The SBB and other companies are struggling with the corona-related decline in frequencies. The first-class Swiss rail system can only be financed if politicians and the industry are less lax about spending the funds.
In 2021, around a third fewer passengers were traveling with SBB than before the pandemic.
The federal government is investing a lot of money in the nationwide renewal of Swiss railway stations and stations – including in Tschamut-Selva. The bus stop in front of the Oberalp Pass is steeply above a hamlet and is popular with hikers. In 2019, the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn extensively expanded the little-used station to make it handicapped accessible.
The Disability Equality Act stipulates that public transport must be barrier-free by the end of 2023. The federal government neatly lists which stations meet the requirements and which do not. Many railway companies are also in the process of comprehensively renewing their rolling stock. Switzerland can afford it: the financial pots for public transport are bulging.
But the corona pandemic has now left its mark on the balance sheets of the industry for the second time. SBB will run a deficit of CHF 325 million in 2021, as they announced on Tuesday. The debt rose to over 11 billion. Without the support of the taxpayer, the minus would have been about twice as high. Passenger numbers are still a third below pre-crisis levels. The situation is similar for most Swiss railways, even if the losses are lower.
Frequencies are likely to recover, although some commuter traffic is unlikely to return. Switzerland rightly continues to rely heavily on the railways. This must play an even more important role in the future if the federal government wants to achieve its climate and environmental goals. But more money for rail is not automatically good. The tense financial situation of the SBB and other railways is an opportunity to question luxury solutions in public transport.
This also applies to the Disability Equality Act. Of course, this gives the railways clear guidelines. Too many failed to make their wards barrier-free on time. But the federal government is too lax with the funds when even stops such as Tschamut-Selva are now being expanded to the same standards. Nobody in the industry dares to publicly disagree. You don’t want to mess with the associations for the disabled. Bern is paying for the expansions, it is said succinctly. The federal government hides behind norms and uses its leeway too little.
Even with the expansion of the rail network, the wallet is too loose. For reasons of regional policy, Parliament always tops up the Federal Council’s expansion packages. It will never work in Switzerland to expand only the busiest routes. But Deutsche Bahn has to focus on its strengths. It can best exploit its advantages when transporting larger quantities of people and goods in a limited space.
Expenditure on regional transport, the operation of which is financed jointly by the cantons and the federal government, has risen sharply for some time. That hides the costs. The cantons, which have a minimum of funds thanks to the financial equalization system, should finance the operation of regional transport themselves. That would reduce the incentive to continue operating high-deficit routes – and to renew them with a lot of federal money.
When it comes to rolling stock, the motto that only the newest and best is good enough also applies all too often. The SBB and other railways are increasingly tending to procure multiple units, which they discard after a comparatively short period of use. Fleet policy must be geared towards the longer term again.
Switzerland is proud of its dense, first-class rail network – even during the pandemic. The SBB and the Rhaetian Railway proved how well this works last Sunday: they coped superbly with the day of heavy traffic with fine weather, on which the Engadin Skimarathon took place. In order for this to be possible in the future, however, the system must remain affordable. This requires economical use of funds.