Patrick Polzyn

Powerline technician, railway enthusiast and full-time Dad.

Powerline technician: Building overhead contact lines.

As a powerline technician, you can withstand all weather conditions. Your commitment helps ensure our catenary systems remain intact and our customers arrive safely and punctually at their destination.

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As a powerline technician, I build and maintain the traction power supply and ensure the trains have voltage.

Thomas Bernet

Powerline technician, whose passion is photographing American trains and planes.

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Technical skills.

You build and maintain catenary systems professionally and be responsible for troubleshooting. Various manual tasks guarantee variety in your everyday work: you weld, assemble, drill and cut on railway construction sites in order to drive Switzerland forward. In this way, you ensure that Switzerland keeps ahead and that our passengers reach their destination reliably, safely and punctually. Your previous technical knowledge, in fields such as metal construction, agricultural machinery/car mechanics or tinsmith and locksmith, will help you with your day-to-day tasks.

Be independent.

We rate motivated people with a high degree of personal responsibility and who are team players very highly: in fact, you will place switching orders and carry out switching and earthing work independently. Keeping the vehicle’s logbook reflects your precise way of working. You also record reports and working hours in a conscientious manner. Your suggestions for improvements to processes and equipment will make a difference to Switzerland and ensure our reliability and customer satisfaction.

Ensuring safety.

In all your tasks, you demonstrate a high level of consideration for safety at the workplace. Whether operating specialised equipment (crane, lifting crane, etc.), or warning of approaching trains, you ensure your own protection and that of your team. When reporting technical defects, you also keep an eye on the safety of our passengers. These are tasks that really matter. As an engine driver (Cat. 40, B100), you will also make journeys to and from the construction site.

Owing to SBB’s 24-hour operation, you will be on the go in your assigned areas on weekdays, weekends and public holidays. But it does mean enjoying free ski slopes during the week, never having to shop during peak hours again and having more flexibility in your leisure time. When Switzerland is asleep, you make sure that operations carry on.

For powerline technicians, shift work times are set and announced well in advance. What is unusual about night work is that your private life becomes even easier to plan.

When you work for SBB, it is no exaggeration to say that the country would be brought to a standstill without us. At SBB, you can be proud of your work. Because it’s important for Switzerland. Our powerline technicians, specialised in overhead contact lines, ensure a safe working environment and that Switzerland always keeps on the move.

Given the sheer size of our tasks and our responsibility, we at SBB rely on teamwork. At SBB, pulling together and a sense of community count, and this also applies to our powerline technicians. All tasks are carried out in a team, which is why we count on your readiness to help. Powerline technicians will feel at home in our teams.

You have invested a lot in yourself. Your qualifications and commitment are key to our success. To ensure you achieve great things, you will be trained in operating cranes or lifting platforms. As a powerline technician, you can also train as a chief assembler.

We support our employees in line with their personal needs and ambitions. To this end, we offer a broad selection of internal training courses that cover a wide range of specialist and cross-sectoral disciplines. We provide financial support and/or time off for internal and external training courses that benefit both our employees and SBB.