Dear Mr. Kowalski

Many thanks for your visit at the SBB counter in Baden and your e-mail of Sunday, 19th July. We are both happy and grateful to count you as one of our good customers, owning a half fare card and an abonnement A-Welle.

You are asking us, why there exist different prices for the InterRegio trains and the S-Bahn between Baden - Neuenhof - Zürich. I hope, I can explain it to you, and my explanation in bad English is sufficient enough.

The main reason for this separate prices and tickets to buy is that the slow trains (S-Bahnen, Regios) are almost totally financed by the cantons (here in this case Kanton Aargau and Kanton Zürich). The fast trains (InterRegios, InterCity) however are financed by the SBB itself.

There is also the Tarifverbund A-Welle, a network (or interconnection, bond, cooperation; I don't know the correct word) of all public transport companies in the canton Aargau. When you possess a A-Welle-abonnement for the zone Nr 70, and you wish to travel from inside this network to outside, for example to Zürich, you have to buy or pay a complementary ticket. This ticket must be from the last stop inside the network to your destination outside. The fast train stops in Baden and not in Neuenhof, so you pay a ticket from Baden. This rules are used by all other networks in Switzerland, for example also by the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund ZVV.

For all this reasons there must be a difference of calculation for tickets.

We count on your understanding and thank you for being a faithful customer. Finally, we would like to wish you many more pleasant journeys by train, bus and ship and we remain at your service.

Yours sincerely,

H*** G***
Customer Relations Region Solothurn-Aargau