Great Western Coffee Shop

I've just returned home from holiday in Switzerland, and the first week was spent with rail passes that meant we utilised all the different types of railway in the area to the fullest extent. 

The on train experience
All were immaculately clean whether brand new or decades old
There wasn't an airline seat to be seen, but lots of leg room, so no need to play footsie.
The windows always lined up with the seats
Panoramic windows were the norm (not just on scenic services), much deeper, and often with additional windows at the transition to the roof.
Windows could be opened wide - on some trains you could throw a child out if so inclined, with the only warning a pictorial "no selfie sticks".
Perfectly clear TV displays (consistent across operators) giving next stop and destination information, accompanied by clear bilingual announcements.
Same screens give connection times and platforms on approach to any station. 
Ticket checks were regularly carried out.


Operating Practices
One service we caught regularly split en route at a station call. On splitting, from stopping to the first train pulling away took 50 secs on average.  On joining, from the first train arriving to the combined train pulling away took 2 mins 15 secs.  No messing about with pulling the train up once, letting pax off, closing the doors, joining, reopening the doors, as is sometimes seen in the UK.

The mountain railways would typically run two or three trains in the same direction by sight, so you could see a train no more than 200m in front of you and another behind you moving in the same direction. Maybe not relevant for the National Rail network, but symptomatic of a pragmatic view to safe operating practices.

Infrastructure

Every line was electrified, even the 100 year old mountain railway that only runs for 6 months of the year. And on the mainlines the steel masts and supports were proportionate, rather than the over-engineered constructions currently being erected on the GWML.

Elf'n Safety
Crossing from one platform to another was across the rails in the middle of the platform, even with 4 trains per hour. The station was staffed and staff made sure that it was clear as the train approached, but no need for very expensive footbridges, that then need to be made even more expensive by being accessible.  Mobility impaired customers used a flat level crossing at the end of the platform.

A crossover from one track to another split the island platform, so to get to the end of the platform needed to catch the front portion of the train, you have to cross the split.  Again a pragmatic approach that I can't imagine would get approved in the UK.

So why depressing?  Because I then thought of the comparison with our own railway, the cramped rolling stock, the poor and inconsistent information, the cost of any improvement when gold plated H&S is included. And so on...

P.S. Yes, every train was bang on time, but I expect you guessed that already.

 

Everything in Switzerland goes like clockwork.  :P

......and if everyone in the UK was willing and able to pay Swiss rates of taxation, I'm sure we could have similar here! 😀

Grass is always greener...  ::)

However, the Swiss Railways are State owned. Maybe we could try their model in the UK.  ;)

That's a fair comment, although some of the observations made are likely to result in a lower cost of running and improving a service.

Haverfordwest station has a steps-only footbridge at one end and a barrow crossing at the other with (I think) a white light showing when it is clear to cross. Admittedly platform 2 is hardly (if ever) used by passenger trains so nobody needs to use either means of crossing, but it doesn't look like the safety police have made sure nobody tries to use the barrow crossing so even if all down trains used platform 2 I can't see a problem; so why can't that system be adopted elsewhere at stations where all trains call rather than building expensive accessible footbridges? Obviously on busy lines the crossing would not be open long enough to ensure pepole have time to use it but in those cases there should be a stronger case for investment in accessible footbridges anyway.

Is Swiss taxation significantly different to UK taxation and what is the Swiss road system like (eg. do they waste billions on counterproductive bypasses like the UK Government does, or do they support public transport properly by not feeding the competion)?

Taplow Green is exactly right.  Switzerland is generally a far more prosperous country, but like many other countries seems happy to pay for the railways out of the public purse (and therefore taxation) to a much greater extent.  Public transport is just that...paid for by everyone and used by a majority but because it is so extensive there is a virtuous circle of availability, high standards and desirability.  It is also a much more compact country with few long distances between settlements that can provide custom.  The lumpy bit in the middle offers such a tourist opportunity that even that part can sustain some railways and/or Post Buses.

I'm not sure that culturally the UK can ever emulate the transport standards of Switzerland only envy it.  I also believe there are some downsides to Swiss culture which I would not want to live with - and I'm not talking cuckoo clocks - but would be inappropriate to go into that in a transport forum.

In some respects, the superiority of Swiss railways is due to high taxation and greater public spending on railways.
Not however in all respects.

Allowing passengers to cross the track merely requires keeping the elfansafety under control, money would be saved if compared to building elaborate footbridges everywhere.
Windows that line up with seats need cost no more than widows that don't, if planned properly at the design and build stage.
Windows that open wide enough to throw a child out should be cheaper than non functioning air conditioning.

More leg room costs money, but need not be hugely costly. 10% more space per passenger should only increase cost per seat by about 10%. Maybe a bit less than 10%

Joking aside, I can never let that one pass without pointing out that there is very little of the British railway system that isn't either state-owned or state-controlled. Our privatised railway is as deep as a coat of paint.

Shouldn't it be trilingual in Switzerland? (Or even quadrilingual if you include Romansch.)

No bilingual (i.e. French/German) signage anywhere in the German speaking part we were in.  We didn't venture across the rostigraben to see what the norm is in the French speaking parts.

Indeed - you forgot to mention the timetable has nowhere near the number of services per hour on most routes that the UK generally does (in the south east, at least), so far easier to keep to time

If only it were that simple!

When I was in Biel/Bienne a few years ago (on business), I was told it was the only bilingual town in Switzerland. However, that uniqueness might be apply only to its name - which is officially Biel/Bienne. The town is also officially bilingual, though I heard little French when I was there. It is in the canton of Bern, though administratively semi-separate; Bern the canton is bilingual though the city is Germanophone.

Federal institutions are in principle tri-(or more) lingual, but in practice they seem not to try very hard to achieve that. If you remember the last major train accident we saw there, the report on that was in german only (it happened in a German-speaking area). Italian is often used only in names and letterheads, and Romansch/Ladin hardly at all.

I remember the wide opening windows when I was there back in the early 90s and thinking then that you would not get away with it in the UK, and of course since then we've got even stricter with H&S!

Well, on Saturday evening last (02/09/2017) I travelled on a UK train where the windows were big and dropped wide open and the seats lined up with them.  It was on the Welshpool and Llanfair narrow gauge railway ::) :P

Ah, might be off up there soon. Recommended?

Well it was GALA weekend and I travelled both ways almost in the pitch black (no train lighting).  It was a fireworks special and apparently the first attempt in the UK to have fireworks let off at various sites along the line.  Seems a nice friendly line though  ;)

...whoops; thread drift.  Moderators watching.... :P

On certain other forums you would be shot down for doing such a thing.

Luckily we have very nice moderators who don't complain and quietly get on with any moving or merging that is required.  :)

Would it be correct to assume from the wide opening windows that the services are also slower than typical in UK? (This refers to Switzerland not Llanfair!)

In the Berner Oberland Bahn area, bilingual announcements were in German and English (although Wikipedia suggests that Portugese is the second most common native language after German in the locality)

Wilderswil Station (first stop outside Interlaken) had a ticket office signposted above the door simply "Rail Travel Office".

To illustrate some of John R's points, here (attached) is a picture of Wilderswil, with passengers disembarking from a train on the Schynige Platte Bahn and crossing the tracks of the BOB line, on which (on the day shown) there were half-hourly trains each way of 12 or 13 coaches.

The line on the left is actually set into the (rather low) platform. It is the passing loop for Wilderswil but isn't used as a crossing point in the regular timetable.

I hope that proper medical treatment is available for any UK health and safety managers who suffer fits, heart attacks, or mental distress as a result of viewing these arrangements.
I wonder if any such visitors from the UK have ever called the local police to report the "mass trespass" onto the tracks ! It would be a major incident in the UK, probably requiring closure of the line for some hours.

Thanks Trowres. That was indeed one of the locations I had in mind. One station further south is where the trains split, with the rather curious split platform I described, as shown in the photo. The speed of dividing/joining was very impressive.

Ahh the delightful Zweilutschinen .... Which is so much in shadow that you can get third degree frostbite in winter waiting if your scheduling goes arwy.

(Slight exaggeration)

I cannot pretend to understand the complexities of the Swiss railway structure - some of the "private" railways such as BOB are at least part-owned by the cantons. However, the spread of running railways by complex contracts can be identified in the following document:-
http://fsr.eui.eu/Documents/ResearchReport/Transport/Incentive-basedGovernanceSwissRailways.pdf (http://fsr.eui.eu/Documents/ResearchReport/Transport/Incentive-basedGovernanceSwissRailways.pdf)

Trainer, I wish that you had expanded on this opinion. What do you think are the cultural problems? (others please chip in!!!)

I was referring to the whole idea that we should share responsibility, costs and the transport itself and not take the more individualistic approach so many of my friends have where the car is king.  In Switzerland there is (to my limited knowledge) no stigma to using public transport even when access to a car is available.  It is a strange thing that such a capitalist country keen on making money has such a socialist attitude towards transport.

Those who visit Switzerland - even non-train enthusiasts - often remark on the wonderful system, but as soon as you mention the word 'tax' in explaining why it's so good there is often a slight splutter as we don't trust our politicians with 'our' money, so the thought of handing more over for trains and buses has been (certainly since 1979) felt undesirable. In turn the decline in the ease of using public transport in the UK (most specifically buses connecting with trains) is seen as a reason not to proceed with more subsidy for it.

I think to pick out this particular aspect of British life and how we approach it fails to address the broader political differences between the us and some other countries which often arise out of cultural differences in attitudes.  I will find it difficult to succinctly express those differences without sounding like some abhorrent nationalist - subtlety is essential and can be lengthy.  Suffice it to say, some countries seem more socially minded than others (perhaps the Scandinavian countries stand out in this respect) and that is reflected in their politics. I hope these few comments will be enough to elucidate my initial comment and provoke others to 'chip in' - and disagree.

(I did say I wasn't sure this was solely a transport subject! ;))

Thanks, Trainer. You mention individualism and a reluctance to embrace collective funding (tax). But if I interpret correctly, you see these as symptoms of an ingrained national trait that affects a much wider range of issues.

This proposition raises interesting questions on the possible causes of such differences, and how stable these traits are. The population isn't homogeneous. If the "national trait" is due to some feedback mechanism, reinforcing the view of a small majority, there's the possibility of a rapid switch to a new situation given a sufficient nudge.

Hmm. NHS. Something the UK holds dear (too dear?) to its heart over and and above funding for absolutely anything else. The UK *would* in general, according to many polls, be quite happy to pay more tax for its funding. Probably to the detriment of anything else unfortunately

Given how much less we spend on our health service than other European Countries (let alone the USA), perhaps not too dear.  You don't get owt for nowt.

Ellendune, you've made me think...perhaps both National Rail and the NHS share the characteristics (compared with other countries mentioned) of meagre funding and patchy service quality...but maybe good value for money; at least compared with the US model. That would support Trainer's viewpoint (although why are we a heavy defence spender?).

Presumably you're referring to heathcare in the US.

The bastion of capitalism that is the US of A, where anything vaguely socialist is nearly always seen as abhorrent, has a federal and state subsidised passenger rail service.

Yes, I was thinking of healthcare. I have no idea about the value-for-money of USA passenger rail, and  comparisons with UK would be difficult due to the radically different geography.

Not to mention an oversized respect for authority and tolerance for intrusive rules and regulations that would have your average Britons up in arms - 55mph on a motorway, no booze until you're 21, draconian legal practices, interior decorators have to be licensed, chicken that has to be washed in chlorine because food standards are so dreadful etc.

In comparison with the US and much of the EU, we are a very liberal nation - no ID cards or legal obligation to tell the state where you live, tax and employment law are very simple and (relatively) easy to comply with, easy to rent and buy property, few "licenses to print money" like having to have documents notarised or having to use an estate agent. There's a reason why this country attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year despite having dismal weather, expensive property and a minimal welfare state.

It's 22 years since the federally enacted National Speed Limit was repealed. It was introduced by Nikon in 1974 in response to the oil crisis. In 1995 US states were again free to set their own speed limits, following many years of low enforcement and legal challenges by States against Federal government.

Interstate Highway speed limits are now up to 85mph (Texas), with the majority between 65-75mph. Just two states (Alaska, Delaware) and the District of Columbia have kept the 55mph limit on major roads.

The Most Reverend Nikon to you!
https://oca.org/holy-synod/bishops/the-most-reverend-nikon

Indeed, we had our own lowered speed limit of 50mph in the UK at this time.

The rest of Europe enjoys substantially higher motorway speed limits than we do, mostly 130kph (81mph), with Switzerland at 120kph and of course the legendary 'unlimited' sections of Autobahn in Germany.