Dear Federal Councillor Albert Rösti, dear SBB CEO Vincent Ducrot,

We - international servants at different international organisations and expats in Geneva - are concerned and worried by the planned changes in the Swiss railway network. In our daily work and lives, we rely on efficient means of transportation including the Swiss railway. We are convinced that SBB CFF FFS is one of the most reliable railway companies in the world. Many of us actively choose trains as the preferred means of transportation for both time-efficiency and ecological reasons.

We recently learned through the Press release in May 2023 about the timetable change planned for 2025. We are deeply concerned and worried about the changes affecting the connections to Geneva - the second largest city in Switzerland. The planned suppression of the IC5 connection to Geneva has several severe implications for us:

1. It will be more difficult to reach Germany and France through Basel. At present the German railway offers direct trains from Basel to Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin, the French railway direct trains from Basel to Strasbourg. On the contrary, to reach Basel from Geneva, a much shorter distance, two changes (in Biel and Renens) will be needed in the future. This is the second time that the quality of the connection between Geneva and Basel declines: in 2015 the direct connection between Geneva and Basel was removed.
2. The planned changes imply a 50% reduction of direct connections between Geneva airport and Zürich airport. As international servants, a decent amount of us up until today heavily relies on air travel in our daily work and we are worried that the Zürich airport hub becomes less accessible from Geneva.
3. With the existing rail network and the trains available, SBB CFF FFS currently has the potential to replace the air travel connection between Geneva and Zürich entirely. The planned changes have the opposite effect. This is not in line with the global effort of CO2 reduction.
4. With the intended plans, there would be no direct connection to Yverdon, Neuchatel and Biel available anymore. This makes the train more unattractive and business and private travellers will likely choose the car as the preferred means of transportation.

One may argue that one additional change of train as the plan foresees does not make a large difference. But we believe it does. On the one hand, currently, the business zone coaches allow excellent working conditions if one is not interrupted. Needing to change the train frequently does not allow for efficient working and makes the train unattractive. On the other hand, many of us have their origin in other countries and frequently travel there with their families or are visited by relatives. Keeping in mind the inclusiveness of train travels, specifically for families with children or with senior people, it is very unpractical to change the train many times, as for instance twice within less than 3 hours between Geneva to Basel.

For these reasons, we urge you to reconsider your stance on the plans of scheduling for 2025:

• Keep the direct connection from Geneva to Yverdon, Neuchatel and Biel.
• Reinstate a direct connection between Geneva and Basel, connecting the second and third largest city of Switzerland at least a few times per day.
• Keep two direct trains per hour connecting Geneva and Zurich, the two largest cities in Switzerland.

Links:

• Press release SBB (German): https://news.sbb.ch/medien/artikel/122773/neugestaltung-des-sbb-fahrplans-in-der-westschweiz-ab-2025
• Press release SBB (French): https://news.sbb.ch/fr/medias/article/122773/refonte-de-l-horaire-cff-en-suisse-occidentale-des-2025

This petition will be sent as letter to the recipients above with the signatures of those appearing in the online signature list. If you would like to sign without disclosing your name, please uncheck the box "show my name in the online signature list".

(Train image courtesy of Ricard Codina under Create Commons license BY-NC-SA 2.0)