To cope with the increase in demand for rail services, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) will be making a number of improvements to its network for the 2022 timetable. This will come into force from 12 December 2021.
The network will integrate cross-border lines to a greater extent. On the regional network, for example, SBB is promising to extend to Sion the link RegioExpress Annemasse-Lausanne-St Maurice at peak times. Similarly, the Geneva-Zurich-St Gallen will continue to Rorschach on the shores of Lake Constance, just a few kilometres from the Austrian border.
A new night train connection will also begin with the introduction of the 2022 timetable. Amsterdam will be linked to Basel and Zurich via Cologne.. This daily "Nightjet" service will be operated in cooperation with Austrian railways ÖBB. The line will offer couchettes and sleeping cars. The night train will leave Zurich at 9.59pm and arrive in Amsterdam at 9am the following morning.
Another important new feature is the reduced journey times between Zurich and Munich. The journey will now take just 3.5 hours instead of 4 hours. A new domestic service will also run daily between Berne to Chur via Zurich. Finally, the Swiss railway company increase capacity on the Simplon line between Lausanne and Brig. CFF will deploy duplex trains which offer greater 30% capacity than standard trains.
The new features for 2022 include disappearancethat will go down in history: that of the printed pocket timetables. SBB has noticed that demand for this timetable is plummeting. What's more, the various changes and works on the lines often make them obsolete even before they are published. The SBB will no longer do so with the 2022 timetable, but it will still be possible to print out up-to-date pocket timetables yourself on the SBB website. Or at the ticket machines in stations.
