Swiss passenger rail traffic reaches record high in 2025

New record for passenger traffic in 2025 Keystone-SDA

In 2025, rail transport volume totalled 23.7 billion passenger-kilometres, according to figures published on Wednesday by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

In a direct year-on-year comparison, rail demand rose by 3.2% compared to 2024 (22.9 billion passenger-kilometres), representing an increase of 737 million passenger-kilometres in one year. A passenger-kilometre corresponds to the transport of one person over a distance of one kilometre.

This growth is part of an ongoing trend: 2024 had already seen a 3.1% increase over 2023. Over a ten-year period, rail passenger numbers have shown a clear upward trend despite the impact of the pandemic.

Between 2015 and 2025, rail transport volume rose by 16.3%, from 20.4 billion to 23 billion passenger-kilometres. After plummeting to 13.3 billion in 2020 at the height of the health restrictions, rail travel recovered and surpassed its pre-crisis level as early as 2023.

Road transport dominates

Compared with other modes of transport, the rail network remains second behind road transport. According to 2024 data, private motorised transport (mainly passenger cars) accounted for 70.6% of the overall transport market, with 94.6 billion passenger-kilometres.

Railways account for 17.2% of the total volume of travel, ahead of non-motorised transport (5.9% with 7.8 billion) and public road transport such as buses and trams (3.5% with 47 billion). In total, public transport as a whole (rail, road, cable cars and waterways) accounts for 21.1% of passenger travel in the country.

Within this collective transport system, conventional rail accounts for more than 81% of passenger-kilometres travelled, confirming its position as the backbone of public transport in Switzerland.

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Translated from French, reviewed by an English Department journalist.