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Its kind of ridiculous to call it a luxury issue. Its a luxury issue if you make it one. In Switzerland 85 year old grandmothers travel between cities to go for

Its kind of ridiculous to call it a luxury issue. Its a luxury issue if you make it one. In Switzerland 85 year old grandmothers travel between cities to go for light walks. 15 year olds go to football tournaments in other cities. Claiming that only some elite cast of digital nomads profits from it is utterly ridiculous. In Switzerland city to city travel is more common with trains then with cars, and a huge part of the population does it. > but the service quality itself will surely deteriorate by this measure If the government actually correctly invests in it then it doesn't actually, specially not long term. If anything it leads to more regular more frequent service on many routes.

pjmlp 4y ago
Also most people end up buying demi-tarif card, to make travel affordable. Although a great thing of Swiss trains used to be being able to switch trains quite easily between destinations, regardless of the train type. No idea if that is still a thing nowadays.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  > No idea if that is still a thing nowadays. Yes very much so. Not just trains, buses, ships and so on.
- Zopieux 4y ago
  The Fairtiq system is so freaking cool: check-in the app when you board any train/tram/boat/bus, do any kind of ride, of any length, duration and connection count across the country, check-out when done. Do this any number of times in a day. Get billed the best price (excluding one-off deals) at the end of the day. This is almost as simple as beeping your credit card when boarding. I've been so spoiled by that simplicity, I can't stand using needlessly complicated ticketing systems these days.
woodpanel 4y ago
Switzerland is barely a ninth of Germany‘s size in square meters and population. Plus, the whole German Intercity Rail System‘s north south axis goes through 2 choke points: Frankfurt and northern Bavaria.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  > Switzerland is barely a ninth of Germany‘s size in square meters and population. So its basically scales linearly. More land, more population. With the same tax spending there is no reason that Switzerland should be able to do anything that Germany is not able to do. Nothing you said changes the fact that between cities you used to have different tariff systems and that people regularly travel between them. The distance from Genf to Zürich is the same distance as many cities in Germany. Again, claiming its a luxury to go the the city 200-300km away is nonsense. Just saying 'Germany is larger' isn't an argument, it doesn't change anything. > goes through 2 choke points So your excuse is that Germany is bad at planning and building their rail systems? Switzerland has and had chock points to and yet that isn't actually a problem. The reality is Germany has much better geography for rail compared to Switzerland.

pjmlp 4y ago

Also most people end up buying demi-tarif card, to make travel affordable. Although a great thing of Swiss trains used to be being able to switch trains quite easily between destinations, regardless of the train type. No idea if that is still a thing nowadays.

panick21_ 4y ago
> No idea if that is still a thing nowadays. Yes very much so. Not just trains, buses, ships and so on.
Zopieux 4y ago
The Fairtiq system is so freaking cool: check-in the app when you board any train/tram/boat/bus, do any kind of ride, of any length, duration and connection count across the country, check-out when done. Do this any number of times in a day. Get billed the best price (excluding one-off deals) at the end of the day. This is almost as simple as beeping your credit card when boarding. I've been so spoiled by that simplicity, I can't stand using needlessly complicated ticketing systems these days.

woodpanel 4y ago

Switzerland is barely a ninth of Germany‘s size in square meters and population. Plus, the whole German Intercity Rail System‘s north south axis goes through 2 choke points: Frankfurt and northern Bavaria.

panick21_ 4y ago
> Switzerland is barely a ninth of Germany‘s size in square meters and population. So its basically scales linearly. More land, more population. With the same tax spending there is no reason that Switzerland should be able to do anything that Germany is not able to do. Nothing you said changes the fact that between cities you used to have different tariff systems and that people regularly travel between them. The distance from Genf to Zürich is the same distance as many cities in Germany. Again, claiming its a luxury to go the the city 200-300km away is nonsense. Just saying 'Germany is larger' isn't an argument, it doesn't change anything. > goes through 2 choke points So your excuse is that Germany is bad at planning and building their rail systems? Switzerland has and had chock points to and yet that isn't actually a problem. The reality is Germany has much better geography for rail compared to Switzerland.