Unfortunately, disruptions occur in our complex railway system despite all our best efforts and precautions. Even though these disruptions affect just a tiny fraction of journeys, several hundred travellers are affected almost every day. And for those affected by a cancelled train, it’s hardly any consolation at the time to know that over a million train passengers arrive on time each day.

Every delay, cancellation and restriction is frustrating – not only for our customers, but also for us. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you all for your understanding and patience. Please be assured that we are doing our best every day to offer quick solutions to our passengers experiencing disruptions – not an easy task for such a busy railway network. For this, we need dedicated employees with extensive railway knowledge as well as coordinated IT solutions. 

If commuters experience disruptions and long delays multiple times within a short space of time, it’s understandable that they may think this is due to a systematic problem. But, in the vast majority of cases, if disruptions affect the same line at similar times of day, it’s just a coincidence. Our specialists work continuously to analyse the causes of disruptions and develop measures to resolve them. If several disruptions occur at the same time, we proactively inform the public and work hard to find a solution. We offer our customers alternative travel arrangements wherever possible.

SBB customers can use the SBB Mobile app for travel information or speak to a colleague at the counter. They want a reliable way of getting to work and would like to make the best use of their travel time. They hate “nasty surprises” and would like to be notified about possible disruptions as soon as possible and given alternative routes and reliable forecasts. If their train is cancelled, they need reliable customer information on the spot, as well as alternative travel routes as quickly as possible.

Our aim is to substantially improve personalised customer information. Our teams are working hard to ensure that, in future, customers are contacted individually and without delay about any timetable changes or disruptions via the SBB Mobile app. We are also continuously developing our forecasting abilities, which will help us to plan and deliver travel even more reliably. 

There are two different approaches to measuring punctuality: train punctuality and weighted customer punctuality. As we want as many of our customers as possible to reach their destination on time, customer punctuality is of the utmost importance to SBB.

Customer punctuality measures the percentage of all travellers who arrive at their destination on time. A customer is considered punctual if they arrive at their destination station with less than three minutes’ delay and made all of their connections. Compared with partner railways in Germany and Austria, SBB has boasted the highest punctuality rate for a number of years now.

We know that our customers are hardly interested in hearing about how good our overall “customer punctuality” rating is when they’re affected by a disruption. They need a quick, suitable solution to the transport problem they’re currently experiencing. Reliable, personalised information and the most accurate forecasts possible all play a key role. SBB is working to develop even better solutions to these needs.

The following diagram shows how punctual we were (CP: customer punctuality/TP: train punctuality) last month, on a Switzerland-wide scale and in the different regions: 

Train punctuality in July 2019

The following diagram shows our punctuality rates during the last year: 

Train punctuality in 2018 (in German) (PDF, 3.1 MB)This document is not barrier-free. (PDF, 3.1 MB)

We make our data, including on train punctuality, accessible to the public as part of our “open data” strategy. Other companies also use this data to offer valuable customer information, such as the Swiss transport punctuality website pünktlichkeit.ch. We value this opportunity, as it offers our customers added value free of charge.