Well it's all started :

Begging to be banned in Bern Stadt

SBB wants ban on alcohol sales after 22.00 hrs & total ban on drinking in public in Bahnhof for the duration of the championships.

I like the way that they are using Euro 2008 as an excuse to clean up the town centre, with legislation.

The alcohol sales ban will be applied to all SBB stations, as of the first of April. Totally pointless if you ask me, since the ban only applies to shops and not to bars and cafes as well.

Also, they shouldn't be too worried about it, after all, the English aren't coming to town.

And the English that are already here will be going on a long holiday and pretending that Euro2008 never existed.

I don't think it is pointless because the type of people drinking in bars and cafés is different from those buying drinks the kiosk and drinking inside the station or on the square outside. This is not a ban of alcohol consumption but rather an attempt to make stations safer and cleaner at night.

I think the ban is supposed to help prevent the trains from turning into bars themselves after the games, which is a good idea. That could still happen of course, but people just have to plan a little ahead to have beer available once they board the train - the people who would probably cause the most problems with this probably aren't as good at forward planning as is the average person.

The poiint that I am trying to make is that legislation is being tabled under the guise of we need to do something for Euro 2008.

As for the Bahnhof, personally speaking, the less teenagers there are hanging around drinking the better. Goes for the begging as well.

There was no mention of the ban having anything to do with Euro 2008 in the articles that I read this morning. Sorry, should have mentioned that in my first post.

So as far as I can tell, the whole point of the ban is to stop teenagers from hanging around train stations and getting drunk. Which, to my mind, is pointless, as they will just start drinking earlier.

What are they going to do about the Beers of the World shop at the Zurich HB? I doubt they'll be able to legislate it out of business.

Or buy more beers before 22:00

What a real pain in general though, what do you do after your long journey home and you want to get back home and have a beer . Another thing I have to plan to buy.

I'm pretty sure that closes before 10pm anyway, the only place still open is the buffet express thing in the middle of the top floor.