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The federal government is waiving the rule: intercity trains are expected to stop soon at suburban stations
More and more jobs are being created in the suburbs. Now long-distance trains are supposed to stop there. The federal government is even relaxing a rule it originally imposed on the railroads.
The Interregio from Bern to Zurich is occasionally known as the “peasant express train”. It picks up travelers in Burgdorf, Herzogenbuchsee or Langenthal and takes them to Bern, Olten or Zurich. He has also been in Zurich-Altstetten for three years. Since then, the Federal Office of Transportation (FOT) has allowed long-distance trains to stop at suburban train stations. The BLS in Bern, for example, had resisted this and feared that a possible long-distance train stop in Bern-Wankdorf could damage the number of passengers on its S-Bahn.
The federal government did not listen, but imposed a restriction on SBB: such stops are only allowed for the basic long-distance traffic network, that is, for interregional trains. Premium network connections, i.e. intercity trains, should not be able to stop there yet. That rule was relaxed last year. Since then, the IC5 has stopped between St. Gallen and Lausanne in Zurich-Oerlikon. Now the train goes one step further.
Now even the IC1 stops in the quarter
Starting with the December time change, perhaps the most important SBB line, IC1 between Geneva Airport and St. Gallen, will stop at Zurich-Oerlikon. A spokesperson for the FOT confirms that the train is part of the premium network. However, the stop is possible. A consistent implementation of the distinction between premium and basic network is only considered later. In return, the IC5 no longer stops at Oerlikon.
It doesn’t stop there. In the future, many more long-distance trains will stop in crowds. This is demonstrated in SBB’s current planning for the network in a few years, when the “expansion step 2035” is implemented. In Zurich-Oerlikon, the IC1, which in the future will no longer travel from Geneva airport to St. Gallen, but to Konstanz or Romanshorn, the IC8 from Brig to Konstanz / Romanshorn and five interregional lines to Chur, Basel, Lucerne, Schaffhausen and Hold Solothurn. There are plans to stop three interregions in Zurich-Altstetten (Aarau-Zurich, Basel-Zurich Airport and Solothurn-St. Gallen). In turn, three interregional lines will stop at Renens VD.
Tens of thousands of new jobs
However, the stop in Bern-Wankdorf is still contested. Among other things, the headquarters of the Post and SBB are located there, with many travelers. Originally, SBB wanted long-distance trains to stop there during rush hour. But nothing will come of it. “The stop in Wankdorf is currently only possible with the S-Bahn,” says a spokesman for the FOT. Even with the expansion step in 2035, that will not change. There will be no “systematic stops in Wankdorf”: “The dense traffic in front of the Bern train station does not allow further delays in individual journeys,” the spokesman said.
It sounds a little different on SBB. When asked if the railway assesses the situation in Wankdorf in the same way as the federal government, a spokesperson says talks are underway with the federal government and the canton of Bern.
Are international trains also affected?
SBB could even imagine going further. It is conceivable that in the future international trains will stop at light rail stations, says a spokesperson. But there is still a “goal conflict with travel time and travel comfort.”
The plans of the German Ministry of Transport for the reappearance of the “Trans Europ Express” also go in this direction. As early as 2025, a high-speed connection from Amsterdam to Rome could pass through Switzerland, as this newspaper reported. In Basel, the train would not pick up passengers at Basel SBB station, but at Badischer Bahnhof. It would not approach Zurich at all, instead the train should stop at Aarau.
Thousands of jobs and large districts
The stops at the light rail stations are due to the fact that more and more people are living and many jobs have been created in recent years. Almost 110,000 people live in districts 11 and 12, known as Zurich-Nord, with the Oerlikon train station, and 66,000 worked there last year. In Zurich-Altstetten there are 45,000 employees and 35,000 employees. Renens, in the canton of Vaud, has almost 20,000 inhabitants, and SBB, as a property developer, is planning the construction of new large residential and office complexes there.
In Bern-Wankdorf, on the other hand, around 6,700 people work for SBB, the post office, the health insurance company KPT and the construction company Losinger Marazzi. Hundreds of other jobs are located in the immediate vicinity. For the employees there, for the moment, it still means taking the S-Bahn every morning. It would be especially necessary to stop a long-distance train in Wankdorf. This can also be seen in the nickname some commuters give the crowded morning S-Bahn from Bern station to Wankdorf: “Tokyo-Express.” (bzbasel.ch)
