Swiss Federal Railways look at London, high-speed trains and night trains

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF) registered a historical high in daily ridership in the first half of 2025. Switzerland national rail company saw an average of 1.41 million passengers traveled on its trains every day—an absolute historical record. Punctuality also reached a peak of 94.5% up 0.7 percentage point. Despite numerous construction projects -closing sometimes a complete line, customer satisfaction continued to rise. This is due to improved timetables, additional seating capacity, and further gains in punctuality.

However, the company’s financial situation remains tight: SBB half-year result amounts to CHF 48 million (USD 60 million). It is burdened by high maintenance costs and declining revenues in freight transport. The debt remains consequently high. Given the increasing demand and high levels of debt, it remains essential to ensure maintenance and prioritize railroad expansion where customer benefit is greatest.

In this context, Travelmole spoke about SBB future expansion plans with SBB CEO Vincent Ducrot. They are exciting developments coming up for SBB, particularly for the launching of a direct line from Switzerland to London as well as acquiring a fleet of high speed trains.

Why is SBB looking at London?

Vincent Ducrot- London is one of the top destinations from Switzerland. London attracts a lot of people. And we need to be present in markets where people are traveling. So the equation is simple: there’s enough demand to make a Switzerland–London route profitable.

Can a Switzerland-London rail link become quickly a reality? 

Vincent Ducrot – Let’s be clear about : it’s not happening tomorrow! First, we need to set the right framework conditions. That means proper rail terminals as well as securing additional slots through the Channel Tunnel. But if you’ve been following the news, Getlink, which manages traffic in the Channel Tunnel, has already announced plans to increase tunnel slots by 2030. When that framework is in place, and with the right partnerships—we’re talking a lot with Eurostar—we’ll almost certainly see non-stop Switzerland–London trains. The big challenge, though, is finding a bypass route around Paris.

So you can’t run through Paris?

Vincent Ducrot- It would be difficult. Going through CDG airport could be a possibility. However, the most feasible idea would be to reroute via Disneyland Paris—that’s a corridor we’ve already tested in the past with trains between Disneyland, Brussels, and Geneva. But the number of slots is still limited, though the French SNCF is also working to expand capacity.

Would you start from Geneva, Zurich, or both?

Vincent Ducrot- Ideally both. There’s enough demand from Geneva and equally enough from Zurich–Basel.

SBB mentioned already to look at acquiring high-speed rolling stock. Are you buying or leasing?

Vincent Ducrot- We need to step in financially into the high-speed market as our rail partners face difficulties to secure new trains. For example, on Switzerland-France routes, we have about 15 TGVs  belonging to SNCF and commercialized under the name Lyria. We use all of them.

We know that the SNCF itself has a huge need for more TGVs. They can’t put more in the alliance for us. That’s why we are looking to buy rolling stock. We look at increasing this common fleet in the medium term. Right now, we’re talking with leasing consortia. Next year, we’ll tender for new trains, then decide on leasing versus buying.

And what about services to Southern Europe? 

Vincent Ducrot- There’s already a Geneva–Marseille line, but only in the summer. Could it run year-round? Maybe. As I mentioned before, we operate about 15 TGVs in partnership with SNCF. But as SNCF needs more trains themselves, they can’t allocate us more.

When we get new trains, new routes will be possible. Paris is, of course, the top French destination from Switzerland. After that come Avignon, Marseille, and the Côte d’Azur. We need to serve them. And from Geneva, we’re clearly aiming for Barcelona, via Montpellier and the high-speed line into Spain. We consequently look to have trains with a speed of 300 km/h and even more.

Why not to operate night trains on these long-distance rail lines? 

Vincent Ducrot-  No, our strategy has always focused on daytime services. Personally, I think the limited slot availability during peak hours will eventually push operators to extend service windows, maybe into the night. But night trains carry too few passengers to be viable. You can’t cover the cost of a heavy train with just 200 sleepers on board.

Meanwhile, we will start to operate a night train in Spring 2026. The train is set to operate between Basel SBB and Copenhagen/Malmö in Sweden. Malmö will be the hub for further destinations in Scandinavia. The Swiss federal government will provide substantial funding, around CHF47 million for five years as an initiative to promote climate-friendly international rail travel as an alternative to flying. 

To conclude, international expansion remains a SBB priority?

Vincent Ducrot- Yes, but always in cooperation. We won’t operate abroad on our own. Our role is to provide trains and infrastructure for partnerships with national rail companies such as SNCF, Trenitalia, Spanish Renfe and Austrian ÖBB. That’s our model.

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