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terminous | 2 years ago

To counterpoint: in the height of summer tourist season 2023, I spent a week in Switzerland taking trains and booked several supersaver tickets in advance with 15-30 minute connections. I was told stories of the efficiency of Swiss trains, and that I could book 5-10 min connections with no problems, but chose to be safe and do 15-30 mins. Well, I missed 3 of these connections due to delays on the incoming train. I had to queue at the ticket booth to get it endorsed for the next train.

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altano|2 years ago

There's no need for anecdotes as the data is published. Only ~1% of connections are missed: https://reporting.sbb.ch/punctuality?=&years=1,4,5,6,7&scrol...

~93% of trains are punctual with a VERY strict definition for punctual: within 3 minutes of the scheduled time.

If you experienced worse, you were in an unlucky minority of people.

palata|2 years ago

If your train is not too late, the connection will wait for you. If it can't wait, they will tell you about the alternative.

My experience in Germany is that the connection does not wait, and you just end up having to find your way yourself. It's a bit weird when not used to it, and it seems to mean that you can basically take whatever train you want that you believe goes towards your goal.

terminous|2 years ago

> you can basically take whatever train you want that you believe goes towards your goal.

That's a big difference between Germany and Switzerland. Full fare tickets let you take any route, but reasonably priced tickets are specific to a schedule of trains. If there is a delay causing a misconnect, you have to queue at the ticket window to get it endorsed for a later specific train. And my ticket inspectors on the train seriously inspected the endorsement each time.

snovv_crash|2 years ago

If the incoming train was first going through Italy or Germany the punctuality statistics are much much worse. I regularly book 5-8 minute overlaps and I don't remember the last time I missed a connection, but this is Zürich into the mountains mostly.

haspok|2 years ago

Summer 2023 was a particularly bad time for SBB. Summer in general is the worst time of the year for traffic (both car and public transport) anyway.