SBB will continue to rely on the traditional strengths of the rail system in future: safety, punctuality, quality and personal contact with the customer. At the same time, it is increasingly evolving into a mobility service provider covering the entire mobility chain for its customers, who – after all – are increasingly demanding their very own integrated mobility chains. SBB is thus offering its customers an ever-growing range of products and services for their first and last miles, providing them with door-to-door mobility.

Take SBB Green Class, for example. This pilot scheme has seen some 150 customers receive a year-long offer that is the only one of its kind anywhere in the world: for a set price, they are benefiting from a comprehensive package that combines rail and road transport. SBB Green Class combines environmentally sustainable, personalised mobility on the roads with public transport services thanks to a BMW i3 electric car, a SwissPass including a 1st class GA travelcard and use of the Mobility and PubliBike sharing schemes. The offer also comes with a P+Rail annual pass and a Wallbox (including installation) at the customer’s home for charging their electric car. SBB Green Class lets the pilot customers combine sustainable mobility services according to their individual needs throughout the entire travel chain.

The pilot scheme began in January 2017 and runs until January 2018, with the first results expected next spring. Depending on the findings, similar products covering the entire travel chain may well follow soon afterwards. With offers of this kind, private and public transport options are increasingly being combined into an attractive, end-to-end mobility service that offers flexible connections and options. This open approach means that individual modes of transport are now complementing rather than competing with one another and are being connected up smartly and innovatively, thus bringing added quality and efficiency to mobility.

SBB Cargo is currently working on modernising railway freight traffic, taking various aspects of automation and digitisation and developing them further. Its “Asset Intelligence” unit is bringing smart solutions to rolling stock, connecting wagons together digitally. They are fitted with GPS and various sensors that enable them to report their load status, monitor their temperature and supply data to assist with their maintenance. A wagon can thus be monitored constantly, wherever it happens to be at any given time, and will trigger an instant alarm if an unforeseen event occurs, e.g. if a door is opened while the wagon is moving. A total of 150 wagons equipped with temperature sensors and weighing technology to help with loading are now out and about on the rails. The smart freight wagon is currently undergoing further development, with more new components being added.

SBB Cargo’s “Wayside Intelligence” project involves fitting video cameras to its marshalling yards in order to generate images that can be used to make visual checks on vehicles. The next step will see new cameras installed along railway lines as well and existing ones brought into service. This will enable damages and breakdowns to be detected while trains are still out in service. Sensors and video cameras are to log all safety-related data in future and thus provide constant monitoring for railway freight traffic. Numerous wayside monitoring systems are already in place to ensure safe rail operations. Freight services are also now employing these existing systems more and more to serve their own needs and those of their customers. For instance, RFID tags can be used to trigger an alarm when a train has arrived.

To simplify its processes for the “last mile”, SBB Cargo is working on automatic coupling, automatic brake tests and the opportunities offered by mobile devices such as monitoring and dispatching trains as well as other functionalities that will be carried out electronically in future. The “Efficient Shunting and Train Composition” project is all about modernising and industrialising shunting operations. SBB Cargo is now also developing a range of extensions for flat wagons. Joined by over a dozen industry partners and with the support of the Technical Innovation Circle for Rail Freight Transport and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, SBB Cargo is implementing the Europe-wide “5L” project, which is studying these new components for wagon bases.

SBB is the most punctual railway company in Europe on what is the world’s busiest track network. Safety, punctuality and quality are the traditional strengths of the Swiss rail system. However, these alone are not enough to utilise the opportunities presented by the far-reaching changes affecting the world of mobility. New ideas are needed as well. These have to be developed into marketable products and services quickly and successfully, involving customers right from the very early stages of the process.  After all, “driving targeted innovation” is also one of SBB’s strategic objectives.

This is why SBB is boosting its innovative capabilities. Work started on building up a company-wide innovation team – “Innovation 2.0” – in early 2017. There is also an innovation fund endowed with some CHF 12 million to promote the development of new ideas. The new team is to make sure that the necessary conditions for fostering innovations at SBB are in place and to support the existing innovation teams in the various divisions and group-level units. Top of its to-do list is to create an environment conducive to innovation. To this end, the team has set out to dismantle any organisational and systemic barriers and provide the tools required to make it easier for the divisions to develop their own innovations.

The process is being overseen by experienced innovation coaches who are advising the divisions, the group-level units and the IT staff. The company-wide innovation team will be supporting innovation projects and helping to speed them up wherever possible, particularly in the case of major innovations promoting the mobility of the future those that are crucial to the company’s success.

Stations are increasingly becoming places where various different modes of transport, shops, restaurants and other services are being brought together and used all in one place. Customers’ changing mobility needs mean that new mobility services for their first and last miles in particular are growing in importance. The main railway stations in the big cities are also reaching the limits of their capacity.

Mobility hubs work by taking the access points (locations) for various different means of road and rail transport and combining them in a way that maximises the benefits of each – such as car- and bike-sharing, self-driving vehicles, bikes, electric cars, buses, etc. This also helps to make the prospect of changing between modes of transport more attractive, promoting a genuinely door-to-door travel chain. These mobility hubs are crucial if sites and, indeed, mobility itself are to be developed sustainably and for the long term.

A new site-based system (mobility hubs) is being created by upgrading stations selectively: the seven main stations in Switzerland’s biggest urban centres are already key mobility hubs. These are now to be disburdened by new mobility hubs in surrounding urban areas. Mobility hubs in regional centres and rural areas are to complement the site-based system. Efforts are currently focusing on specifying the mobility hubs in these surrounding urban areas and earmarking the regional centres.

According to current projections, Switzerland’s population will reach between nine and eleven million by 2045, with the majority living and working in large cities. Growing urbanisation will pose new challenges to the main urban centres. With digitisation very much on the march, the “smart city” concept offers some intelligent solutions.

Cities are already responsible for nearly two thirds of Switzerland’s total energy consumption as well as producing about 80 percent of all its greenhouse gas emissions – and these figures are going to keep on rising. A smart city is designed to offer its inhabitants the highest quality of life using as few resources as possible. This can be achieved by linking up different infrastructures such as transport, energy and communications, whether this be for individual buildings, districts or whole cities.

As the driving force of Swiss public transport and an environmental pioneer among European rail companies, SBB is playing an important role in the mobility of the future. SBB is making an important contribution to turning Switzerland into a more attractive and competitive country with modern, well-connected development and infrastructure projects. With innovative mobility solutions and ground-breaking district development projects in top locations, SBB can support cities with their plans and be an important partner in helping them become smart cities.