Living here we take for granted the timeliness and cleanliness of public transport, especially in places like Zurich. I am reminded of it when in London, Amsterdam, Paris or elsewhere where I decide to take the Tube/underground instead of a taxi. In which other country will you hear an apology over the public address system apologising for a two minute delay...?

It's true...I used to be annoyed and used to miss a bit of dirt, chaos and Bohemian charisma of an ostentatiously anti perfect place...but public subway back home makes me really miss CH. It's still really convenient and all, but it's a mess. And, packed. One specific station gets half a million of passengers a day, nuts. The ICN I take here is packed everyday too, but I never have to stand. Civilized, despite how much we nag about all these things.

The underground in Prague is so so so deep - like the bowels of the earth, not much good for claustrophobes.

That's why I love trains here. The subway tunnel is spooky. Though my practice room was -3 levels underground, so I was pretty trained. But some of us weren't, we had a paper bag ready for hyperventilation and some schnaps, urgh. We were playin' real underground, literally

It's all very pictoresque here, transport is awesome. I can actually write on a train here, you really can't elsewhere since it bumps so much. And the pannetonnes, I miss SBB wenches walking around with carts, with drinks and pannetones.

I read that the SBB is revamping their restaurant wagons on the IC trains and changing the menus...: ) Looking forward to that

You can write on an ICN ?? I have trouble even drinking coffee on one, they shudder and judder so much. I'm not bothered by the tilting, but I find the ride very bumpy compared to normal trains. Not the SBB's greatest investment.

I have to say we are very spoiled with the public transportation in Switzerland. Surprisingly, I am very very impressed of the public transportation in Barcelona. It is clean, efficient, fast, safe and organised.

Edit:

I should add that here, people are actually more respectful and mannered than in CH. Always have someone to leave his place for an elderly, pregnant woman, handicaped, etc.

Yes, I would agree with that from the couple of times I have been there.

I have no problem with the ICN train but Mr S always feel so sick on it and if there is an alternative on the local train he prefers to take it. My friend felt so bad that they had to get off

Agreed, trains are great in Spain. My favourite stations are Madrid and Toledo. We spent a week traveling around Spain by train, first class (which we never do anywhere else) and it was brilliant. Also used the bus between Grenada and Malaga, and that was fine too.

Maybe the line here is smoother, I don't know. But it does not shake so much, really.

I just saw a a brand new ICN being tested between LS and GE, very fancy. The resto is pricey, but they seem have gotten better already, past few years.

I two years ago talked with a locomotive driver about the "shaking" of trains. He explained that the problem is neither the trains nor the rails as such but the junction-points (junction-switches) and that if the SBB saves money by not working on them permanently, the trains WILL shake more. The disponents and the loco-drivers of course try their very best to fix routes with a minimum of points but the options in quite many places are limited.

Back to the ICN. They are to be the "swift trains" but this means that they have to cross such "points" at full speed with the inevitable results

I think ICN is one of my CH highlights. Some of the seats reek, since the trains themselves aren't new..but the design, the idea of naming the train by popular personality, with explanations and quotes, the whole shebang is nice. It's so quiet and does not raise so much dust, just zipps through the fields. The fancy new S trains aren't bad, either, spacious.