Adaptive control (ADL), also known as the “green wave”, i.e. continuous traffic flows, makes a substantial contribution to the energy-saving programme. The system makes driving recommendations to the locomotive crew, helping to avoid unscheduled stopping at red signals. Trains run more smoothly, more energy-efficiently and with less wear and tear.

Thanks to ADL, SBB saves around 70 gigawatt hours of traction current per year. ADL is an innovative in-house SBB development, winning the Swiss Federal Office of Energy’s prestigious Watt d'Or award in 2016.

Practically all SBB trains today are equipped with a sleep mode: when there are no passengers in the vehicle, the train can enter sleep mode and the heating is switched off. Thanks to additional programming in the control centre and on the trains, the heating for coaches on most SBB trains is linked to the daily timetable. As a result, each vehicle knows when it will next be in service, enabling it to heat up automatically at the required time. This means the sleep mode can be managed even more precisely and therefore more energy-efficiently.

In this way, SBB saves 12 gigawatt hours a year, without its customers experiencing any loss of comfort.

A large part of the traction current comes from our own hydroelectric power plants. Here, too, SBB is working hard to make power generation more energy-efficient. One example of this is the Amsteg power plant. This plant is equipped with three six-nozzle Pelton turbines which generate power by directing water from the penstock through the nozzles onto the turbine wheel.

Depending on the power output required, just two or four nozzles can be opened instead of all six. This increases efficiency because the same output can be generated with less water.

Energy-efficient new and converted buildings are good; reducing the floor space required is better. SBB is encouraging flexible forms of work for tasks that are not time-dependent or tied to specific locations. The mobile workplace is already a reality for more than 9,000 employees; SBB is thus helping to reduce rush-hour traffic while freeing up more seats for customers. At the same time, flexible forms of work such as ‘Work Smart’ and desk-sharing allow sites to be given up and rented buildings to be handed back. By centralising workplaces in the new, energy-efficient premises in Bern Wankdorf, in the Aarepark in Olten and WestLink in Zurich-Altstetten, SBB is making annual savings of 4 gigawatt hours of energy.