undefined | Better HN

0 pointsmFixman5y ago0 comments

> This means, big project ambitions get cut down to size, and few grand things if any, get done at the federal level. But this is glorious: it is very hard for regulations to become calcified within the state apparatus.

And yet, Switzerland's nationalised train network is one of the most extensive and effective in the world.

How did that happen?

0 comments

wuschel5y ago

I will bite, although this moves away from the news that Switzerland votes against the electronic ID system.

> How did that happen?

Two hypothesis:

a) The railroad net in Switzerland is fairly small when compared to Germany.

b) The numbers in the punctuality statistics are skewed. For example, once a train from Germany is late and wants to cross the border to Switzerland (e.g. Freiburg-Basel crossing), it is put on hold and has to wait until it falls into the next swiss train slot, entering Switzerland "on time". In Germany, this would be counted as a delay.

Source: Lived in Switzerland for a while.

tim3335y ago

The rail network was mostly built by private enterprise prior to 1898 when it was nationalised and has been run in a pretty conservative way since.

>While European rail operators such as French SNCF and Spanish Renfe have emphasised the building of high-speed rail, SBB has invested in the reliability and quality of service of its conventional rail network.

As a Brit I'd probably prefer that to £100bn on HS2 and god knows what on the proposed Boris Burrow.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse