Competition for the SBB: Will more foreign trains run on Swiss rails soon? Power cut in Odessa +++ No evidence of Nord Stream blast by Russia

The Italians compete with the French domestically and are still happy: that’s what happened on the rails. For a year now, the Italian state railway Trenitalia has been offering train connections between Paris and Lyon and between Turin and Milan, in direct competition with the existing services of the French railway company SNCF. They have already passed the one million passenger mark. In any case, Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of SNCF, is happy: “The pie has become bigger for everyone,” he recently told the “Figaro”.

Customers benefit from rail competition. Prices on the Milan-Lyon route fell by 13 to 20 percent and capacity increased by 15 percent. Encouraged by the success, the Italians also want to drive between France and Spain from the end of 2024. According to Trenitalia manager Roberto Rinaudo, the offer will attract new passengers and promote the growth of the rail market.

The successes have not gone unnoticed by Peter Füglistaler, director of the Bundesamt für Transport (BAV). “Switzerland is still struggling to open up international passenger transport,” he wrote on the Linkedin portal at the end of January. “Sooner or later we will not be able to avoid this step if Switzerland wants to remain an important hub.”

The statement is surprising. So far, the federal government has wanted nothing to do with competition. Instead, he defended the cooperation model: if you want to run an international train to Switzerland, you can only do so in cooperation with the SBB. If the federal railways don’t want to, competitors don’t stand a chance. Only in June 2021 did the Bundesrat announce that this had proven its worth: “This means that forces can be joined.”

However, the situation has “developed” since then, says BAV spokesman Andreas Windlinger. Because the European Union (EU) is putting pressure on us. With the land transport agreement signed in 1999, Switzerland committed itself to adopting EU rules and opening up the market. For years she ignored the contractor’s insistence.

Collaboration is important for the industry

According to Windlinger, the EU Commission made it clear to Switzerland last year that the current transport policy will only be continued if Switzerland approaches the EU rules for international passenger transport. At a meeting of the joint committee in December, the Commission made, among other things, a renewed extension of cooperation with the European Railway Agency subject to progress on this file.

This cooperation is important for local railways and industry, such as the railway builder Stadler Rail: without it, they have to apply for approvals and safety certificates for new rolling stock for international traffic, both in Switzerland and in the EU, making the procedures longer and more complex.

There are people who are interested in opening the market. Austria’s Westbahn, whose supervisory board was chaired by ex-SBB boss Benedikt Weibel until 2022, told the NZZ that they want to extend their trains from Vienna via Munich to Zurich. The German provider of cheap trains Flixtrain is also interested, confirms spokesman Sebastian Meyer. Flixtrain “explicitly” welcomes the opening up of the Swiss rail network market and has repeatedly expressed interest in connections to Switzerland. Flixtrain is in constant contact with the European Commission about this.

open support

That seems to have worked: this week the committee announced its intention to support a new Flixtrain connection from Zurich to Munich. Flixtrain would be in direct competition with the Eurocity trains, which SBB and Deutsche Bahn (DB) jointly operate. This is still not possible without SBB’s OK. The EU apparently disagrees with the BAV: the project is a “surprise”, BAV boss Füglistaler wrote this week. He is “anxious” waiting for the Commission’s request.

The SBB takes it a little less easy. They don’t believe in more competition. The Federal Council rejected the opening of the market in 2021, says spokeswoman Sabrina Schellenberg. Nothing has changed in the opinion of the SBB: “The cooperation strategy has proven its worth.”

In the cantons, on the other hand, the demand for liberalization is supported, for example by Thierry Müller, head of the public transport department in the canton of Graubünden. Now cross-border routes – i.e. reserved routes on the railway – must become available quickly, which enable attractive travel times without destabilizing the national system, he writes on LinkedIn. In addition, intervals of half an hour are necessary in cities such as Lyon, Mannheim or Milan.

Sellers should accept GA

However, liberalization raises practical questions, especially those about the availability of free train paths. In the busy Swiss rail network there is little room for extra trains, especially because they have to run with attractive travel times and at attractive times.

The horror of liberalization critics is that trains running on the Swiss time system should be discontinued in favor of those from foreign providers. The BAV calms down. “From our point of view, the risks of an opening can be minimized,” said spokesman Windlinger.

Something like that could be checked. Foreign providers may be required to apply for a permit and to accept local public transport tickets and subscriptions such as the GA and the half card. If two providers want the same train path, priority can be given to the one offering a train that runs in the Swiss time system.

The parliament and the Bundesrat must decide whether the opening will go ahead. “Of course politics has the last word,” says Windlinger. With the change in the head of the responsible department from Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga (SP), who stubbornly defended the SBB monopoly, to Albert Rösti (SVP), for whom market principles could also be more important in public transport, the opinion has changed possible with the government. (aargauerzeitung.ch)