Swiss Federal Railways

**List oifSwiss Federal Railways** (German: *Schweizerische Bundesbahnen*, ***SBB***; French: *Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses*, ***CFF***; Italian: *Ferrovie federali svizzere*, ***FFS***) is the national railway company of Switzerland. It is usually referred to by the initials of its three official names – defined by federal law SR/RS 742.31 (SBBG/LCFF/LFFS) Art. 2 §1 – in German, French, and Italian, either as **SBB CFF FFS**, or used separately. The official English abbreviation is "SBB". While the official Romansh name, *Viafiers federalas svizras* (VFF) is used in federal documents and laws and Romansh-language media, it is not used by the SBB.

The company, founded in 1902, is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a government institution, but since 1999 it has been a special stock corporation whose shares are held by the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss cantons. It is currently the largest rail and transport company of Switzerland, and operates on most standard gauge lines of the Swiss network. It also heavily collaborates with most other transport companies of the country, such as the BLS, one of its main competitors, to provide fully integrated timetables with cyclic schedules.

SBB was ranked first among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index for its intensity of use, quality of service, and safety rating. While many rail operators in continental Europe have emphasised the building of high-speed rail, SBB has invested in the reliability and quality of service of its conventional rail network, on both national and regional scales. In addition to passenger rail, SBB operates cargo and freight rail service, through its subsidiary SBB Cargo, and has large real estate holdings in Switzerland.

## Services

### Train services

SBB has the following services:

* R: Regio (*Regionalzug*): stops at all stations
* S: S-Bahn (commuter train): organized as a rapid transit system in major agglomerations, with several lines and generally high frequent service.
* RE: RegioExpress: local trains to access within a region.
* IR: InterRegio: are the workhorses of Swiss transit. They reach across two or three cantons, for instance from Geneva, along Lake Geneva through Vaud, and all the way to Brig at the far end of the Valais.
* IC: InterCity: stops at major cities (Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg etc.). For the 2017–2018 timetable, the SBB gave numbers to all IC and IR lines.
* ICN: InterCity Tilting Train Similar to the IC, but using tilting trains instead of standard/double-decked trains. The ICN designation was discontinued as of 10 December 2017, with former ICN services now being branded as IC, but still run by tilting trains.

EXT: Charter train or special train added when an exceptionally heavy traffic is expected.

Regional trains are sometimes operated by another Swiss railways operator (for example, the Bern S-Bahn services operated by the BLS AG.)

SBB also operates international EuroCity and EuroNight trains while within Switzerland, while Deutsche Bahn operates InterCityExpress services to, from, and (a few services) within the country serving Swiss cities such as Interlaken, Bern, Basel, Zürich, and Chur. Under the name TGV Lyria the French railway company SNCF operates TGV connections to Switzerland. Lyria SAS, a company established under French law, is a subsidiary of the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF – French National Railway Company) which owns 74%, and the Chemins de Fer Fédéraux Suisses (CFF – Swiss Federal Railways) which owns 26%. TGV Lyria serves several Swiss cities including Geneva, Lausanne, Basel, Zürich, Bern, and Interlaken. It also provides services to certain locations including Brig in the Valais especially during the winter season to provide a connection for tourists mainly visiting the south-eastern Swiss Alps. These connections are marketed under the name of *TGV Lyria des Neiges*.

### Lines

Since 2018, the SBB uses numbers and distinct colors for all its InterCity (IC) and InterRegio (IR) lines (like a subway network) to ease connections. The IC, IR and RE (RegioExpress) lines (including alternative routes) are as follows:

#### InterCity

InterCity network of Swiss Federal Railways

 - Flüelen -

 Basel SBB -

 Lausanne -

 - Flüelen -

 - Liestal -

#### InterRegio

Lines IR26 (since 2020), IR35 (since 2021), and IR46 (since 2020) are jointly operated with Südostbahn (SOB).

 - Muttenz -

 - Stein-Säckingen -

## List of international train routes

* Zurich (CH) - Bregenz (AT)
* Zurich (CH) - Vienna (AT)
* Zurich (CH) - Berlin (DE)
* Zurich (CH) - Frankfurt (DE)
* Zurich (CH) - Munich (DE)
* Zurich (CH) - Hamburg (DE)
* Zurich (CH) - Singen (DE)
* Zurich (CH) - Stuttgart (DE)
* Zurich (CH) - Freiburg (DE)
* Zurich (CH) - Paris (FR)
* Zurich (CH) - Milan (IT)
* Zurich (CH) - Prague (CZ)
* Zurich (CH) - Bratislava (SK)
* Zurich (CH) - Budapest (HU)
* Zurich (CH) - Cluj-Napoca (TA)
* Zurich (CH) - Lviv (GZ)
* Zurich (CH) - Uzhhorod (RY)
* Zurich (CH) - Zagreb (HR)