It ends at the border More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland
If Deutsche Bahn trains are too unpunctual, they are not allowed to cross the Swiss border. This is happening more and more frequently.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- If Deutsche Bahn trains are late, they have to stop at the Swiss border.
- In the first quarter of 2024, this measure was applied much more frequently than in the previous year.
- The regulation between Deutsche Bahn and SBB was introduced in July 2022.
More than every tenth train from Germany was stopped at the Swiss border in the first quarter of this year and was not allowed to continue its journey. This was due to delays to German ICE trains. SBB wants to ensure punctuality in its own network with this measure.
This is according to a response from the German Federal Ministry of Transport in Germany, as reported by the "Süddeutsche Zeitung". According to the report, eleven percent of trains on the Munich-Zurich route were prevented from continuing their journey - a significant increase compared to the previous year. In 2023, only two percent of trains were affected. On the Freiburg-Basel route, as many as 12.4 percent of trains had to turn back.
Temporary becomes permanent
SBB introduced the regulation back in July 2022 in consultation with Deutsche Bahn. Introduced as a "temporary measure" at the time, it is now permanent.
SBB grants Eurocity trains on the Munich-Zurich route a buffer of ten minutes before reallocating their train path, and even 15 minutes for ICE trains between Freiburg and Basel.
Another figure illustrates why the practice is necessary from a Swiss perspective: in 2023, 92.5 percent of all trains in Switzerland reached their destination on time, compared to only 64 percent for long-distance trains in Germany.
