It better bloody not be....I had to pay Fr 30 for his first replacement....and his 2nd replacement. He'll be a bit more careful now though seen as he had to pay towards it. Mmmm, does anyone else know if the 1st replacement is free ?

Unbelievably I got a phone call at the weekend from our local SBB ticket office asking me to go in and pick up his wallet, as it had been handed in !! Was made up, as I'd feared it would have just been thrown away somewhere.

Sorry to hear about all your incidents.

Let me relate my "wake up" about Swiss trains.
About 6 months ago, I was waiting for a 1st class train from Unique (Zurich) airport, and some guy rudely stepped right in front of me as the train stopped. I was the first of many passengers obviously waiting.

Before I had the chance to vent my anger, he turned and said "Oh, Sorry, can I help you" (with your suitcase). Before I could say anything, he took the case, BUT only from one end, so I had to use both my hands the hold the other end.

I thought this was a bit weird, but it was the least he could do...

But then he didn't let go and kept on luring me into the cabin with my hands occupied. Just before I started to think something was up because my case was actually rather light and I felt silly getting help with it, another passenger, who had also appeared from nowhere, started pushing against my back pants (wallet) pocket. I immediately told them both to get away before anything happened.

I would have called for help, but at first I wasn't sure if I was being targeted, so I watched these guys.
The second guy got off the train, like he was just saying goodbye to his friend.
The first guy, who was so helpful, decided to double back through the restaurant wagon, but as the train started to depart, he also jumped out at the last moment!

I could only call the SBB police (0800 117 117) on my cell phone, to which they just said they were happy nothing got stolen, and that this was common at the airport station.

So I was lucky that time.
CH-iao

But those statistics are corrupt as well as virtually everything is in Russia.

Watch your bags on the train - especially when stopping at a station!!

On a very busy train from Zurich HB to Basel this morning, I was sitting opposite a group of four Japanese business men. They had lots of luggage, as did many people on their way to Basel airport. Anyway, one of these business men had his laptop bag (with his passport, wallet and credit cards) stolen just as the train was stopping at Altstetten. It was all a bit surreal how it happened and it was only afterwards everyone worked out what how they'd done it (isn't hindsight great?).

Basically there were two fairly normal looking guys working together even though they gave the impression they didn't know each other. As lots of people were queueing to get off the train at Altstetten, one of the guys suddenly dropped lots of coins all over the floor (where the four were sitting). He was quite a big guy and was blocking the aisle while picking up the coins. As he now had created the necessary distraction, the accomplice squeezed through a narrow gap left for him, grabbed the bag from the overhead rack and got off the train. No one saw a thing! It's obviously not the first time as it seemed to be a very smooth operation. Get everyone focused on the floor with someone rummaging around at their feet while someone else grabs what he wants from above. The poor Japanese guy looked distraught when he realised what had happened.

Anyway, just wanted to share that with you so that you don't get caught out!

Except you! You saw it?

That's the thing - I didn't! I, along with the others, only pieced everything together after the event. We were all so distracted by someone dropping lots of coins all over the floor. I only saw the other guy push past but even then I was still looking towards the floor. This guy was the only one who could have taken the bag.

thank you all for this thread. I guess it is too easy here because we are more relax.

NB: I often help people with there luggage but I don't think I will do it any more.
I don't want to be knock down by an old lady with an umbrella thinking I am trying to rob her.

That's one of the reasons I never put anything on the overhead shelf. The other is that I don't want to forget anything.

If I'm carrying a bag, rucksack etc then it goes under my legs. If it's got a long enough strap then I'll hook it over my leg.

Basically, and very unfairly, I view everybody else on a train as a potential thief.

I do the same when travelling alone.

Next time I go to the airport with my family and lots of luggage, I'm taking a padlock and a length of chain and I'm going to do what I've done before in countries with thieves on the trains - chain the bags together, and then chain the lot to the train.

the other day I forgot my bag in the train (arriving in Paris).
I had olmost nothing in it (18" I7 laptop, 7" tablet, 1Tb HDD, money, passports, hours of work on photos, keys,...)

thank you lord the Chef de train took it and called. He didn't give it to lost and found because he was afraid I could be in transit and would not be able to have it on time.

thank you SNCF

Posts in this thread are from 2009 - I'm wondering if anyone has noticed a change in the security situation on trains, at stations, etc. since then. Argh, I'm now cringing at the number of times I've left my suitcase near the doors on the way from Zurich to Bern and my general relaxed attitude toward my belongings on trains... Better safe than sorry here like everywhere else I guess.

Uhh, very sorry. So new that I keep mistaking the member join date as the message date. Please disregard my last post!

No problem - the newer posts in the Thread are quite recent.

It's that time of the year when you, like me, may find yourself on a train with lots of shopping bags, weary after an afternoon of holiday shopping.

Well, just wanted to give folks the heads up that they're ready for us. Last week I had a lovely time shopping with my daughter, finding nice treats for family and friends for Christmas. By dinner time we were on the train back to Lausanne, with four large shopping bags between us. We put them on the seat next to ours, all together.

I think it was just as we were leaving the station in Zurich, when people were getting on and off and someone moved into the seat next to my daughter, so we were quickly making room. Minutes later, I reached to open one of the bags, which would have been filled with English books for my boys. Not there. We looked everywhere, under seats and all around the train car, bathroom, etc. Gone. Told the train conductor and the poor fellow looked awfully sad but couldn't offer any advice.

Rats. I'm pretty wary about theft, being from NY/Boston and all. So it surprised me that someone could have snatched a big bag of books like that from right under my nose.

Just thought I'd warn ya'. Best way to make this a happy ending is to prevent it from happening to someone else.

Natasha your story if fab! Glad you got your bag back. Sad but true that there is theft everywhere, even in Switzerland. I do have the impression that GVA is worse than ZH though..?

Scarsdale....sorry to hear about that! That is awful..I mean kids books! Amazing they would do that.

To anyone who is not aware these incidents of theft on the trains are usually gangs from foreign countries wh target the trains. There are often articles in 20 Minuten and the like to warn about these so it just shows that you need to continue to be alert.

Just a heads up everyone those thieves are still out there!!!!!
Someone stole my bag in te airport yeterday@TERMINAL 2 near the gate,i think the target of these guys are families with small kids since they know the parent's attention are on kids of course for a parent like me id rather lose a luggage instead of loosing my kids so someone took advantage on it ,i put my bag on the luggage cart to hold my 7mnth-old daughter and like a magic it disappeared so all our boarding passes and passports my stuff are gone we immedietly reported it to the police since its just downstairs near starbucks and after a minute or 2 a policeman came and found a wallet which is mine and an hour later someone found my bag in the womens restroom and we are thankful that all the documents are still there but my Ipad is gone but i dont care much of it my first concer is our passport,so we missed our flight have to rebook it with 2000chf penalty with all the stress it caused and crying hungry babies etc.

I never imagined that it happened to me in CH airport so the policeman said always take good care of your bags or within seconds it's gone.

P.S Policemen have told us that they don't have cctv cameras at the airport that much because of the stupid swiss law about "PRIVACY"

Just a head up, there is a post about thieves in the check in hall at Easyjet Zurich, please do a search in future before posting ...

Beware thieves at zurich airport

It is always the same, thieves use the biggest rush in the travel to achieve
their targets, so avoid the big crowds (and the peak travel ) if you can, so thieves can't hide or have to get other targets.
Better travel one day ahead or after the peak, it adds up in every way (security problems, money, nerves.....)