Are these canton day tickets (Tageskarte Gemeinde) really intended for the poor and/or destitute as someone earlier has said?

In my understanding they work as follows:

Canton buys a load of tickets at the beginning of the year (for example they will buy 20 day tickets for each day of the year). They then sell them at a profit. SBB sells them at a discount to the canton (i.e. cheaper than an individual just going to an SBB machine and buying a day ticket (Tageskarte).

So the "loss" is on SBB. Why do they do it? Don't know. Why does the canton do it? For a small profit and as a deal to their residents.

The tickets (whether bought at the machine or at a discount through the Canton) are transferrable. They have NO name on them and no proof of ID is needed when used. In other words, one is able to sell them, give them away, or use them. All perfectly legit (otherwise they'd be stamped/marked with your ID).

And, as an aside, they're valid until the "end of day" which in SBB's world is 5am the next day.

You qualify?

Depends what I'm measuring myself against I'd take a guess "no", but Basel Stadt has happily (yes, with a smile!) sold me tickets before now.

I am waiting for someone to write in and ask whether they can survive in Switzerland on 120,000 plus a Tagescarte Gemeinde.

Well your understanding is totally wrong !

Each commune gets 2 tickets per day (or more for larger communes), 365 days year which are sold by the commune for whatever price they want. Each month the commune has to pay the SBB the amount that is agreed upon and return any unused tickets. If they return no tickets, then they have to pay the total amount for the number of tickets they have multiplied by the number of days in the month.

Some communes actually sell these far cheaper than others, effectively they are subsidising the commune memebers, others sell at a higher price to generate revenue. I know communes who sell at Chf 25.-- but stricktly to commune members and others who will sell to anybody at Chf 40.-- or even Chf 45.--

I seem to vaguely remember reading that there is some sort of Eco motive to these day cards, by trying to make very long journeys by train more economical. This in turn would encourage people away from filling up Grindelwald/Engadin/Kleinbasel with polluting car using daytrippers. In theory.
Seeing as Sbb are heavily subsidised anyway, the money ultimately comes from tax. I've seen worse uses for tax money

Seems I was pretty close. What bits of my post don't you agree with?

Guessing at the translation of this http://www.sbb.ch/abos-billette/bill...-gemeinde.html it seems the Canton can buy as many bundles as it wants (in multiples of 365) at around 34 CHF per ticket. I guess if they want to them sell them at a loss it's up to them. But in your example of a Canton selling them for 25 CHF, what's to stop a resident buying two and giving one to a friend who doesn't live in Switzerland to use?

Just got my reply. I know this has been confirmed by Quark already but I still thought its good to have another ref.

Ref.: KUDI5635990

Dear Ms. Ball

Thank you for your e-mail.

The Gemeinde Tagescard is valid on the printed day till the next day till 5 o'clock in the morning.

Do you have any queries? We'll be happy to answer them from Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 20:00.

Kind regards

Sabine Jeiziner

Swiss Federal Railways
SBB Contact Center
GA Service Center
Postoffice box 176
CH – 3900 Brig
Phone: 0848 44 66 88 – Fax: 051 225 70 92
ga@sbb.ch - http://www.rail.ch/ga

Since we already had this reply, it would have been of greater interest to me had you asked what the ruling and/or reaction would be to someone living abroad asking residents of Switzerland on the internet if they would obtain two tickets for specific days for this unknown visitor.

Did anybody mention the supersaver tickets? It should be available from two weeks before the travel date, and only valid on the trains for which they were bought. Single trip ZH HB to arosa cost CHF 23.60...

Hi im going to post my Recent batch of e.mails with sbb I think it will be of intrest to many.

I wrote. My answer that I got. I wrote back And their answer.