Frequently late trains, which are supposed to be taken over by Deutsche Bahn or the Austrian Federal Railways, have long been a thorn in the side of the Swiss Federal Railways. The Swiss Confederation is now considering making some connections to ghost trains that are timetabled.

Switzerland and Japan are world-famous for their high level of punctuality in rail transport. The situation is completely different in Germany, as the DB is more famous for chronic delays and cancellations. In Austria, too, there are occasional problems when it comes to timetable adherence. This circumstance is very annoying for the SBB, which takes over international connections at the border station. Delays lead to the regular timetable being disrupted within Switzerland and travelers not being able to reach any connections.

For this reason, replacement trains are often kept ready to set off in the event of any delays that occur abroad, in order to be able to stick to the timetable, at least within the Swiss Confederation. In the meantime, the SBB has even threatened that they will no longer accept delayed trains from Germany in the future. Although the DB praised improvements, the situation has hardly changed since then.

The SBB is now considering turning the chronically late trains that come from Germany into timetable ghost trains. These should no longer appear in the timetable and should only stop within Switzerland to get out. However, this should not lead to a thinning out of the offer, because SBB trains that appear in the timetable should run from the border stations. The Swiss Federal Railways do not yet want to officially confirm this plan, but they are working on various options to get rid of the chronic delays of ÖBB and especially DB.

According to a report by the “Watson” portal, the waiting time planned at the border stations should be increased to ten minutes. If the train is delayed within this time window, it should remain on the planned route in the Swiss Confederation. It is also being considered that some trains from Germany will end in St. Gallen in the future and that it might then be necessary to switch to SBB trains there in order to be able to guarantee punctual connections within Switzerland.

In any case, in the Swiss Confederation it is impossible to explain why the Deutsche Bahn, but also the Austrian Federal Railways, have still not got the problem of the unpunctuality of their trains under control. In the long term, people will no longer stand idly by and watch as travelers in Switzerland fail to reach their connections due to delays.