The Foundation's purpose is to collect, retain, preserve, document and archive historical artefacts from the history of Swiss railway transportation. It was to this end that SBB founded the SBB Heritage Foundation (SBB Historic) in 2001.

The Foundation's aim is to make the valuable artefacts from the cultural and economic history of Swiss railways accessible to the general public.

The Foundation's services include

• a reading room with work stations, guest computers and WLAN
• a library containing over 30,000 books and 300 journals on the subject of railways
• visits to the archives (prior notification required)
• tours/events
• exhibitions
• trips on historic rolling stock