Why Swiss trains are the best way to travel Switzerland
Trains aren’t just transport in Switzerland
In most countries, the train is a means to an end — a way to get from A to B without driving. In Switzerland, the train is frequently the experience itself. Some of the country’s most spectacular views are seen exclusively from railway windows. Some of its most remote and beautiful corners are accessible only by rail. And the quality of the network — the coverage, the punctuality, the integration between trains, buses, boats, and cable cars — is so far beyond what most visitors have experienced that it consistently generates genuine astonishment.
This isn’t national pride talking. Objective measures confirm it: Switzerland spends more on public transport per capita than any other country in the world. The national rail network (SBB — Schweizerische Bundesbahnen) operates over 3,000 kilometres of track covering a mountainous country where building and maintaining rail infrastructure is extraordinary challenging. The result is a system that gets you essentially everywhere, on time, integrated with everything else.
Here’s why getting around Switzerland by train is not just the practical choice but often the best one.
The punctuality: it’s real and it matters
Switzerland’s trains are genuinely, startlingly punctual. SBB regularly achieves on-time rates of 92-93% across the entire network — and “on time” in Swiss railway terms means within three minutes of the scheduled arrival.
This matters more than it might seem. When you have a 6-minute connection at Bern between an intercity arrival and a regional departure, three minutes of slack is actually cutting it fine. Swiss rail timetables are designed around these tight connections and they work precisely because the trains are running on time. The coordination between different trains at major interchange stations (Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lucerne) — where dozens of trains synchronise arrivals and departures to allow multiple simultaneous connections — is one of the engineering and operational achievements that makes the whole system function.
For visitors, this means you can plan a day with multiple train legs and trust the connections to work. It means the 8-hour journey on the Glacier Express departs at the scheduled time. It means the cogwheel railway to the Jungfraujoch will be there when the timetable says it will.
After a few days of travelling by Swiss rail, most visitors find themselves adapting their behaviour — checking the timetable rather than just showing up, planning connections, treating the timetable as reliable rather than aspirational. This is what rail travel feels like when it works properly.
The coverage: almost nowhere requires a car
The Swiss rail network serves the entire country in a way that’s simply not true of rail networks elsewhere in Europe. This matters enormously for visitors who want to explore beyond the major cities.
Every major tourist destination is served by direct or simple-connection rail. Lucerne, Interlaken, Zermatt, Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Lugano, St. Moritz — all directly reachable by intercity train from Switzerland’s major airports with simple connections.
Mountain resorts that would be physically inaccessible without rail infrastructure are served by cogwheel railways, mountain trains, and cable cars that connect seamlessly with the national network. The Jungfraujoch at 3,454 metres is reached entirely by train — cogwheel railways ascending from the valley floor with no need for a car at any stage.
Small villages and remote valleys are served by postbuses (Postauto) that connect with train stations. These yellow buses extend the rail network into corners of Switzerland that no road-focused tourist would ever find — tiny valley communities, isolated farming hamlets, mountain pass crossings. The postbus network is technically part of the same public transport system, covered by the Swiss Travel Pass.
Lake boats complete the picture. The lake steamers on Lake Lucerne, Lake Geneva, Lake Constance, Lake Thun, and Lake Brienz are integrated into the national timetable and transport system. You can travel from Lucerne by boat to Flüelen at the far end of the lake, continue by road (postbus) over the Gotthard, and the whole thing runs on a coordinated timetable. This is the kind of integrated planning that takes decades to build.
The scenery: the journey is the destination
Here is where Swiss trains part company from rail travel elsewhere: a significant proportion of Swiss railway journeys are spectacular enough to be treated as attractions in their own right.
The Glacier Express is the most famous example — the 8-hour journey from Zermatt to St. Moritz through the Valais, Uri, and Graubünden alpine regions is one of the world’s great train journeys by any measure. The panoramic windows, the 91 tunnels, the dramatic viaducts, the Mattertal and Goms valley scenery — it’s extraordinary from beginning to end.
But the scenic riches extend far beyond the famous panoramic trains.
The regular intercity from Zurich to Lucerne passes through the lakes and hills of central Switzerland. The journey from Bern to Interlaken runs along the shores of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz with Bernese Alps panoramas. The route from Lausanne to Brig in the Valais follows the Rhône Valley with mountain scenery on both sides. The Lötschberg mountain railway climbs through dramatic alpine terrain on its way to the Valais.
Even suburban S-Bahn trains in the Zurich region cross landscapes of lake and hill that most countries would charge a scenic premium for.
You can book the Glacier Express from Zermatt to St. Moritz in advance. This is the headline act, but every journey in Switzerland offers something worth looking at through the window.
The Swiss Travel Pass: the system simplified
The Swiss Travel Pass is the instrument through which most visitors access the Swiss rail network, and it’s one of the most intelligently designed visitor travel products in the world.
A single pass provides:
- Unlimited travel on all SBB trains
- Unlimited travel on regional railway networks
- Unlimited travel on most lake boats
- Unlimited travel on city trams and buses throughout Switzerland
- Free entry to over 500 museums
- Discounts of 25-50% on most mountain railways and cable cars
The integration this enables is remarkable. With a Swiss Travel Pass in your pocket (or on your phone via the SBB app), you can walk out of your hotel, take the city tram to the station, board an intercity train to another city, transfer to a regional railway, continue by postbus to a mountain village, take a cable car with a 50% discount to the summit, and take a lake boat back — without buying a single separate ticket for any of it.
This is the Swiss transport system working as designed. And it works.
You can book the Swiss Travel Pass for unlimited travel on trains, buses, and boats in advance. The pass is worth calculating against your expected itinerary — for most visitors covering multiple regions over a week or more, it pays for itself comfortably.
The rolling stock: not all trains are equal
Switzerland’s train fleet spans a remarkable range — from the historic cogwheel locomotives on heritage mountain railways to the thoroughly modern Giruno intercity trains on the Gotthard Base Tunnel route.
The Giruno/Astoro trains on the Gotthard axis (Zurich-Lugano) are the most modern in the fleet — low-floor trains specifically designed for the Gotthard Base Tunnel’s tight dimensions, offering excellent comfort and views despite the mostly underground journey.
The SBB double-decker (RABe 511) used on regional and S-Bahn routes is practical, well-designed, and comfortable — the upper deck offers notably better views.
The panoramic cars on the Glacier Express, Bernina Express, and GoldenPass Express are purpose-built for sightseeing — floor-to-ceiling windows, sometimes glass ceilings, and seating angled toward the best views. The engineering of these carriages is as impressive as their aesthetics.
The cogwheel railways (Zahnradbahn) that climb to Jungfraujoch, Pilatus, Rigi, and dozens of mountain destinations use a central toothed rail that the locomotive grips to climb extreme gradients impossible for conventional trains. The physics alone make them worth riding.
Practical tips for first-time Swiss rail travellers
Download the SBB app. It’s Switzerland’s official railway app and is genuinely excellent — comprehensive timetabling for all transport modes, real-time tracking, digital ticket and pass display, platform information, and disruption alerts. Set it up before you arrive.
Validate your pass on first use. Swiss Travel Passes for fixed consecutive days begin on the first day you use them. If you arrive in Switzerland and don’t plan to travel your first day, delay activation until your first travel day.
Check platform information. Major Swiss stations display comprehensive departure boards showing platform numbers, train composition, and connection information. At Zurich Hauptbahnhof and similar large stations, familiarise yourself with the board displays — they’re information-dense but logical.
Arrive on time. Swiss trains depart precisely on time. Arriving on the platform as the train begins to move is not guaranteed to work the way it might on more informal networks. With 90%+ punctuality, the train you’re running for is probably exactly where it should be and about to leave.
Seat reservations: On regular intercity trains, no seat reservation is required — simply find a free seat. On panoramic trains (Glacier Express, Bernina Express, GoldenPass Express), seat reservations are mandatory and must be booked separately from your pass.
First vs second class: Swiss second class is comfortable and perfectly well-equipped. The windows are the same size as first class on panoramic routes. Upgrade to first class only if you specifically value the wider seats or slightly less busy carriages. For most visitors, second class is the right choice.
Switzerland’s trains are not just the most practical way to travel the country — they’re among the finest experiences the country has to offer. When planning your 7-day itinerary, building it around the rail network rather than road routes gives you access to the best scenery, the most remote destinations, and the smoothest connections. The mountains, the lakes, the alpine villages — they’re all connected, and the connection is one of the finest rail networks on earth.