Swiss Federal Railways
billion (2022)[5] | |
Number of employees | 34,227 (2022, FTE)[6] |
---|---|
Divisions | Passenger, SBB Cargo, Infrastructure, Real Estate |
Website | sbb |
Overhead line | |
Length | 3,230 km (2,007.0 mi) |
---|
Swiss Federal Railways (German: Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, SBB; French: Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses, CFF; Italian: Ferrovie federali svizzere, FFS)[1] is the national railway company of Switzerland.
The company, founded in 1902, is headquartered in Bern.[7] It used to be a government institution, but since 1999 it has been a special stock corporation whose shares are held by the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss cantons. It is currently the largest rail and transport company of Switzerland; it operates on most standard gauge lines of the Swiss network. It also heavily collaborates with most other transport companies of the country, such as the BLS, one of its main competitors, to provide fully integrated timetables with cyclic schedules.
SBB was ranked first among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index for its intensity of use, quality of service, and safety rating.[8] While many rail operators in continental Europe have emphasised the building of high-speed rail, SBB has invested in the reliability and quality of service of its conventional rail network, on both national and regional scales. In addition to passenger rail, SBB operates cargo and freight rail service, through its subsidiary SBB Cargo, and has large real estate holdings in Switzerland.
Name
The company is commonly referred to by the initials of its three official names (in German, French, Italian) – defined by federal law SR/RS 742.31 (SBBG/LCFF/LFFS) Art. 2 §1[1] – either as SBB CFF FFS, or used separately. The official English abbreviation is SBB.[note 2][3][2][4][9]
While the official Romansh name, Viafiers federalas svizras (VFF), can be found in federal laws and associated documents,[3][4][2][10] as well as Romansh-language media,[11] it is not used by the company itself.
Organisation
Swiss Federal Railways is divided into three divisions and eight groups.[12] The divisions manage the relevant operational businesses. These divisions are:
- Passenger traffic
- Infrastructure
- Real estate
The former division Cargo became an independent group company at the beginning of 2019.
SBB's eight groups manage the company and support the operational business of the divisions with service and support functions. These groups are:
- Finance
- HR
- IT
- Communications
- Corporate Development
- Safety & Quality
- Legal and Compliance
- Supply Chain Management
The corporation is led in an entrepreneurial manner. A performance agreement between Swiss Federal Railways and the Swiss Confederation defines the requirements and is updated every four years. At the same time the compensation rates per train and track-kilometre are defined.
A subsidiary,
The Stiftung Historisches Erbe der SBB ("SBB Historic") was founded in 2002. This foundation takes care of historic rolling stock and runs a technical library in Bern, document and photographic archives, and the SBB poster collection.
Figures
All figures from 2021:
- Length of railway network: 3,156 km in standard gauge and 103 km metre gauge[13]
- Percentage electrified routes: 100%[13]
- Employees: 33,943[14]
- Passengers carried per day: 0.88 million[15]
- Passenger-kilometer per inhabitant and year: 2,215 kilometres (1,376 mi)[15]
- Stations open to passengers: 795[13]
- Customer Punctuality: 91.9% of all passengers reached their destination - measured from departure station including any necessary changes - with less than three minutes of delay (either two or one minute delay, or on time)[16]
- Customer-weighted connection punctuality: 98.9%[16]
- Freight per year: 48 million tons[15]
- Stations with freight traffic: 193
- Railway tunnels: 311[13]
- Railway Tunnels total length: 431.0 kilometres (267.8 mi)[13]
- Longest Tunnel: 57.1 kilometres (35.5 mi) (Gotthard Base Tunnel) world record
- Railway Bridges: 4,925[13]
- Railway bridges total length: 108.7 kilometres (67.5 mi)[13]
- Electric multiple units (fixed compositions of power cars and coaches): 656[17]
- Power Cars: 108[17]
- Mainline locomotives: 543 (passenger services: 322 / freight services: 221)[17]
- Shunting locomotives: 224 (38/75/ infrastructure: 111)[17]
- Shunting tractors: 245 (18/24/203)[17]
- Passenger coaches: 1,982[17]
- Freight wagons: 4,671[17]
- Hydroelectric plants: 8[13]
- Electricity produced and procured: 3063 GWh[13]
- Electricity used for railway operations: 2,275 GWh[13]
- Proportion of traction current from renewable sources: 90.2%[13]
The Swiss Federal Railways rail network is totally electrified. The metre gauge
History
In the 19th century, all Swiss railways were owned by private ventures. The economic and political interests of these companies led to lines being built in parallel and some companies went bankrupt in the resulting competition. On 20 February 1898 the Swiss people agreed in a
Later that year, the
The following railway companies were nationalised:[how?]
- Aargauische Südbahn(ASB)
- Bötzbergbahn(BöB)
- Schweizerische Nordostbahn(NOB)
- Schweizerische Centralbahn(SCB)
- Toggenburgerbahn(TB)
- Vereinigte Schweizerbahnen(VSB)
- Tösstalbahn including the Wald-Rüti Railway(WR)
- Wohlen-Bremgarten Railway(WB)
- Brünigbahn(the latter in 1903)
Other companies were included later, and the rail network was extended.[citation needed] It is still growing today.
On 1 January 1999 the Swiss Federal Railway has been excluded from the Federal Administration and became a fully state-owned (the federal state owns 100% of all shares) limited company regulated by public law (German: Spezialgesetzliche Aktiengesellschaft).[citation needed]
First class compartments were discontinued on 3 June 1956, and second and third class accommodation was reclassified as first and second class, respectively.[citation needed]
In 1982 SBB introduced the Taktfahrplan (
On 12 December 2004 the first phase of Bahn2000, an ambitious programme to improve the company's services, was put into effect.[19] The core element was the Zürich-Bern-Basel triangle, where travel times between the cities was reduced to under one hour, resulting in good connections from these stations for most trains. Some connections between cities got two trains in each direction per hour or more, and the S-Bahn services were intensified to four or more trains per hour. Because of these changes 90% of the timetable was changed, 12% more trains were scheduled and travel times generally improved. It was the greatest timetable change since the introduction of the Taktfahrplan.
For this change to be possible, large parts of the infrastructure had to be modified and many stations were rebuilt, for instance the line from Ziegelbrücke to Sargans or Bern main station which got the "wave of Bern", a platform over the tracks to provide better access to the platforms and the city centre.
On 22 June 2005 a short circuit on a long-distance power transmission line in central Switzerland led to a chain reaction. The entire Swiss railway network was out of service during rush hour and an estimated 200,000 people and 1,500 trains were stuck at stations or somewhere on the track. It turned out that the SBB power transmission network was overloaded and did not provide enough redundancy to tolerate the shutdown of the four cable
In the same year, the Swiss Federal Railways received the Wakker Prize, an award given out by the Swiss Heimatschutz (an institution aiming to preserve significant buildings), which is usually only granted to communes, for their extraordinary efforts. The Swiss Federal Railways have many listed buildings from well-known architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, Santiago Calatrava, and Max Vogt.
In May 2010, SBB's first integrated network control centre opened in Lausanne, to supervise all of SBB's network in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Another integrated control centre will be opened in Zürich.[20]
All trains and most buildings have been made non-smoking since the timetable change of 11 December 2005.
By the end of 2006, the corporation was handed over from the long-term CEO
On 13 January 2019, Bloomberg reported that SBB was in talks with German aviation company Lilium GmbH to create air taxis to carry customers from train stations to their final destination.[21]
Clock
The Swiss Federal Railways clock designed by Hans Hilfiker has become a national icon.[22] It is special in that it stops for just over a second at the end of each minute, to wait for a signal from the master clock which sets it going again — thus keeping all station clocks synchronised.[23][24]
The clock owes its technology to the particular requirements of operating a railway. First, railway timetables do not list seconds; trains in Switzerland always leave the station on the full minute. Secondly, all the clocks at a railway station have to run synchronously in order to show reliable time for both passengers and railway personnel anywhere on or around the station.[23]
The station clocks in Switzerland are synchronized by receiving an electrical impulse from a central master clock at each full minute, advancing the minute hand by one minute. The second hand is driven by an electrical motor independent of the master clock. It requires only about 58.5 seconds to circle the face, then the hand pauses briefly at the top of the clock. It starts a new rotation as soon as it receives the next minute impulse from the master clock.[23] This movement is emulated in some of the licensed timepieces made by Mondaine.
Rolling stock
Mainline locomotives
.The first electric trial runs using single-phase
"Lok 2000" (1992–1994).The delivery of the last Re 465 marked the end of the Swiss locomotive industries with the closure of the
Multiple units
The first multiple units originated from the
The first multiple unit trainsets were bought for the introduction of the Taktfahrplan on the line Zürich–Meilen–Rapperswil in 1967:
Some of the most popular historic multiple unit trainsets are the
On 12 May 2010, the Swiss Federal Railways announced its largest order of rolling stock; buying 59 double-deck EMUs (
In addition, SBB has received and, as of 2016, is still in the process of delivering,
Languages
SBB uses three official languages: German, French, and Italian. The Romansh-speaking regions in the canton of Grisons of Switzerland is served mostly by the Rhaetian Railway. Trains are branded "SBB CFF FFS".
Stations are named and signposted exclusively in the language of the locality. Stations of bilingual cities are named and signposted in both local languages (e.g. Biel/Bienne and Fribourg/Freiburg). The timetable only uses such official names regardless of the languages of the timetable.
Announcements in stations are usually made in local languages. However, in stations frequently used by foreigners (airports or tourism regions), in-station announcements are also made in English. On-board welcome announcements are made in all official languages of the regions served by that train, with the additional English ones onboard IC trains. Then the stops are announced in the pre-recorded local language of the town. For stations of bilingual cities, the language of announcement changes at the time of stop: when trains travelling from the French-speaking region to the German-speaking region via the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne, announcements are made in French until arriving at Bienne, and then switch to German after departing from Biel. Upon arriving at big hubs, the train conductor takes the microphone to announce in all official languages of the regions served by that train (plus English onboard IC trains) that the train is arriving, if the train is on time or not, and next connections at the station.
For instance, the main station in the German-speaking Zürich is signposted as
Since 2002, SBB has used Music in train announcements. The notes in the music correspond to the acronyms SBB CFF FFS, transposed by means of the German notes "Es - B - B" (E♭, B♭, B♭), "C - F - F" (C, F, F) and "F - F - Es" (F, F, E♭). For the German acronym, as there is no "S" note, the "Es" was used. And for the last letter, it is the B♭/G♭ chord that is played. The melody is played on a vibraphone.[30] The melody played depends on which canton (or country onboard international services) the station or train is located in, and manual announcements play the three-language melody in the file above.
Services
Train services
SBB has the following services:[31]
- R: Regio (Regionalzug): stops at all stations
- S: S-Bahn (commuter train): organized as a rapid transit system in major agglomerations, with several lines and generally high frequent service.
- RE: RegioExpress: local trains to access within a region.
- IR: InterRegio: are the workhorses of Swiss transit. They reach across two or three cantons, for instance from Geneva, along Lake Geneva through Vaud, and all the way to Brig at the far end of the Valais.
- IC: InterCity: stops at major cities (Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg etc.). For the 2017–2018 timetable, the SBB gave numbers to all IC and IR lines.
- ICN: InterCity Tilting Train Similar to the IC, but using tilting trains instead of standard/double-decked trains. The ICN designation was discontinued as of 10 December 2017, with former ICN services now being branded as IC, but still run by tilting trains.
EXT: Charter train or special train added when an exceptionally heavy traffic is expected.
Regional trains are sometimes operated by another Swiss railways operator (for example, the Bern S-Bahn services operated by the BLS AG.)
SBB also operates international
Lines
Since 2018, the SBB uses numbers and distinct colors for all its InterCity (IC) and InterRegio (IR) lines (like a subway network) to ease connections. The IC, IR and RE (RegioExpress) lines (including alternative routes) are as follows:
InterCity
Zürich HB - Zug - Arth-Goldau | - | Bellinzona - Lugano | |
- Flüelen - |
Basel SBB - | Zürich HB | • | |
Basel SBB - | - Sargans - Landquart - Chur | ||
• | - Sargans - Landquart - Chur |
Zürich HB - Singen (Hohentwiel)
|
- Stuttgart Hbf
| |
• |
Genève-Aéroport - Genève - Morges -
|
Yverdon-les-Bains - Neuchâtel - Biel/Bienne | - | Solothurn | - | Olten | - Aarau - | Zürich HB | • | |
Lausanne - | - Grenchen Süd - | - Oensingen - | - | - Zürich Flughafen - Winterthur - St. Gallen |
Basel SBB - Olten - Bern - Thun - Spiez - Visp - Brig |
Brig - Visp - Spiez - Thun - Bern - Zürich HB - Zürich Flughafen - Winterthur - Frauenfeld - Weinfelden - Amriswil - Romanshorn |
Basel SBB - Olten - Luzern - Arth-Goldau
|
- | Bellinzona - Lugano | |
- Flüelen - |
Basel SBB - Laufen - Delémont - Moutier - Grenchen Nord - Biel/Bienne |
Basel SBB | - | Olten - Bern - Thun - Spiez - Interlaken West - Interlaken Ost | |
- Liestal - |
InterRegio
Lines IR26 (since 2020), IR35 (since 2021), and IR46 (since 2020) are jointly operated with Südostbahn (SOB). Lines IR17 and IR65 are operated by BLS since December 20202 and December 2019, respectively.[33]
Zürich HB - Zürich Oerlikon - Flughafen - Winterthur - Wil - Uzwil - Flawil - Gossau SG - St Gallen - Rorschach - St. Margrethen - Heerbrugg - Altstätten SG - Buchs SG -Sargans - Bad Ragaz - Landquart - Chur |
Genève-Aéroport - Genève - Nyon - Morges - Lausanne - Palézieux - Romont - Fribourg/Freiburg - Bern - Zofingen - Sursee - Luzern |
Bern - Olten - Aarau - Brugg AG - Baden - Zürich HB |
Basel SBB - Olten - Luzern - Arth-Goldau - Ambri-Piotta - Faido - Lavorgo - Bodio TI - Biasca - Castione-Arbedo - Bellinzona - Cadenazzo - Tenero - Locarno
|
Basel SBB | - | Liestal - Sissach - Gelterkinden - Olten - Zofingen - Sursee - Luzern | |
- Muttenz - |
Bern - Burgdorf - Herzogenbuchsee - Langenthal - Olten - Zürich Altstetten - Zürich HB |
Basel SBB - Rheinfelden | - | Frick - Brugg AG - Baden | - Dietikon - Zürich Altstetten - | Zürich HB | - Zürich Oerlikon - Zürich Flughafen | |
- Stein-Säckingen - | - | • |
Basel SBB - Liestal - Sissach - Aarau - Lenzburg - Zürich HB | - Zürich Flughafen - Winterthur - Wil SG - Gossau SG - St.Gallen | |
• |
Luzern - Zug - Thalwil - Zürich HB |
Luzern - Konstanz
|
Genève-Aéroport - Genève | - Nyon - Morges - | Lausanne - Vevey - Montreux - Aigle | - | Martigny - Sion - Sierre/Siders | - Leuk - | Visp - Brig | |
- | - Bex - St-Maurice - | - |
Regio Express
RE | Luzern - - Zofingen - Olten |
RE | Locarno - Tenero - | - Como San Giovanni - Albate-Camerlata - Seregno - Monza - Milano Centrale |
• |
RE | Aarau - Lenzburg - Zürich HB |
RE | Zürich HB - Zürich Oerlikon - Bülach - Schaffhausen |
RE | Konstanz - Kreuzlingen Hafen - Romanshorn - St. Gallen - Herisau |
RE | Annemasse - Genève-Eaux-Vives - Lancy-Pont-Rouge - Genève - Coppet - Nyon - Gland - Rolle - Allaman - Morges - Renens VD - Lausanne - Vevey - Montreux - Villeneuve - Aigle - Bex - St-Maurice
|
Customer services
SBB offers additional services for customers.[34] SBB Digital promotes new digital services for customers. For example, SBB started a collaboration with the recruiting matchmaking service, Jacando,[35] and their own co-working space in Zürich.[36] SBB has won CRM awards in Switzerland for their SBB Digital activities.[37]
- SBB codeshares with American Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, and United Airlines out of Zurich Airport.
See also
- List of stock used by Swiss Federal Railways
- PostBus Switzerland
- Rail transport in Switzerland
- Public transport in Switzerland
- Gotthardbahn
- Gotthard Base Tunnel
- Lötschberg Base Tunnel
- Rail 2000
- NRLA
Notes and references
Notes
- ^ Although it is the abbreviation "VFS" that is registered in the commercial register of the canton of Bern, it is not used in federal documents and laws in Romansh.
- ^ Although the abbreviation "SFR" is also registered in the commercial register of the canton of Bern, it is never used.
References
- ^ a b c d e "SR/RS 742.31 Bundesgesetz über die Schweizerischen Bundesbahnen (SBBG/LCFF/LFFS): Art. 2 Firma, Rechtsform und Sitz, §1" (federal law) (in German, French, and Italian). Berne, Switzerland: Federal Council: Federal Lex (fedlex). 20 March 1998. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
Unter der Firma «Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB, Chemins de fer fédéraux CFF, Ferrovie federali svizzere FFS» besteht eine spezialgesetzliche Aktiengesellschaft mit Sitz in Bern.
- ^ a b c "Official Federal Abbreviations" (PDF) (official). Berne, Switzerland: Federal Chancellery of Switzerland. 19 September 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
- ^ a b c "TERMDAT - The terminology database of the Federal Administration: SBB" (official). Berne, Switzerland: Federal Chancellery. 16 November 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
- ^ a b c "Schweizerische Bundesbahnen". fedlex.data.admin.ch (official). Retrieved 4 April 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Facts and Figures – Finance 2022". Berne, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Railways. 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
- ^ "Facts and Figures – Personnel". Berne, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Railways. 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
- ^ "Imprint". Swiss Federal Railways. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
Swiss Federal Railways SBB Passenger Services Markets Trüsselstrasse 2 3000 Berne 65 Switzerland
- ^ "the 2017 European Railway Performance Index". Boston Consulting Group. 18 April 2017.
- ^ "We are SBB". Bern, Switzerland: SBB CFF FFS. Archived from the original on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
- ^ "Lescha davart il persunal da la Confederaziun (LPers)" (PDF). fedlex.data.admin.ch (in Romansh). 24 March 2000.
- ^ "Tschertga". Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha (in Romansh). Retrieved 4 April 2023.
- ^ "Organizational structure | SBB".
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Infrastructures". SBB CFF FFS. 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ "Personnel". SBB CFF FFS. 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ a b c "Transportation". SBB CFF FFS. 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ a b "Quality". SBB CFF FFS. 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Rolling Stock". SBB CFF FFS. 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ SBB history page
- ^ Murray Hughes (1 May 2005). "Bahn 2000 is working". Railway Gazette International.
- ^ "Supervising Swiss tracks". Railway Gazette International. 26 June 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
- ^ Hoffman, Andy (13 January 2019). "Swiss Rail Service Planning Electric Flying Taxis: Report". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
- ^ "Remarkable clocks and watches: the Swiss railway clock". swissworld.org. Bern: Presence Switzerland, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
- ^ a b c Köbi Gantenbein, ed. (2013). Die Bahnhofsuhr – Ein Mythos des Designs aus der Schweiz (in German). Zürich: Edition Hochparterre. Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
- ^ "Mobetime – Swiss Time Systems: References". MOSER-BAER SA. Sumiswald, Bern. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
- ^ "Bombardier réclame des centaines de millions aux CFF" [Bombardier claims for several hundreds of millions of francs from the SBB]. 24 Heures (in French). 22 January 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
- ^ "SBB Approves Pre-Series Twindexx EMU". Railway Gazette International. 11 June 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
- ^ "SBB Orders More ETR610 Tilting Trains". Railway Gazette International. 2 February 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
- ^ "ETR610 Arrives in Switzerland". Railway Gazette International. 28 June 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
- ^ "SBB's First Giruno Cars Take Shape". Railway Gazette International. 8 July 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
- ^ ""Es – B – B", "C – F – F", "F – F – Es"". sbbcffffs-community.sbb.ch (in French). 13 December 2018. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
- ^ "SBB: Train identification". Swiss Federal Railways. 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
- ^ "TGV Lyria Network". Lyria SAS. 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
- ^ "Die BLS ist bereit für Bern – Olten" (in German). Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ "SBB customer service". sbb.ch. 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
- ^ "SBB werden zum Nebenjob-Vermittler". 20 Minuten (in German). 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
- ^ "Silicon Bahnhof - SBB Co-Working Space". Handelszeitung (in German). 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
- ^ "Gewinner Innovation". Swiss CRM Institute AG (in German). 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
External links
- English SBB website
- We are SBB Archived 2 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- The SBB cargo website Archived 18 September 2004 at the Wayback Machine
- The CityNightLine website in German, Dutch, or English Archived 24 August 2004 at the Wayback Machine
- Hans-Peter Bärtschi: Federal Railways in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 27 November 2012.