Just noticed there's no Track 13 in Basel HauptBahnhof (ie: it goes from Track 12 to Track 14). Bern Hauptbahnhof however does have a Track 13. So I guess Basel SBB is more superstitious than Bern?

I know some buildings in NYC also skip the 13th floor for superstitious reasons. Do they do that here in CH as well? (I'm in Bern, we don't have many buildings reaching up to 13 floors, so I don't have many opportunities to find out )

I assume that some numbers are missing because the tram net grew over time. At least it's like this in Zurich.

Nobody skips numbers here because of superstition except some hotels with Asian guests who dislike certain room numbers.

But if the tram net grew over time wouldn't it just go straight to the next available number?

Yes or reuse an old line number, but in the case of Basel - there has never been a Tram line 13, just 1 to 26 skipping the number 13, and never a platform 13 as the OP was asking

Pat

I stand corrected. Silly Baslers.

In Zurich, the route of Tram 1 was replaced with Bus 31. There is a little system in the numbering of the lines:

1-19: trams
20-29: inclines
30-99: VBZ busses
100-999: other ZVV busses

According to the wikipedia article there were 12 tracks until in 2003 when they've added two more tracks: number 14 and 15.

So someone must have lost count.

No 20 either, according to your link. The notorious unlucky number 20

I think Esto was refering to train tracks as in platform 13, not Tram lines?

Hospitals in Switzerland doesn't have 13th floor.

They added platforms 16 and 17 this year too in time for the Euro2008. There are also platforms 31-34 in the French area that used to be "Bahnhof SNCF"

Big map: http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/infra_services...sel-sbb-a4.pdf

so thats 20 Platforms .....

Pat

I blame the after-effects of my Knabenschiessen-weekend.

Which hospital doesn't have a 13th floor?

Yea, I was referring to the Train platforms in the main train station. Altho interesting there's no tram line 13 either. But with tram lines, they get shuffeled around I guess, and there was massive re-building going on there in Basel Centre, and alot of tram-tracks being ripped up...so I guess the tram numbering could be out of wack for those reasons.

But anyway, I don't see any reason why platform 13 should be skipped, the platforms are in a strieght line....so I'll chalk it up to Baselers being superstitious and the Bernese not so much...

PS- Odd why the trains to France are numbered in the 30's

This is because platform 9 ¾ screwed up the numbering scheme. The Hogwarts Express leaves from there. They had to drop number 13 out to get back into sequence.

Zurich has both a tram 13 and a platform 13...

Is it possible that there is a track 13, but no platform 13 in Basel? In Lausanne, there is no Platform 2, but there is platform 1 and 3 (plus all the way up through 9). Between platforms 1 and 3 there are 3 tracks; the middle track (which would be track 2) does not have a platform because it is not used for passenger trains, it is just for goods trains that are passing straight through. Therefore, we have no platform 2, but we do have a track 2, which makes sense. Could this explain the Basel situation, or are they just unnecessarily superstitious?

EDIT: Looking more closely at that station plan, it does appear that this is the case. There are 3 tracks between platforms 12 and 14! Therefore, they do have a track 13, just not a platform 13.

But in case you noticed, there's no platform 11 in Bern, it goes from 9 to 10, 12 straight to 13. Miscount, perhaps?

Absolutely right. Here is a nice big station plan (1.3MB pdf)

...but that doesn't show Track 17... Wow, now I'm really confused.

Wow, I go thru Bern Bahnhof all the time and never noticed that The local trains come in on track 1-4 so I never really go down near that "evil" track 13 anyway

Approaching Basel's main train station, one is greeted by these nice, clean and well designed platforms. Surely the designer had all the time in the world to do the artful work. However something does not add up about platform numbering. Platform number 13 is omitted among the 16 platforms which exist. Its missing, is it something to do with the superstitional belief of Friday the 13th? I dont know if that is the same at the main stations in Zurich, Geneva, Ticino Graubunden, etc. Recently, I have been again informed that there is no seat number 13 in Swiss International Air Line. I would be glad if someone can tell me, or send me the info about where I can read and know more, about the history of the introduction of Friday the 13th in Switzerland.

I know different countries consider different days as a day of bad luck. For example the 'Martes y trece' which is Tuesday the 13th, a day of bad luck in some Spanish-speaking countries.

Copfum

Mod note: Basel SBB layout in PDF

It's not because of superstition, it's part of the train station's aim to confuse non-Baslers. Much like the way they make it so hard to find the bus to the airport.

Zurchers aren't superstitious - we make it easy for everyone.

http://www.switch.ch/export/sites/de...zuerich_hb.pdf

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