all connections from my hillbilly home village to the capital run at a one hour clock cycle or better, and I only need to switch trains twice on the whole journey. If it works, it works great, but if any train is late (and usually that's the ICE between Hamburg and Munich), then all bets are off :)
by rspoerri on 6/20/22, 11:44 AM
i just encountered this video while browsing around from this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTnFpKCAJtE
Very interesting documentation on the process of tunneling.
by jkarni on 6/20/22, 3:50 PM
I'm currently reading this in the Bern train station, since my train to Basel was cancelled altogether.
(Though yes, there's another one soon.)
by archerx on 6/20/22, 11:13 AM
My train to and from work has been late almost every day since last year. I feel like I don't live in Switzerland. So where are the punctual trains that this article is talking about and I am paying so much for?