A Swiss Trip - Part 2: Riding the Swiss Railways (and more besides)
Regular readers of my various blogs will already know I'm a big fan of the Swiss Railway system. It's clean, it's varied, it's punctual and it goes through some of the most beautiful countryside on the planet. What's not to like? It also has a fine selection of discounted railcards and booking options that can save you a significant amount on fares and is a damned sight easier to navigate than Network Rail's or Polrail's online booking services.
But getting around the country, as you would expect, is not only about the trains. The cities, as is common across Europe, are blessed with wide and efficient tram, bus and trolley networks that make getting around them simple and competitively priced. And the bigger lakes provide boat services that are an efficient and relaxing way of getting around the neighbourhood, if you're not in any particular hurry to do so.
Because of the quality and efficiency of public transport I confess to being a stranger to the roads there, and indeed have only made perhaps two or three Swiss road trips in my life (that I can recall anyway). The first was close to forty years ago, when I was sent to participate in a banking industry training course held in Montreux (this was my first visit to the country, and indeed my last for a quarter of a century). For midweek entertainment and a break from the hard slog of daily lectures and discussion groups, all 200+ of we delegates were bussed up into the mountains to an archetypal wooden Swiss chalet and restaurant, above the snow line, for a fondue party and alp-horn-blowing competition. I remember the road being twisty and at times very steep and difficult to drive, especially in the dark blizzardy night, but the copious amounts of mulled wine and strong hot beer dulled the senses to the extent that I have little recollection of the entire evening. I don't even know exactly where we were, except perhaps an hour from the city in a roughly northerly direction.
Then on my Schaffhausen visit there were a couple of drives already written about in Part 1 - from Zurich airport to the flat on my arrival, then a drive 30 odd kilometres up river to the pretty town of Stein am Rhine. Both were pleasant, unremarkable drives through pretty, sunlit, rolling forested hills, in traffic lighter and less aggressive than is normal at that time of the evening (towards the end of the day's rush-hour) in either England or Poland. All very civilized, in fact, and anecdotally no different to any other road trip in Switzerland.
This visit I didn't take any tram or bus rides, as I spent little time in the cities, but have taken many in earlier working visits to Zurich and Geneva, and as far as I could see there have been no significant changes from my last extended business trip, back maybe 15 years or so, when I spent six months in and around Geneva. The networks seemed as extensive, the trams the same and just part of the scenery. Perhaps there are more electric or hybrid powered buses on the roads now, in these climate changing times, but I didn't use them and everything seemed to be running as smoothly as ever.
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The trains, by and large, remained as frequent and efficient, but with more operators running them under the SBB banner. Over recent years, as in other European countries, there have been a number of private companies licenced to provide services, often in partnership (rather than competition) with SBB. so the big red and grey double deck commuter and high-speed trains are not the only ones you'll see - although they remain the predominant ones. Around Schaffhausen, because of its proximity to Germany and shared routes, many services are operated by the white and yellow liveried regional units of the Deutche Bahn, for instance. Similarly, some of the international routes plying from Zurich clear across Switzerland, past Lugano and into Italy (as far as Milan and Turin) are operated by Italian railways' rather fetching green high-speed trainsets. There are also French TGV trains running (and depot'ed) at Basel, which stands on the borders of both France and Germany and run through to both Geneva and Zurich.
All of these routes share ticketing arrangements as well as routes with SBB, meaning you can take a train from say Lugano to Luzern with a ticket bought on the SBB web-site, app or station ticket machine - so essentially a "local" service - and yet make the whole journey on an Italian crewed train. The joys of European rail travel......
What I did notice however - and I may just have been a bit unlucky - was a slight tail off in efficiency. In previous years, using the trains in, around and between Geneva and Zurich, prior to this trip, in a total time working and often commuting there of perhaps three years, I can remember only one incident where there was a delay or cancellation: there was a points failure just outside the huge Zurich Hauptbahnhof during the morning rush hour that caused utter chaos. You could always rely on your train leaving on time from the same platform every day, come hell or high water, but on this day passengers were arriving, walking across the concourse, jabbering away on their cell phones or reading newspapers and arriving at an empty platform. Panic ensued: Swiss commuters dashing this way and that, trying to find their missing trains. It was hilarious. As a lifelong Network South East/British Rail commuter, I felt their pain. For a service famed worldwide for its faultless punctuality, this came as a total shock, and a communing public was lost and rudderless (as were the station staff).
Watching a Chris Tarrant documentary about the station on Canal+ a week or so before I travelled, I got the impression there might be changes as a similar incident featured in the show. Sure enough, on my first train trip from Schaffhausen to Zurich on a shopping trip, I caught a train at about 8:30, expecting to be in Zurich by 9. With no explanation, the train was delayed between two stations, for a good 20 minutes. For me, a tourist with no concrete plan for the day, it didn't matter, but there were a lot of passengers talking angrily into their cells as we sat there, the train crew conspicuous by its absence and silence. The rest of the run was slow as we apparently ran into a kind of rail traffic jam that delayed us further, and we arrived a little before 10. I still have no idea what the problem was.
A few days later, I headed off for a trip to Basel, with a train change at Zurich. I caught the same InterCity service, and we were going along quite nicely, for a while. About half way to Zurich we ran into some fog - not particularly dense, but enough to slow us down. Then we stopped, again between stations, for about 10 minutes. We trundled slowly along to the next station and made an unscheduled stop. We sat there for perhaps 5 minutes before being ordered off the train. The announcements were all in German, so I simply followed the crowd, and once on the platform asked somebody what was going on. It seemed a train had broken down a little further down the line, so we had to wait for it to be cleared......my Basel connection disappeared. Shortly after, another announcement invited us back on board: I returned to the same top deck seat, but many people stayed put in hope of catching a following S-bahn commuter service that was due - clearly they understood more of the announcement than I had, because when the train started off it was to return to Schaffhausen.
When we reached there, we got off again, and I saw that the rolling stock was flagged as the 9:30 InterCity to Zurich - so I went back to my seat, and off we went again, bang on time. By now, the fog had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day again. Evidently the breakdown had now been cleared, because we ran smoothly to Zurich and arrived a minute or so early. There was a connection to Basel on the next platform, so I hopped an InterRegional Express - twice the length of my InterCity but with single deck coaches - settled down with my book and a cheese pretzel breakfast and headed off to Basel, an hour later than planned.
A couple of other services I caught on other days were running a little behind schedule, though there were no further breakdowns or cancellations - but it seems clear to me that the legendary Swiss efficiency has been a tad eroded over the last few years. There has still been huge investment in the network, and passenger numbers didn't appear to have changed significantly, so I'm not sure why this might have happened. Maybe a by-product of the privatizations (since track maintenance was floated off to a separate service company, as happened in the UK years ago, to the detriment of the rail service there), maybe just wear and tear catching up with the rolling stock, tracks and signalling systems - more likely it was a combination of all of those reasons. But it's still perhaps the best railway service in Europe, in my view.
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In the event, that day I found Basel to be a huge disappointment. Sited as it is on the Rhine, exactly at the point where the borders of France and Germany and Switzerland meet, and offering river cruises, museums and art galleries and a wide selection of restaurants and bars to unwind, Fodor's Guide rates it as a "must see". But from my arrival at the main SBB station (that is itself within walking distance of French and German rail terminii) that was undergoing major renovation and hence full of scaffolding, noisy machinery and dirt I found it unwelcoming. Outside, the tram terminus seemed to lack a street map, and the plan in Fodor was small and unclear. I wandered across the road to a small park, heading downhill in the general direction of the Rhine, and past a lovely cathedral (the high point of the visit) that had a twenty foot banner across the main door: a rainbow flag proclaiming that "All LGBTQ+ people are welcome here"- I found that a sad commentary on the state of the world today.
I wandered around side streets, looking for souvenir shops and finding only ridiculously expensive boutiques and jewellery stores and banks. I spotted an Irish pub (good beer and lunch guaranteed) but again the prices were eye-watering so I gave it a miss. Eventually, after asking directions a couple of times I found the river, and went down three flights of steps to a grubby and littered promenade. It may have been the same Rhine that flowed through Stein am Rhine and Schaffhausen, but it was no longer clear and inviting: it was filthy and stunk of sewage. I took a couple of pics, one in each direction, just show I had been there, and then headed off back towards the station. On the way, I ducked into the Art Gallery, described by Fodor as the best in Switzerland, and spent an hour or so wandering around looking at the displays. I must be a bit of a philistine, because despite their beauty - there were some lovely Old Masters and colourful but meaningless modern paintings - I found the whole thing cold and was unmoved by it. But it killed some time, and I suppose gave the day's journey some purpose.
I ducked into the gay cathedral and admired the beautiful architecture and stained-glass windows (a complete contrast to the bare and austere church I had visited in Schaffhausen), and spent half an hour in quiet contemplation, then headed off again. At the station I found there was a train to Zurich leaving in five minutes, so hopped aboard and enjoyed the ride back. I was happy to be gone.
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If Basel was a disappointment, Luzern was a joy. I had visited it once, perhaps 10 or 12 years ago, but saw nothing: I was working on a project in Geneva, and we had a project planning meeting that for some obscure reason was held at a hotel next to the station in Luzern. I flew in the day before, arriving in Zurich after dark, caught my train to Luzern, walked next door straight to the hotel, had the meeting the next day and left, again after dark, to travel back to Zurich and thence on to Geneva. But I had been told it was lovely city, so decided to visit it this trip.
The ride itself is nice, just over an hour from Zurich. The first part is a run alongside the lake shore, but elevated with good views across the houses to the water, passing through the suburb of Horgen, where I worked for most of 2004 at a Credit Suisse office on a hill overlooking the lake. Fun times. There are two lines here, one at a lower level that runs along the shore to the far tip of the lake at Pfaeffikon, where a narrow isthmus crosses the water to Rapperswill, and a train back to Zurich along the northerly shore. I made the trip many years ago, with my Beloved, and at Rapperswill we were surprised (and delighted) to find a Polish museum that was well worth the visit.
The elevated line passes through Horgen Oberdorf, through a tunnel as it rises up through the Alpine foothills towards Zug and Luzern. As the train exits the tunnel it crosses a river that flows through rapids down towards the lake, hidden now behind the highlands, and on through farmland nestling at the bottom of the foothills. The line bends south and passes the city of Zug at the end of its eponymous lake, and then turns more westerly to Luzern at its lake. By this time, the country looks more Swiss, with mountains rising ahead and on both sides rather than rolling forested hills.
I was not disappointed by Luzern. It's lovely old city, on the shores of Lake Luzern and the banks of the river Reuss, the fourth longest river in Switzerland that meanders through the country, joining other, smaller rivers to eventually join the Rhine across the border in Germany at Koblenz. Just outside the train station. where the river leaves the lake, there is a lovely old covered wooden bridge, the Kapellbrucke, the oldest of its kind, dating from the 14th century, that stretches diagonally across the river for 204m from bank to bank. At both ends there are a variety of restaurants and a good shopping area at the end furthest from the station.
The boat zig-zags across the lake and its many inlets, calling at small landing stages (some on village waterfronts and some isolated at the foot of steep cliffs) where passengers off-boarded to visit the many attractions in the area or come aboard for another leg of the cruise. The furthest dock, at a place called Fluelen, was a full 36km from our starting point in the centre of Luzern, and you could hop off there and catch a train back to the city or remain on board for the voyage back (which is what I decided to do).
The scenery on all sides was breath-taking. On the easterly side steep forested hills that were not quite mountains rose dotted with small alpine cottages and farms, and at their feet nestled little villages with waterfront bars and expensive looking (but old and picturesque) hotels. The western side seemed less settled with fewer villages, but the hills on that side were higher and steeper and, by Fluelen could be properly termed mountains. Transport ran along both banks: to the east a road and the railway that runs south through Altdorf to Lugano and, just beyond, Italy, and northerly to Zurich and Germany. To the west a road followed the lake shore, cutting through tunnels where the rock spurs jutted into the water, with openings cut every 50 metres or so to give a lake view. At Kerhsiten-Burgenstock quay you could hop off the boat and onto a cog-railway to the 1128m peak of Burgenstock mountain, further along at Beckenried you can change to a cable car to the peak of Klewernalp (1600m). These were both on the western shore. On the east, at Weggis, a cable car and linked cog railway runs still higher to the peak of Rigi Kulm at 1798m. I ,made none of these trips, but contented myself sitting on the deck in the sunshine admiring it all, and mentally planning further visits.
There is much besides, according to Fodor, to explore, so a return visit is A Must.
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Some years back, I had a similar trip around Geneva on Lake Leman, on another old paddle steamer, criss-crossing the lake in much the same way, but calling at fewer stops (it didn't even get as far as Lausanne, half way along the northern shore) and taking less time. It was a nice ride and wiled away a bank holiday afternoon. The thing I remember most about it, however, is that although it was a trip taken in early November (I believe All Saint's Day) it was warm enough to wear only a tee-shirt and summer pullover - most odd. I also had a brief cruise on Lake Zurich once, a two hour bob around the city end, purely for sightseers, with no stops but a recorded commentary in a choice of languages. It was ok, I think, but not in the least memorable (so I may be imagining it).
What I'm not imagining, though, is the train rides between the two major cities. The main run goes through the capital, Berne, and takes around three hours. I've done it many times when working on a project in Geneva. At that time there were no direct flights from Warsaw in the morning, so I had to fly to Zurich and catch the train, and it was fine. I was always in the office by 11:30 on a Monday, after a relaxing tide on the top deck of the train, a window seat on the left hand side. Why this choice of seat? Put simply: the view. North of the main line, for at least half the ride the landscape is reasonably flat arable farmland, with little of interest to see. The only thing I can remember is a power station between Aarau and Olten, where the line to Basel branches north westerly, its cooling tower belching out huge plumes of steam all the time - you could see it on some approaches to Zurich airport. Somebody told me it was the country's only nuclear power station. This year, travelling to Basel, the line passed very close to it, and it was silent, no steam or whatever - perhaps it's been de-commissioned.
Beyond Olten to the left (southerly) side the scenery becomes more interesting with the trademark forested hills rising towards the unseen mountains, and this becomes more marked after Berne. Then, somewhere near Palezieux, the still rising line runs into a tunnel for perhaps five minutes, then bursts out above Lake Leman. On a clear and sunny day, you can see clear as far as Geneva, at the far end of the lake, the massive fountain, the Jet d'Eau, spouting 140m into the air in the harbour, glittering in the sun. Look back, and across the lake you can see Mont Blanc looming large over its surrounding peaks. The line then runs down through vineyards to Lausanne, then along the lake shore to the city.
It's a lovely ride, and a great way to start a busy week.
There is an alternative route between the two cities, operated on the high-speed trains (not unlike the French TGV or Eurostar stock) that I took once. I was on another Geneva based project and I and two colleagues had to make a midweek day trip for a meeting, so booked on this service. It's an intercity express rather than an InterRegional, so has less stops and was thus an hour quicker. Its route branches just after Lausanne, then follows the shores of Lake Neuchatel to re-join the main line just before Olten. It's not a bad run, not as scenic as the Berne/Freiburg route, with the highlight being right alongside the lake shore for pretty much the length of Lake Neuchatel, which at just over 38km long is the largest lake located entirely on Swiss territory. There is some lovely housing along there, with gardens opening onto the lake itself, and most had boats moored by the back gates. Now wouldn't that be fun? We used that route both ways, and in total spent probably 6 hours on a train - and all for a meeting that in the event lasted about 20 minutes. Project life - sometimes I miss it!
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So there we are. To summarize - as if it's really needed! - despite its reputation as being a stuffy and straitlaced country, the butt of Jeremy Clarkson's odd humour whenever it's used as a Top Gear location (as it often was), it's one of my favourite places. As much as I'd like a lakeside property, or something in the Alpine foothills or along the Rhine or the Rhone or any other river flowing clean and cool through the country, it ain't going to happen - at least, without a lottery win. But it's a place I always like to visit, for a couple of days or a couple of weeks, to breathe cleaner air, feast my eyes on the beautiful scenery, cruise the waterways on an old steamer or paddle boat while sipping a cold beer, or just relax in a comfortable SBB train watching the world go by as I go nowhere in particular.
I just wish stuff wasn't quite so expensive!
posted by Travellin' Bob @ February 20, 2024
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