<RANT>
It's been barely 2 months after you increased the price for AG/GA travel card, and you already talking about increasing it again by CHF 210.-

Since SBB belongs to the goverment 100%, shouldn't all price hikes be voted by its people.
</RANT>

It has to be run like a profitable business, otherwise you end up with a situation like Greece, where cutting unprofitable routes or firing unneeded workers is political suicide.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/bu...al/21rail.html

No - it could be run like a non-loss, but non-profit business.

It can (actually it is) be subsidised by the government.

Perhaps extra finance can be raised by increasing the taxes in Canton Schwz

I guess running trains to time in -22c in the winter and +35c in the summer costs a bit

Swiss public transport works so well because it really is truly integrated and a multi-change trip which would be a complete no-go in a country like the U.K. is actually very easy here . Easy in planning; easy in execution.

Breaking any part of the chain because it is not economically viable will result in a collapse of the whole system and the special status that Swiss public transport deserves.

Putting up ticket prices too much will break the system.

I thought SBB was 51% Government owned, 49% private investment... I'm sure I heard this somewhere...

More news on the changes here:

The Swiss Public Transport System

Putting up the price too much will result to people buying their own mode of transport because it'll soon be the cheaper alternative. Then cutting unprofitable routes or firing unneeded workers is nigh.

non loss? Pretty far from that. They get 2.2billion CHF for infrastructure etc as public funding. Looks to me like SBB needs to grow with the population, that will mean increasing costs to cover.

ive been on an all canton ZH pass for 3 years now. my current one expires in march and ive been giving very serious thought to getting my own car...

A ga card is way cheaper then owning a car, just check out the cost of insurance alone, then road tax, petrol, mfk, servicing etc. unless they double the price of the ga then really people don't have anything to moan about

Yes but the car is used for much more than the ride you usually do by train.

Give me you Public transport system I give you my car

Yep go the 251 meter to macs milk or 98,5 meter to KFC

Lord Monkey ,can you change the avatar I hit it already 3times with my fly swat

It`s true, but using public transportation is not as convenient as using your own car! Especially when commuting to areas outside cities. I used to work in Buchs, SG and live in Kilchberg, ZH. Taking the train/tram/bus to get to work took like 2 hours each way. By car it took me 50 min to 1 hr max !