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During the crown crisis, many rail customers are rediscovering cycling. This causes problems and a lack of space. In particular, the new trains are causing redheads among cyclists. The train reacts.
Increasingly popular: cycling by train (archive image).
In the crisis of the crown, the Swiss are discovering cycling. Significantly more two-wheeler trips are recorded at counting stations, and dealers record record sales. But SBB spoiled the joy of many. Because there is often very little space on your trains and the bike hooks are undersized
Advocacy group Pro Velo now warns: “What worries us most is the lack of a long-term strategy,” says Valérie Sauter, manager of policy and infrastructure projects. “As we have seen during the crown crisis so far, there are situations and periods when more bikes are transported than usual.” Then SBB must be able to react quickly with suitable rolling stock. But that no longer exists and there are no plans to buy it.
Are the bike hooks wrongly dimensioned?
“There are some problems with transporting bicycles,” says Sauter. “Many trains do not offer enough space, not to mention that the available seats are not always suitable for transport because they are too high or too narrow.”
Pro Velo receives these comments, for example, for Bombardier’s new double-decker trains, the “FV Dosto”. Trains have previously made headlines due to delays in deliveries, steep ramps for wheelchair users and shaky movements. They have multifunctional areas where bicycles can be parked, but this space must be shared with strollers or luggage. Bike hooks, on the other hand, are close together and designed in such a way that they cannot be used by many newer mountain bikes or electric bikes with wider tires. Stadler’s new Gotthard train, the “Giruno”, is also not well received by many cyclists. You only have four separate bike spaces per composition.
IC 2000 up, FV-Dosto flop
Giruno trains have been used for a few weeks on certain connections to Ticino that are popular with cyclists. In the future, much of these connections will be made with Giruno. This compounds the problem. Until now, EW IV wagons were often used on these connections. These offer two bike hooks per cart. The FV-Dosto, on the other hand, often runs on lines that were previously used by IC 2000 double-decker trains. With nine bike hooks, there is theoretically no more room on these than on the FV-Dosto, but they are designed for wider bike tires as well. In addition, they are always in the same place: in the multifunctional area of the control car. Therefore, Pro Velo calls the IC 2000 a “model”.
Because cyclists always know where to get on. If, on the contrary, the spaces for bicycles are distributed throughout the train, many times they go up only to find a space that is already occupied. Then you have to change the car. But there is often not enough time, and according to Pro Velo, changes cause delays and annoy other passengers.
Pro Velo criticizes the reservation requirement
The fact that SBB responded to the problem with a mandatory reservation for ICN trains and connections through the Gotthard base tunnel does not improve things: “It is a reservation for the transport of bicycles,” says Valérie Sauter. The reservation, which costs 5 francs per bicycle, hurts bicycle customers with additional costs and makes it difficult to use the trains. “Our goal is to avoid imposing bicycle reservations at all costs.” This is successful if enough places are made available.
But SBB is thinking carefully: the bike reservation could be extended to all long-distance trains, as CH Media has learned. SBB does not want to confirm or deny this information. “Our experts are working on various measures to counteract the increase in bicycle load,” says a spokesperson. No concrete measures can be named at this time. You are in contact with organizations like Pro Velo or VCS.
SBB is at its capacity limit
In June alone, the number of bike tickets sold per day increased by more than 65 percent to 80,000 compared to the same month last year, according to SRF. “We were and are on certain summer vacations and weekends at capacity limits,” says the SBB spokesperson. But the railroad reacted.
On weekends, it has been offering increased bike capacity on the Zurich-Chur route since July 4. There, the trunk is initially open for loading bicycles on four trains and is operated by employees. Meanwhile, the offer has been expanded to ten trains. On Sundays, employees are at the Chur, Landquart and Visp platforms to guide passengers with bicycles to the wagons with spaces for bicycles. In addition, due to demand, additional trains have been equipped with a car with a large bicycle compartment.
Also on the Berne-Brig route, the luggage compartments on six trains will be open on weekends until October 25 and will be manned by employees. But capacity bottlenecks cannot be completely eliminated. SBB knows this too and proposes alternatives. “An excursion would be the perfect opportunity to test an electric bike at your destination, for example,” says the spokesperson. The bicycle does not have to be transported by yourself. Furthermore, bicycles can also be checked in as luggage, “sometimes at a significant discount.”
