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Switzerland has a luxury rail network. However, railway customers do not even bear half of the costs. The crisis in the crown would offer the opportunity to put together new offers and go in the direction of the polluter pays principle. But none of that can be seen yet.
There is no direct cost-benefit link on the Swiss rail network. After all, those who drive a lot are not those who also pay a lot.
The economy is not yet in full swing, but at least it is well above 90% again. Therefore, one is not too far from “normal”. This also applies to mobility: the car is driven as much as before the crisis, and the bicycle is even a clear “winner of the crisis”. And yet, there is still a lot to do with this mode of transport, which probably represents Switzerland like no other: SBB says its trains have a capacity of 70% in long-distance traffic compared to the previous year, and the 80% in regional traffic.
Only “terrible” at first glance
Many companies want to offer their employees the option of working from home, even when the crisis has passed. Three days at the office and two at home could become the norm for many workers. Widar von Arx, professor at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, uses an example to illustrate what this could mean for SBB. 1.3 million people get on a train every day. About 800,000 of these are commuter trips with a GA travel card. This corresponds to 500,000 GA users who drive to the office an average of four times a week.
If the number of office days were cut in half, it would only be 400,000 trips a day, a massive drop in demand. It won’t be that bad, as not only travelers have a GA travel card and leisure traffic makes up for some of it. But the rough estimate shows the potential for the change in traveler behavior that was triggered by the crisis.
Then you will think twice about purchasing a GA Travelcard. Industry association Alliance Swisspass expects a 6% drop by the end of the year. Motorized individual transport took market share away from the railways during the crisis. According to Intervista, the participation of public transport in the total kilometers traveled has fallen from a quarter in February to 16%. And on short trips, bicycles and especially electric bicycles are increasingly becoming competitors of buses and trams. According to ETH and the University of Basel, which assess the travel profile of 1,000 people every day, bicycle use has almost doubled.
This all sounds terrible for the railway at first, says Thomas Sauter-Servaes of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. But it could also be a great opportunity for public transportation. What does the scientist mean by that? Public transport is designed for rush hours in the morning and evening. If you could better distribute the traffic during the day, it would be a big win, because it would make better use of the infrastructure and vehicles. It is conceivable, for example, that emails are first processed at the home office before going to the office.
The polluter pays principle is a foreign word
Therefore, the railways should rapidly develop offers that adapt to the new world of work. SBB is launching fairly new products: On the one hand, the Federal Railways is planning to create coworking space at 60 to 80 train stations over the next five years. On the other hand, a subscription for public transport, scooters and electric bicycles with the name “Yumuv” is being tested.
However, initially these are niche offerings. The deciding factor would be if prices fluctuate more with demand. Therefore, it should be much more expensive to drive from Bern to Zurich during peak hours than during the day. With their savings prices, SBBs go a bit in this direction: those who book early and are very flexible in terms of time can get a ticket Bern – Zurich for less than 10 CHF. Last year, SBB sold 8.8 million super savings tickets, 60% more than in 2018.
And yet, in view of 124 million tickets and subscriptions, this is still a long way from the real prices of mobility. In this case, the price depends on the distance and the load of the infrastructure. With mobile phone tickets becoming more and more the norm, this would be much easier for railways to implement than road prices for road use.
Crowded at rush hour; otherwise half empty
Trains are full at rush hour. But the rest of the time they drive pretty empty. SBB’s occupancy rate is 22% for regional traffic and 33% for long-distance traffic. In normal times, airlines like Swiss manage to use their planes at 85% capacity with a sophisticated pricing policy. Experts interviewed say that SBB would like to move further towards performance management. But in politics the subject is practically taboo.
How do you explain political aversion? Obviously, it is perceived as unfair that low-income travelers who, for example, on work shifts, are more burdened in the morning by the prices of mobility than before. But there is one thing about fairness: those who are tied to school holidays as a family also pay higher hotel prices than those who are flexible.
It is completely normal for companies to lower their prices. In this way, the demand can be better adapted to the supply and frequent users carry higher costs; In other cases, think of environmental policy, politicians are also happy to use the polluter pays principle.
GA also does not fit well with the polluter pays principle, where you never have to think about the time of day you catch a train. Such a GA would have to be significantly more expensive or entitle you to use only a certain number of hours in rush hour before one is involved in the fringe costs. Industry association Alliance Swisspass says they are considering launching an offer that varies between individual tickets with Half-Fare travel card for occasional travelers and GA travel cards for frequent travelers. But nothing is ready to be announced.
Endless capacity expansion
With its extreme focus on rush hour, the many “ghost trains” run huge deficits that the general public has to pay for. Rail passengers only bear 47% of the costs they cause. If you add the damage to the environment and health, it is only 44%. Each trip is subsidized by the general public with 56 cents a franc. In air traffic and individual motorized traffic, on the other hand, users bear 86% of the total costs, and the gap in coverage is due to environmental costs.
This makes it clear that mobility is generally too cheap, and especially rail traffic. With the expansion step in 2035, this situation will be further accentuated. 13 billion Swiss francs will be invested, and the councils added another billion to the Federal Council last year. The same compression set and higher capacities is repeated every few years.
Corona’s time now would be ideal to rethink this strategy, with new offerings that see the home office as an opportunity, and with ticket prices that ultimately include the polluter pays principle. However, Switzerland, the country of railways, does not seem to seize the opportunity. So far, it is only clear that the high deficits from the Crown crisis will pass from politics to the taxpayer, without hesitation and without further questions.
