The 2012 timetable: Switzerland on track and half an hour quicker to Paris

Transcription

1 SBB Media Centre Media Release, 17 November 2011 Expansion of both national and international services The 2012 timetable: Switzerland on track and half an hour quicker to Paris The forthcoming timetable change will come into effect on the night of December Throughout Switzerland, customers on regional and longdistance services will benefit from improvements, and the range of international services will also be expanded. The commissioning of the Rhine-Rhône high-speed route will reduce the journey from Basel to Paris by a further 30 minutes. The new TGV 2N2 Lyria Euroduplex trains will soon begin using this route. At a media conference held jointly with Lyria SAS, the subsidiary that it holds with SNCF, SBB presented the new high-speed train TGV 2N2 Lyria Euroduplex, which was making an intermediary stop at Basel SBB station during an acceptance run. This rolling stock will be successively phased on the six return services that will soon begin operating via Basel to Paris. The new Rhine-Rhône TGV route section means that Paris is now four hours away from Zurich, and just three away from Basel. This reduces journey time by 30 minutes. The trains will travel at speeds of up to 320 km/h, and with the new Lyriapremiere on-board service, 1st class passengers will also be able to enjoy various additional benefits (see Lyria factsheet). Passengers travelling to Germany can also look forward to the timetable change: five ICE trains a day will be running from Interlaken Ost via Basel to Frankfurt (and on to Berlin) and back. Eight trains (ICE or EC) will operate between Zurich and Frankfurt or Cologne (and to or from Hamburg). Another major European city, Brussels, will once again enjoy a direct train connection from Chur. Passengers travelling to Austria will continue to have five Railjet and two EuroNight services to choose from. In press@sbb.ch / Page 1/5

2 addition, though, one Railjet train pair connecting Zurich and Vienna will now continue to the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Expansion of national services The 2012 timetable will bring further upgrades to services on the Swiss network: inauguration of the first stage of the RER Fribourg I Freiburg rapid transit network will provide half-hourly direct services between Fribourg and Bulle. Morning and evening services on these routes will continue to Berne (seven train pairs). More double-deck trains will be running between Geneva Airport and Lucerne, offering more seats. A new InterRegio service will connect Neuchâtel and Lausanne each morning, and the S4 between Allaman and Lausanne will run from Morges with 17 train pairs and FLIRT rolling stock. The offering on the Neuchâtel La Chaux-de-Fonds Le Locle route will be increased during peak hours, with an additional train pair running between Neuchâtel and Biel/Bienne. Another peak-hours upgrade will see more services running between La Plaine and Geneva. Services on the Coppet Geneva Lancy Pont-Rouge route will be expanded to run at half-hourly intervals until the close of operations on Fridays and Saturdays. On the Brunnen-Zurich route a new, direct morning train will arrive in Zurich at 06:51 (starting from Brunnen on weekdays and from Arth-Goldau at weekends). The S6 on the Otelfingen Baden route will run continuously at half-hourly intervals on Saturdays and Sundays. Four trains a day will run in each direction on weekdays, with a change in Wettingen. On the Brugg Winterthur Seen route, the S12 is scheduled to begin using the new Regio-Dosto double-deck rolling stock from February During off-peak periods, the Regio service between Rapperswil and Linthal will run from Schwanden to Linthal as a train rather than a bus. FLIRT vehicles will begin operating on RE services between Olten and Lucerne, and all RE services will now stop at Aarburg-Oftringen. The S9 between Lucerne and Lenzburg will now be a continuous half-hourly service even on Sundays, with the schedule at 30-minute intervals thus running right through the week. The Biel/Bienne Delle route gains a new early connection (04:00-04:30) between Porrentruy and Delémont in both directions, to connect the Ajoie area to Basel and to secure the connection to the French press@sbb.ch / Page 2/5

3 high-speed network at Belfort TGV via Delle and the Optymo bus service. What is more, all train services from Porrentruy and Boncourt to Delle will be lengthened and will run every day. The S26 between Aarau and Rotkreuz will be running at halfhourly intervals in the evenings between Muri und Rotkreuz (two additional train pairs). On the Bellinzona Luino Gallarate Malpensa Airport route, eight train pairs (seven to Malpensa) will be running every two hours. Moderate changes on the Gotthard corridor It has already been announced that, as of the timetable change, Trenitalia will only be using its ETR 610 trains in Italy. This means that an ETR 470 will run on the Basel Lucerne Milan route instead of the current ETR 610, and the direct service to Venice will no longer be available. A connection to a different service will be available in Milan. Specific measures are being taken to improve the quality of the 2012 timetable. For example, the journey times for EC 15, EC 22 and EC 24 services will be extended. Journeys on these routes will take around 30 minutes longer, but this will ensure that customary Swiss punctuality is maintained. In addition, stopovers at the terminus stations of Milan and Zurich will be longer for certain trains. This also guarantees timetable stability and allows more time for cleaning. In a further measure to relieve pressure on and stabilise the timetable, SBB will continue to run additional ICN trains for all EC services between Zurich and Lugano, some of which will continue to Chiasso. Because of limited rolling stock availability, six train pairs will be offered between Zurich and Milan instead of the current seven. Two trains (those departing Zurich at 13:09 and arriving in Zurich at 16:51) will run as ICN services to and from Chiasso. For both these ICN services, rapid transit connections to/from Milan Porta Garibaldi will be available in Chiasso. The current offering on the Basel Berne Milan and Milan ( Venice) corridors remains unchanged. Only SBB ETR 610 trains will be used. At weekends, services will be supported by an additional unit (double trainsets). press@sbb.ch / Page 3/5

4 WLANs on new double-deck trains Mobile communication on board is becoming increasingly important at SBB. All new trains will have power sockets, and existing long-distance trains will have these retrofitted. To improve data reception in long-distance trains, on-board repeaters will be fitted in collaboration with the relevant providers. These strengthen the signal received outside and inside each coach and enable better access to the mobile phone network and the internet. "We will equip all new double-deck trains with WLANs," said Janine Pilloud, Head of SBB's Passenger division. SBB is aiming for further improvements to services in Switzerland. "I am conscious that we have asked a lot of our customers recently with high prices and charges. But the fact is that SBB's employees provide an outstanding and reliable product day in, day out," continued Pilloud, who believes that SBB must make an even greater effort in the areas of service and quality. "I have commissioned a customer service package to meet this demand." Pilloud can also envisage compensation for delays on national services, for example. Further expansions to the online Ticket Shop SBB is constantly expanding its range of services in the online Ticket Shop. CityNightLine services to Prague, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam, and EuroNight services to Graz, Villach and Vienna can now be booked on the SBB website, and tickets printed out directly. More and more customers are using their mobile phones to purchase tickets. The SBB app has already been downloaded 1.8 million times, and its popularity shows no signs of abating. Because of timetable changes made by foreign railway companies, printed international timetables are often out of date soon after they are released. As demand for these is dwindling, SBB has decided to stop producing international printed timetables. There are also changes to the range of city timetables. Some of these for smaller stations will no longer be printed separately. Instead, they will be integrated into the existing regional timetables. Freely accessible timetable PCs with the latest information will be available at over 60 stations. Customers can also continue to receive timetable information free of charge at ticket counters. press@sbb.ch / Page 4/5

5 Details of the timetable offering can be found in the media pack. Photos of the new TGV Lyria 2N2 are available at The timetables of SBB's subsidiaries can be found on their respective websites: and / Page 5/5