Travelling via public transport in Switzerland is far too expensive when compared to driving, the official Swiss Price Monitor has revealed. The organisation found that while the cost of driving has stagnated in the last decade, the cost of rail travel has exploded.

Driving has been cheaper than Swiss rail travel since the 1990s

Writing in his latest newsletter, the head Swiss Price Monitor Stefan Meierhans confirmed that there is now a “big gap” between the cost of rail travel and driving, a phenomenon which has been getting worse. He noted that the cost of public transport tickets has doubled in some places since 1990, while the cost of driving has only risen by 25 percent.

In fact, the monitor found that you have to go back to 1993 to find a time when driving had the same average cost as a rail season ticket. He added that while the cost for motorists - car insurance, vehicle prices, fuel costs - has not risen significantly since 2013, public transport prices have increased above inflation almost every year since 1990.

Switzerland failing to attract drivers to public transport

“The gap observed in 2013 has widened in 2024…this is not a pleasing performance, but rather an unprecedented derailment, clearly contrary to the mobility objectives of the Confederation, which aim for a larger share of public transport,” Meierhans wrote. Increasing the number of rail passengers is part of the government’s strategy to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, but the number of people using the railways has stagnated in the last decade. 

Unlike countries such as Germany, which have tried to encourage people to switch to the train through programmes like the super-cheap Deutschlandticket, barring schemes from Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and Canton Geneva, there hasn’t been any concerted government effort to make tickets cheaper. Attempts to make public transport free in Switzerland have fallen foul of the courts, as the Swiss constitution requires that passengers pay for a “share” of the costs.

Swiss rail providers face rising costs

Meierhans' comments come as transport providers continue to face rising salaries and running costs. Last June the Swiss Public Transport Union warned that if the government does not increase its subsidies, ticket prices would rise by 30 percent on average by 2035. 

Speaking to RTS, Meierhans said that today, the cost of public transport tickets is still within reason as they reflect the cost of maintaining the network, but providers “cannot increase them further.” At the same time, he called for a “harmonisation” of transport prices, so that the government can convince more people to ditch the car and take the train.

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