Valid from December 15 How to benefit from the new SBB timetable
On December 15, it's that time of year again: the SBB timetable change is coming up. Read the overview to find out exactly what this means for you and your public transport journey.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- SBB is changing its timetable on December 15, 2024.
- There will be new night-time connections on long-distance and regional services and more connections to nearby countries.
- All changes at a glance.
The SBB timetable change on 15 December will primarily bring improvements for commuters. The Lausanne suburb of Renens and Bern Wankdorf station will become long-distance stops. There will also be new night-time connections on long-distance and regional services. An overview of all the changes.
How will commuters benefit from the new timetable?
● From 16 December, there will be a practical change for everyone who commutes between Zurich and Bern Wankdorf. At peak travel times in the morning and evening, one IC connection will now also stop in Bern Wankdorf. In this specific example, this means that the train will depart from Zurich main station at 7.49 a.m. and arrive in Bern Wankdorf at 8.44 a.m.. After work, there is then the option of leaving Bern Wankdorf at 5.13 pm and arriving in Zurich HB at 6.10 pm. During the Christmas bridge between December 23 and January 3, 2025, this connection will temporarily not run.
● Long-distance trains between St. Gallen and Sargans will now run every half hour. The IR13 St. Gallen-Sargans-Chur will run as the Alpenrhein-Express operated by Schweizerische Südostbahn (SOB) and the existing IR13 Zurich-St. Gallen-Sargans-Chur operated by SBB will only run as far as Sargans instead of Chur. In Sargans there is a connection to the IC3 to Chur and Zurich.
● From Monday to Friday and on Sunday afternoons, there will be additional IC5 connections between Lausanne, Zurich and eastern Switzerland. This will increase the frequency and provide more seats. For travelers within Switzerland, this creates an attractive alternative to the EC trains, which also run on this route.
● The IC2 trains (Zurich-Lugano) now stop in Altdorf instead of the IC21 trains (Basel-Lugano). This will give travelers from the canton of Uri more frequent and faster direct connections to and from Zurich. The IC21 connections to Basel no longer stop in Altdorf. North-western Switzerland remains accessible for the canton of Uri with the IR26 direct and the Tellbus with a change in Lucerne
● Commuters from the Ennetsee and Rontal valleys will benefit from additional connections during rush hour on the Ebikon-Rotkreuz-Cham-Zug route. According to SBB, this will increase the number of available seats and relieve the heavily frequented S1 services.
● Winterthur's accessibility will be improved by additional connections from Bülach and Bauma, which will run around half an hour before the current earliest connections. There are also additional connections on other lines in the Zurich area at off-peak times.
What else is new on the domestic rail network?
● With the new timetable in western Switzerland, the Lausanne suburb of Renens will also become a long-distance stop.
● As part of a pilot project, night services will run on the Bern-Olten-Zurich HB-Zurich Airport route on eight weekends and between Biel and Genève-Aéroport, between Fribourg and Genève-Aéroport and between Sion and Genève-Aéroport on several weekends and public holidays. There will also be various improvements to the regional night-time networks at weekends in the Basel area, in Aargau, from Zurich and Lucerne to Olten and in eastern Switzerland.
● 2025 will be a year with numerous events in all parts of the country. With the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Basel, the UEFA Women's EURO 2025, the Swiss Gymnastics Festival in Lausanne, the Swiss Wrestling and Alpine Festival Glarnerland+ in Mollis and SwissSkills in Bern, there will be a particularly large number of major events. SBB is therefore planning numerous extra trains to the event locations.
● On Saturday at 5.44 a.m. there will be a direct IC train from Genève-Aéroport to Locarno, arriving at 10.57 a.m. The existing Sunday evening IC from Ticino to Lausanne will run at 7 pm from Locarno instead of the previous 7.20 pm from Bellinzona.
● With the end of the total closure between Zurich main station and Zurich Wipkingen, the majority of connections can be offered again as before the closure. The additional change in Zurich HB is no longer necessary on most connections. In addition, the journey time between Schaffhausen and Zurich will be reduced by a few minutes again.
● On two weekends between November 30 and December 8, 2024 and continuously from January 11 to March 2, 2025, direct trains will once again run from Zurich to Einsiedeln at weekends.
What will change on the international route network?
● There will be an additional train on the Zurich-Munich route. This means that from Monday to Saturday, passengers will be able to travel directly to the Bavarian capital two hours earlier in the morning, departing at 5.35 a.m. from Zurich main station. From Monday to Friday and on Sunday evenings, travelers will have a new last connection from Munich to Zurich at 8.55 pm.
● From the end of May and until mid-October (including Easter), a RegioExpress will run from Bern to Frasne at 6.23 a.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays and back at 10.30 p.m. in the evening. This gives travelers from Bern a connection to the TGV Lyria to and from Paris in Frasne.
● The Saturday direct train Zurich-Lenzburg-Thun-Frutigen-Brig departing from Zurich main station at 7.38 a.m. will now run as far as Domodossola.
What is changing in western Switzerland?
In western Switzerland, the biggest timetable change since the introduction of Rail 2000 in December 2004 is imminent. The aim is to increase punctuality and at the same time enable the numerous construction works for the maintenance and expansion of the rail network to be carried out. The new timetable in western Switzerland will lead to longer journey times in some areas. This should enable trains to run more punctually in future.
Will there be any changes to ticket purchasing and passenger rights?
● It will not be possible to purchase international bike tickets and reservations from SBB until further notice. SBB recommends purchasing bicycle tickets from partner railroads.
● From the timetable change, international journeys booked with SBB will count as one journey, even if they consist of several individual tickets. If a train is delayed on a section of the journey, the delay at the destination of the entire journey will now count for any compensation. This compensation then relates to the entire journey, not just the affected section.
